<p>My son is considering engineering and has narrowed it down to these three schools. He is going for another look this week. Any insights on the three schools, particularly in engineering, would be most appreciated.</p>
<p>Miamiâs engineering program is severly lacking in comparison to Ohio States. When I was at Miami I could tell that not much mind was ever paid to the Eng school and so it seems that going there you would be paying way more in tuition than the education is worth. The Eng school at OSU however is top quality, and the administration recognizes that. Also, consider the job market for graduating engineering students. OSU is in the heart of the state capital, and as such is surrounded by a wealth of internship and career opportunities.</p>
<p>I cannot comment on UDâs respective school, but just based on sheer tuition alone, I find I hard to think that even in the unlikely chance that the UD engineering school is ranked higher than the other two, that the quality of education would be worth the tuition hike. OSU is definitely beat âbang for your buckâ so to speak.</p>
<p>Miami of Ohio can compete with Ohio State in undergrad business, but itâs in a completely lower league when it comes to engineering by any measurement: college and department rankings, quality of student body, quality of faculty, research opportunities and cutting edge facilities and labs.</p>
<p>The National Research Council just completed and released their multi-year study of American academic departments, their first rankings since 1995.</p>
<p>Here are some of the rankings for Ohio State University</p>
<p>Engineering
Aeronautical and Astronautical 19th
Bioengineering 28th
Chemical 17th
Civil 23rd
Electrical 19th
Materials 15th
Mechanical 15th
Industrial and Systems 4th</p>
<p>Humanities
Greek and Latin 11th
English 21st
French and Italian 16th
Germanic 6th
History 15th
Music 27th
Philosphy 22nd
Spanish and Portuguese 5th
Theatre 2nd</p>
<p>Physical Sciences
Astronomy 9th
Chemistry 21st
Computer Science 23rd
Math 18th
Physics 14th
Statistics 10th</p>
<p>Social Sciences
Communication 8th
Economics 21st
Geography 11th
Linguistics 5th
Political Science 7th
Psychology 11th
Public Policy and Management 22nd
Sociology 20th</p>
<p>Two of my nephews are/were engineering majors at UD (electirical and computer engineering). The one that graduated has a job at Wright Patterson. The other is a junior and is also working at Wrght Patt part-time while still attending classes. Neither had jobs after freshman or sophmore years though. I believe they both loved UD although I donât know much about the academic strength of their programs. </p>
<p>My son is a chemical engineering major at OSU and he loves OSU. Heâs a sophmore and has a research position at the university for this summer. There are lots of research, internship and co-op opportunities. DS finds the engineering program challenging, his instructors approachable/helpful, and the social atmosphere terrific. His peers are smart kids ([Engineering</a> Points of Pride :: College of Engineering](<a href=âhttp://engineering.osu.edu/futurestudents/pointsofpride.php]Engineeringâ>http://engineering.osu.edu/futurestudents/pointsofpride.php)) but he is holding his own. </p>
<p>As for Miami, it is not known for engineering.</p>
<p>Everything I write is based on hearsay and opinions of mine and other students I know. Basically, you need to check it out specifically for yourself. I certainly donât think posting on only the OSU site will get any balanced information. </p>
<p>Miami had not traditionally been known for engineering. They have, however, in the past X number of years specifically focused on making it a stronger program. My two Ds, one a first year and the other a third year, both Honor students at Miami, have good friends that are part of Honors and Engineering. I have asked them how they liked their programs and they are very happy with them. Freshman Dâs roommate stated it was more challenging than she had expect it to be, but was pleased with that. She had had some concerns that âMiami was not known for Engineeringâ, but is happy with her selection of Engineering at Miami. I asked if she has had professors that she has had difficulty understanding in class. The answer was 'No". On the other hand, there have been many students from our HS who have entered OSUâs engineering program that have been frustrated by having professors that they cannot understand due to heavy foreign accents, so much so that they have either quit the program or been very stressed out and contemplated quitting. D1, the 3rd year, has a friend (engineering major) who has a great internship in Wisconsin for the summer and is very excited about it. She was paid to do research last summer on campus.</p>
<p>As far as the cost of Miami vs OSU, be careful not to be misled. If you have the grades and test scores, the merit scholarship money is better at Miami, making the two schools cost almost the same. For us, Miami is slightly cheaper. My Ds were accepted into both OSU and Miamiâs Honors programs, both chose Miami and are happy. That is not to say they could not have been happy at OSU. It just didnât feel right to them at the time they had to choose. Neither has regretted their decision.</p>
<p>From what I have seen from Dsâ engineering friends, the Miami kidsâwho are all Honors students, are happy with their undergraduate program at Miami. Look at all the programs yourself to get the information. Talk to students who go there, and MEET with the professors, then you will know where to go.</p>
<p>Good luck to you in making your decision. These are all good schools. You will get a good education at any of them. Gather information then go where your head, heart and pocketbook come together. Best to you!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the good insight. I did in fact post the same question on the Miami and Dayton boards, expecting to hear different views, but have yet to get any responses to my post on either board. My son and husband are visiting again this week. When we first visited Miami, he was leaning more towards business so we havenât really looked at Engineering. He is a bit concerned that Ohio State is just so big that he might get lost in the shuffle. By the end of our first visit at Dayton the Engineering Dean knew his name. Not sure how that will translate over the next four years into getting a good education and if it is worth the extra money to have a the experience of going to a smaller school.</p>
<p>I totally agree with wildwood330. Miami University also has a high quality
engineering program. My younger daughter is a freshman honors engineering
student. She speaks highly of the program and the professors. The facilities
are top notch, as are the research/internship opportunities for undergrads.
