Engineering colleges for D

College Search & Selection
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<p>I posted a few times and always got wonderful advice. I am hoping you all will give me good advice this time too. </p>

<p>D is a rising senior and is interested in engineering leaning towards mechanical but also likes electrical (mostly influenced by the robotics team). </p>

<p>She has good grades and SAT scores are ok. She is heaviliy involved in the Robotics team and that's where she spends all her time. She has good writing skills and am hoping her essays will be good. </p>

<p>She is applying to the in-state public universities in OR as a safety, we would also like to explore a few colleges in WA, CA and MA - University of Washington, WPI and Cal Poly. </p>

<p>We looked at the USNWR ratings for best mechanical colleges, but couldn't figure out how to find out the engineering colleges that are project-based like Cal Poly. </p>

<p>Any thoughts on other engineering colleges is much appreciated.</p>

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<p>Is cost a significant concern? If so, check the net price calculators. Out-of-state public schools tend not to be generous with financial aid. While OR is in the Western Undergraduate Exchange, most of the schools offering the discounted WUE tuition (1.5 times in-state tuition) are less selective ones, and may not offer it in all majors.</p>

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<p>Does she participate in FIRST on an etc or FRC team? If so, go to FIRST.org for their scholarship list; it’s a nice list of engineering schools ( the list also has non-engineering schools as well) which can be a starting point.</p>

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<p>Step one should be to have her talk to some working engineers to understand what the career is like. Many schools have robotics teams to get students interested in science and engineering. And it sounds like it works. However she should know that both the undergraduate schooling and the job are not like being on a robotics team. For EE, the schooling is pretty much 4 years of applied mathematics. A common complaint by students, which you can easily verify with a web search, is that the curriculum is too divorced from any real-world application. The EE field itself has lots of branches so it’s hard to generalize. However I think a few of the EE jobs out there involves the hands-on project oriented experience it sounds like your D enjoys.</p>

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<p>@ucbalumnus : We can pay full price, but because we want her to be responsible and not sure about spending that much, we told her that we will pay upto $40K total including tution+R&B the first two years and then $30K next two years. After that she is on her own (we will help her but we are not telling her that). </p>

<p>We are not sure if it is worth spending that much though. I was thinking of starting another thread. There are enough threads on that topic already and I have read through most of them and didn’t get any closure on that topic. So we came up with this thought of paying a part of the cost. </p>

<p>@SlackerMomMD: She participates in the FTC team and I looked at the scholarship page. We are reading up on Northeastern and Olin, but Olin is highly competitive. </p>

<p>She will thrive in a project based hands-on enviornment, though she may do well in the traditional engineering college environment. It looks like engineering colleges make it so boring and dry especially the first two years. </p>

<p>@mikemac: yes, you are right. The robotics teams encourage kids towards engineering. I am worried about the same exact things - the core curriculum is (seems like) nothing to do with real world work which is far more interesting. That’s what prompted us to start looking at colleges that are project driven. </p>

<p>So far we found out about two colleges that are project driven - Cal Poly SLO and Olin. Are there any other colleges like that? She is not worried about the rankings as long as there is rigor. The top schools like MIT, CalTech and Olin are too long of a reach. </p>

<p>Any thoughts and suggestions about engineering colleges are really welcome. </p>

<p>(OOPS, I just noticed I spelled engineering wrong in the title)</p>

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<p>Without knowing more about her stats, it is hard to recommend schools. If you can afford Cal Poly OOS, you can might also look at the UCs, the majority of which have fairly good engineering departments. UCSB and UCD are only a little more selective than Cal Poly, and have great mechanical engineering departments.</p>

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<p>Meaning $70,000 total leading to a bachelor’s degree, or are those per year, meaning $140,000 total leading to a bachelor’s degree? Would you contribute the same amount but distributed differently (e.g. if she goes to cheap community college for the first two years, then transfers to a more expensive university for the next two years)?</p>

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<p>The Cal Polys are CSUs with CSU price, which is a lot lower than UC price. While in-state financial aid can make the net prices similar for CSUs and UCs for many students, out-of-state students are unlikely to see that.</p>

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I think you may be overestimating the “project driven” part. To me, that conjures up a setting in which students work on a succession of projects, picking up the needed skills along the way from teamates and teachers as they are needed. Something like what they talk about in [Project-based</a> learning - Wikipedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project-based_learning]Project-based”>Project-based learning - Wikipedia) </p>

