<p>How is it?</p>
<p>In terms of competitiveness, quality of education, students, professors, research/internship opportunities, ranking, etc.</p>
<p>I'm also considering engineering at UCLA (okay but not the best), and engineering at UC Berkeley (intense).</p>
<p>What kind of engineering?
Some are much stronger than others.</p>
<p>I’m curious about this as well, specifically electrical engineering.</p>
<p>Chemical Engineering.</p>
<p>And mike wants Electrical. Hahaa</p>
<p>I’m not in the Engineering school, so everything I know about it comes from my friends’ experiences.</p>
<p>BME is really top-notch. There’s really no ifs-ands-or-buts about BME… you’d be hard pressed to find a BME department of similar quality, especially because it draws on Wash U’s amazing med school for research and professors. The second most popular and prestigious department is probably Energy Environmental and Chemical Engineering (that’s one department). The Engineering School definitely has its biggest focuses on healthcare and the Environment/Sustainability. My friends tend to say that many of the classes, professors, and research involves applying each departments’ work to healthcare or environmental sustainability. The school wants students to do a lot of hands-on type applications, and using their knowledge in Electrical Engineering or Mechanical Engineering to help humanity and the environment. Of course, if you are doing Electrical Engineering you’re going to know how to wire circuits and all the basic things (or whatever people in Electrical Engineering do!!!), but I think you’ll be ahead of the game in general because you’ll know how to practically apply your knowledge in really sought after fields. </p>
<p>Electrical Engineering is a smaller department, so you’re going to get a lot of individual attention. The people that do EE are really dedicated and are very well prepared to go to top tier graduate schools and companies. Again, the school is really about hands-on research and applications, and not so much about theory. So they’ll really teach you how to practically apply your Engineering field to the real world. </p>
<p>Some of the things that pervade all of the majors is that any undergrad can do research, and most of them do (especially in the Engineering School). I’m doing research in Arts&Sciences, and I think one really unique thing about Wash U is that so many undergrads do research. Its not at all reserved for Grad students or PhDs. Wash U really treats you kind of as if you were a graduate student, honestly, especially as you move into upper level classes. Two of my upperclassmen Engineering friends have studied abroad, and they said that it’s really rare for Engineers at any university to be able to study abroad, but Wash U has many opportunities for engineering study abroad and not have you graduate late or anything. </p>
<p>I think people should look at the strength of the overall University as whole when looking at undergrad things. It’s when you look at Masters/PhD programs that the quality of the individual department really comes into play. It’s still of some importance (I mean, you need to make sure the school actually has a department in the area you want) at the undergrad level, but there’s really no way to compare the strengths of Electrical Engineering at the undergrad level between WUSTL and Northwestern for example. For the <strong>most part</strong>, undergraduate education is pretty basic and standard and you’ll be taught largely the same concepts at most schools. Graduate education is where specialization really comes into play. I think the strengths of the overall university, the breadth of opportunities, and quality of student life should be the most important things in deciding where to go for undergrad. </p>
<p>The Engineering school is midway through a massive construction project on an Engineering “campus” (right in front of Brookings Hall), and when it’s completed all of the departments will have new space for classroom and labs and offices. The Engineering School website has renderings of it, and it looks really neat.</p>
<p>when will the new campus be done? i know u said its half way, but like 2-3 years or even longer?</p>
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when will the new campus be done? i know u said its half way, but like 2-3 years or even longer?
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[Whitaker</a> Hall](<a href=“http://bme.wustl.edu/About/WhitakerHall.asp]Whitaker”>http://bme.wustl.edu/About/WhitakerHall.asp) was completed in 2002 and [Brauer</a> Hall](<a href=“http://www.claycorp.com/web_cams/getcam.php?t=cam_wasuseas]Brauer”>http://www.claycorp.com/web_cams/getcam.php?t=cam_wasuseas) will be completed in 2010. When ground will be broken on the other buildings for the [New</a> Engineering Complex](<a href=“http://engineering.wustl.edu/NewEngineeringComplex.aspx]New”>http://engineering.wustl.edu/NewEngineeringComplex.aspx) and when they will be completed is a big question. Chancellor Wrighton has announced a freeze/significant slowdown on new capital projects due to the decrease in the endowment and economic climate.</p>
<p>thanks randy</p>
<p>Chances are the other buildings should go up shortly after Brauer is completely so long as the majority of the funding comes from donors (which is why Brauer hall is not being slowed down, if I’m correct).</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, vbball90. That is the type of atmosphere I’m leaning toward.</p>