The engineering programs are rigorous, but manageable. Two of my daughterâs
male friends are junior engineering majors. They both have had very good
experiences in the engineering department at Miami University. Both are very
bright students, one is a double major in engineering and business.</p>
<p>I also know that Ohio State University has a very good engineering department.
I have also heard of complaints of not being able to understand the TAs/
professors at OSU. I donât know anything about the University of Dayton
engineering department. I feel that a student could be successful at any of these universities. Engineering grads are in demand and should have no problems finding
a suitable job after graduation. That is as long as they have applied themselves
at whichever school they have attended.</p>
1 Like
<p>Ohio State Hires Dean for Engineering College</p>
<p>Friday, March 18, 2011 01:40 PM
By Charlie Boss</p>
<p>The Columbus Dispatch</p>
<p>Ohio Stateâs College of Engineering will soon have a new dean, officials announced today.</p>
<p>David B. Williams, president of the University of Alabama at Huntsville, will assume the post that has been vacant since William âBudâ Baeslack III left to become provost at Case Western Reserve University in 2008.</p>
<p>Pending approval by the board of trustees, Williamsâ appointment will begin April 18. He will earn $395,000.</p>
<p>Gregory Washington, professor of mechanical engineering, will continue to serve as interim dean of the college until Williams arrives.</p>
<p>âWe are very fortunate to have attracted David Williams to Ohio State,â President E. Gordon Gee said in a statement. âHe has a superb track record as a scholar and an academic leader, and he has created substantial partnerships to spur innovation and the commercialization of faculty discoveries.â</p>
<p>At Alabama, Williams, 62, helped lead the university in operating an office for Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and creating research collaboration agreement with Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, which designs and produces rocket engines.</p>
<p>He also guided the campus through its largest reduction in state funding - 28 percent since spring 2008 - and the shootings of six faculty and staff members by another professor last year.</p>
<p>A native of Leeds, England, Williams holds a bachelorâs, masterâs, doctorate and a doctorate of science degrees from the University of Cambridge.</p>
<p>âDavid Williams has a world-class academic reputation, and his work in building research partnerships between universities and industry and government is well-proven,â Jeff Wadsworth, president and CEO of Battelle, said in a statement.</p>
<p>Source: [Ohio</a> State hires dean for engineering college | The Columbus Dispatch](<a href=âhttp://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/03/18/Ohio-State-hires-dean-for-engineering-college.html]Ohioâ>http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/03/18/Ohio-State-hires-dean-for-engineering-college.html)</p>
<hr>
<p>University of Cambridge!! Go Bucks!!! lol</p>
<p>Maybe try posting on the Engineering forum to see if you can get more opinions. </p>
<p>I will say that my husband is a successful engineer in Ohio and he would recommend OSU and U Cincinnati for in-state public and CWRU for private in Ohio. </p>
<p>Hubby says the Miami program is not as well-established, not as well-regarded by industry. It maybe a great program where no one has accents though. DS has had instructors with accents at OSU but no one that he had trouble understanding. I am glad he has no problem with diverse accents because he will likely encounter them in his career just as my husband has.</p>
<p>OSU definitely.
They are revamping their programs and it should be even better than ever when the quarter to semester change is completed. There are awesome faculty, facilities, and it really doesnât feel that big. I came from a super small high school and I feel right at home in the OSU Engineering program. Plus, being from OSU has been great for finding internships (except last summer as a freshman, but that is to be expected⊠especially with the economy in its state), but this summer I was offered ~4 positions, partially thanks to the fact that OSU is so well respected. </p>
<p>The faculty is super helpful as well, and midway fall quarter they have âprogram visitsâ where you can hear a talk from one of the top faculty members of each of the engineering disciplines, and thatâs how as a freshman I met my current advisor.