<p>Unfortunately engineering education is not like this. Even at the project-oriented colleges at best what I believe they do is have a greater emphasis on labs and a senior project to make sure everyone really gets their hands dirty before they graduate. But while the engineering home page seems to promise one thing with

the</a> truth is that any ABET acredited program needs to follow the ABET curriculum which is heavy on math and class learning, at least for EE. You take 2 years of calculus just to be able to understand the math they use in the core classes; those cover topics like Signals & Systems, Network Analysis, Circuit Theory, Electromagnetic Fields. The math involved includes Fourier transforms, differential equations, numerical methods, etc. </p>

<p>Look at the flowchart at <a href=“http://www.ee.calpoly.edu/media/uploads/files/EE2011-13Flowchart.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ee.calpoly.edu/media/uploads/files/EE2011-13Flowchart.pdf&lt;/a&gt; and you’ll see that Cal Poly delivers the same 2 years of calculus, physics, chem the 1st 2 years as anyone else. Sure, they may have more of an emphasis on taking project-related classes than other schools that focus more on theory, but you can bet they give you a heavy dose of theory.</p>

<p>No matter where you go, I expect projects are going to play at best an auxilliary role in getting a EE degree. Now I’ll admit I’m not personally familiar with Cal Poly, but what I read online sounds similar to what is taught everywhere else. You might want to talk to actual Cal Poly students or post on their forum to get a better take.</p>

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<p>How about Harvey Mudd? Sounds like you could afford it if you wanted to… my D will be starting there next week, and is very excited. They have a really solid core, quite a bit of project related work, and the kids also get to keep a hand in the humanities (since your D is a good writer she might like this). I’d suggest a visit if you can, it is a pretty cool place for STEM kids.</p>

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<p>What are her test scores and GPA? </p>

<p>*we told her that we will pay upto $40K total including tution+R&B the first two years and then $30K next two years. After that she is on her own (we will help her but we are not telling her that). *</p>

<p>??? Is that a typo? Are you saying that you’re going to pay LESS for junior and senior years? How is she supposed to pay for those years? Also, at some schools, jr and sr engineering classes are MORE expensive.</p>

<p>it sounds like she won’t qualify for need-based aid, so if she went to a school that costs $60k+ per year, how’s she supposed to pay for that?</p>

<p>Maybe she needs to include some schools with merit scholarships on her lists.</p>

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<p>Yes, both Cal Polys have reps for being more “hands on” than the UCs, but I think more schools are including projects in their eng’g curriculum…even starting frosh year to help kids figure out which eng’g discipline that they’re best suited for.</p>

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<p>Take a look at Lehigh, Lafayette, and Bucknell.</p>

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<p>Generally, any engineering curriculum will have both theory and design projects in classes, though there may be some variation in how much of each is included.</p>

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<p>A very good place for ME or EE, generous with merit, is Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. It won’t cost you a cent to explore the website and engineering offerings, then visit the fin aid and scholarships portion.</p>

<p>Application is free,too, if done online.</p>

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<p>Originally Posted by happyORmom
We can pay full price, but because we want her to be responsible and not sure about spending that much, we told her that we will pay upto $40K total including tution+R&B the first two years and then $30K next two years. After that she is on her own (we will help her but we are not telling her that).</p>

<p>After reading UCB’s question, I now see that it does appear that you’re saying that you will only pay $20k per year for frosh and soph years, and then you’ll only pay $15k per year for jr and sr years. </p>

<p>Is that right? If so, then your D really needs to apply to some schools that will give her free tuition for stats.</p>

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<p>@mom2collegekids, @ucbalumnus : I meant 40K/yr the first two years and 30K/yr the next two years. We are not including transportation in the above numbers and will pay for that. She needs to find her own money for books. </p>

<p>We will be fine giving her more later as needed, but we are trying to set the expectations low right now and we want her to be accountable. We are expecting her to find an internship or summer job and do something to reduce the room&boarding cost (share an apartment and cook meals etc). </p>

<p>She will not be qualified for any need based aid because of the savings (a part of me, though only a teeny tiny dot dreams about all those vacations we could have taken or bigger house if we didn’t have to plan for college). </p>

<p>@ucbalumnus : How do we find out about the projects that students do as part of the curriculum? </p>

<p>@intparent : We just started looking at Harvey Mudd, she was disappointed that there was no mechanical major but only one engineering major. Will you be able to provide more information how that works or point me the links? I think Harvey Mudd is a long reach for her though based on the scores. </p>

<p>@mikemac : You bring up a valid point - the number of required subjects makes it harder to set aside time for projects. Labs are a good and valid substitute for the projects because they provide focused hands-on work complimenting the theory (projects can be too disctracting at times). Where do I find out how much emphasis is given to the labs? </p>

<p>@BonnieNewJersey, @gloworm : We will take a look at Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell and Trinity though we are not considering TX and midwest at this time. </p>

<p>Though we are not looking at the top schools and hence no need to worry about grades and scores, since several of you are asking about her grades: </p>

<p>She has 3.75GPA, sadly her GPA has has been inversely proportional to her involvement in the Robotics team. Her course load is considered as most rigorous by the school and will be noted as such. She got 4s in the AP tests though she got Bs in the those classes during the first semester. Junior year GPA is the lowest. </p>

<p>She got 1350 CR+M, will be taking ACT and SAT subject tests this year. </p>

<p>She is a dedicated member of the Robotics team the past three years and will be this year too. She plays a sport that I am not comfortable revealing, she plays because she likes it, not for competition. Those are her ECs this year. </p>

<p>Thank you for the positive feedback. Any thoughts are much appreciated.</p>

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<p>Mudd does not offer specific engineering disciplines, but their engineering students do very, very well in the marketplace. Around 30% of the Mudd students are engineering majors. My D’s GPA was similar to your D’s, but test scores were quite a bit better. But it is easier to get in for girls, so she could still give it a try. Here is the engineering department link:</p>

<p>[Engineering</a> | Harvey Mudd College](<a href=“http://www.hmc.edu/academicsclinicresearch/academicdepartments/engineering.html]Engineering”>http://www.hmc.edu/academicsclinicresearch/academicdepartments/engineering.html) </p>

<p>Have you run the net price calculators at the schools your D is considering? Generally income is counted more heavily than savings, you might be surprised. Worth at least checking it out if you haven’t.</p>

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<p>Glad to see WPI on your list of schools to visit. Sounds like exactly what she is looking for - emphasis on project based curriculum starting with freshman year, they are very involved in robotics including FIRST, and would love to increase the number of highly-qualified females. They can be generous with merit aid. Note that they have robotics degree programs for BS, MS, and PhD. Some good links:
<a href=“https://www.wpi.edu/news/20134/2013fiske.html[/url]”>https://www.wpi.edu/news/20134/2013fiske.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“https://www.wpi.edu/academics/firstyear/gps.html[/url]”>https://www.wpi.edu/academics/firstyear/gps.html&lt;/a&gt;
[Undergraduate</a> Admissions: Women - WPI](<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/admissions/undergraduate/perspective/women.html]Undergraduate”>http://www.wpi.edu/admissions/undergraduate/perspective/women.html)
[Undergraduate</a> Admissions: Real World Projects - WPI](<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/admissions/undergraduate/academics/projects.html]Undergraduate”>http://www.wpi.edu/admissions/undergraduate/academics/projects.html)
[Undergraduate</a> Admissions: Global Perspectives - WPI](<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/admissions/undergraduate/academics/gpc.html]Undergraduate”>http://www.wpi.edu/admissions/undergraduate/academics/gpc.html)
[Robotics</a> Engineering - WPI](<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/academics/robotics.html]Robotics”>Robotics Engineering | Worcester Polytechnic Institute)</p>

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<p>You would probably have to go to the school’s catalog and course home pages to see which courses have projects in them. Remember that project courses often have a substantial amount of work relative to the number of credit units they carry.</p>

<p>Perhaps also see if any soon-to-graduate students in the school in the major post their resumes on LinkedIn or other places. Often, class projects will appear in several students’ resumes.</p>

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<p>It is not clear why you want to pay more for lower division than upper division, since upper division is generally the same or higher price than lower division.</p>

<p>Would it be simpler to just say $140,000 total for four years? That way, she can have the option of having a different distribution of cost. For example, at some schools, upper division costs more. Or she may go to cheap community college for two years at $10,000/year (including imputed parental cost of food and utilities at home plus transportation), then transfer to an expensive private school like USC at $60,000 per year as a junior and still stay within the total budget.</p>