The resources are definitely there if you want them. </p>
<p>The Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors (freshman engineering) is also excellent, but Iâve also heard great things about the scholars programs as well. </p>
<p>Iâve never had any professors that I couldnât understand (maybe a few TAs, but OSU does a good job of having you comment on TAs at the end of the quarter, and one that I had was no longer a TA as âclarity of voiceâ is one of the categories)</p>
<p>So, at the end of the day, we have one school that has a nationally (and internationally) renowned faculty which includes many members of the National Academy of Engineering. We have a school with cutting edge facilities and research opportunities. We have a school with a brighter, more accomplished student body. We have a school with the plethora of industry contacts and internship opportunities available through its nationally ranked departments (for instance, Shell Oil maintains a very close relationship with the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering departments at Ohio State).</p>
<p>On the other hand, we have a school where the professors donât have accents.</p>
<p>^^^It seems we have a school where at least one person representing them is so biased/brainwashed that he/she feels the need to trivialize otherâs attempts at being objective and helpful to the OP. This type of snarky remark doesnât reflect well when trying to attract good people to OSU. I am on this site as OSU is a consideration for my soon to be upcoming senior. We witnessed similar vibes while interviewing Presidential scholarship recipients last year with D2 as she was making her choice and now here I am seeing it again. Maybe the third time around for us will still not be OSU. We must really be missing something. How could they be hiding âHow Great Thou Artâ so well. I have learned over the years that when one has a need to belittle others it is due to their own insecurities.</p>
<p>^I apologize for letting the comments get to me enough that I responded. I am usually better at just ignoring such chatter. I think I have had too many rainy rainy rainy ⊠cold days.</p>
<p>Today we attended Admitted Honors Students Day at OSU and the Engineering presentation was, to me who knows nothing of Engineering, just really impressive. The professor clearly loves teaching and, yes OSU is a huge school but the opportunities are equally expansive. The advisors are there for the students-helping them figure out which direction they should take. They almost encouraged not deciding which major until after first year-there is a survey course that touches on the different majors. There is an Engineering Career Resource Center to help with resumes, internships and even how to present yourself at one of the job fairs they hold. There are definitely advantages to the Honors Program as well. OSU has a strong relationship with industry, he mentioned Honda in particular. Evidently my son was impressed as he is now changing his major to Engineering. I attended Dayton many years ago. I had a roommate in Engineering and she liked it but who knows now. A lot of the Engineering Majors back then were international students.</p>
<p>Isnât it really apples and oranges, though? In terms of reputation, clearly OSUâs is greater. However - how much of that is due to its MS/PhD programs? Miami makes no claims as a world-beater in terms of its grad programs. Itâs about the undergraduate education, and then placing people into grad programs if they choose to. I would be interested to see data about percentages of placements into grad programs - and also percentages of engineering undergrads from MU and OSU who went on to pursue grad work in other fields.
I admit to complete bias - weâre a new MU family and Iâve never cared for OSU, plus their campus isâŠjust not very attractive, franklyâŠbut it seems to me that MU engineering is focused on being a well-rounded education that in the case of their SEAS results in an ABET-accredited engineering degree, more as a major than a total focus. OSUâs seems more Let Be Engineers, at least somewhat to the exclusion of the broader investigations - but Iâd be interested to hear OSU alums who did grad work elsewhere weigh in on it.
Either way, any ABET-accredited undergrad engineering program is going to be challenging, and itâs really up to the individual student where they take it from there.
Go RedHawks. ;-)</p>
<p>âOSU does a good job of having you comment on TAs at the end of the quarter, and one that I had was no longer a TA as âclarity of voiceâ is one of the categories)â</p>
<p>Itâs just not possible that a TA was fired or released because of accent problems. TAs are hired for multi-year contracts and acceptable student evaluations isnât something one needs to keep a TAship; if anything, that TA simply graduated and went somewhere else. No end-of-quarter survey done among undergrads would ever, ever, ever have an impact on someoneâs employment. Moreover, OSU could face serious discrimination charges if it broke a contract with an international student over something incidental to said studentâs background. Luckily, OSU isnât going to risk a PR nightmare simply because some Ohio kid has been raised on a farm and has never heard an Asian accent before.</p>
<p>Both of my brothers went to OSU for engineering. My older brother graduated a year ago and was able to find a very good job in his field, industrial engineering, as well as a few internships before he graduated. My younger brother just finished his freshman year as a CSE major, and was in FEH (freshman engineering honors program). Both of them had very positive experiences at OSU, and were happy there. </p>
<p>I think the recruiting that goes on at OSU is a very convincing argument to attend. The career fairs are enormous, and major companies both regionally and across the U.S. show up to recruit engineering students for both internships/ co-ops and full-time jobs. Many companies do on-campus interviews and information sessions to try to attract good job candidates. I canât speak to what recruiting is like at Miami or UD, but I doubt they are able to attract anywhere close to the same number of companies. </p>
<p>The FEH program is also pretty greatâthe new freshmen meet a lot of other engineering students and work together in many of their classes. There is an annual robot-building competition that many of them take as a class. </p>
<p>The automatic merit scholarships OSU offers are fairly good too: [url=<a href=âMerit-based scholarships - The Ohio State Universityâ>Merit-based scholarships - The Ohio State University]Scholarships[/url</a>] </p>
<p>The Maximus scholarship for $5k a year is awarded to students with an ACT score of at least 32 and a class rank within the top 3%.</p>
<p>The Provost scholarship for $3k a year is awarded to students with an ACT score of at least 29 and a class rank within the top 10%.</p>
<p>The Trustees scholarship for $2k a yer is awarded to students with an ACT score of at least 28 and a class rank within the top 20%.</p>