<p>Hi- Not sure this is exactly the right place to post, but you all seem to be a smart bunch and I need some crowdsourcing.</p>
<p>DD wants to transfer. </p>
<p>Major: Materials Science GPA 3.75
Tuition: Not an issue at this point</p>
<p>Would be nice but not deal breakers:
East coast/midwest
School without a huge sports tradition (ie not a big party school)
higher percentage of women in engineering
collaborative environment</p>
<p>Visited: Mines, Clemson, Colorado, U of Denver, Kentucky, U of Dayton, RIT</p>
<p>Back story:</p>
<p>The choice was made that she would attend a school where she would be "a star" after a grueling STEM high school experience where she was the slacker student because she only had three 2nd place state titles in science related events. I don't know how much high school matters at this point, but she had an unweighted GPA of 3.3 and 33 ACT. She also has a learning disability in written expression and needs a few accommodations (mostly separate testing). She has over 400 hours of university lab experience. We all miscalculated how hard her high school was and how well prepared she was for college.</p>
<p>Why she wants to transfer:</p>
<p>She is not challenged and the other students are nice, but not at her level of curiosity and understanding of science. The school is small and in a rural area with a brutal winter. There are only 10% women in the program and she is frustrated by the bro culture. She covered the freshman curriculum in high school. It's hard to get home.</p>
<p>TL;DR: Engineering program not challenging. Need some other ideas.</p>
<p>Of all the schools I visited with my DS, Pitt had the highest ratio of women (over 30% I believe) and some majors had over 50% women (biomed and chemE I believe). Also had a very collaborative environment and highly regarded Honors College. I’d rule out Clemson if she wan’t want a big rah-rah sports school. What about Case Western Reserve University?</p>
<p>Great ideas. She hated Clemson (I hated it too when the student women in science mentor was dry-heaving in the trash). I think Case would be wonderful, but her best high school friend is there and doesn’t want to get into his space. I’ll have her look at Pitt.</p>
<p>What about WashU? My engineering daughter was rejected there but we loved the school and the environment seems wonderful and advising top notch! I would be very surprised if there were a “bro culture” there, as you described in her current school.</p>
<p>So your daughter wants to be a “superstar”? Interesting! Maybe she should start her own university since nothing seems to be good or challenging enough for her.</p>
<p>All nonsense apart, I would recommend Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Their Materials Engineering Department is top 10 in the nation, definitely not a party school. I know more than a few people that graduated from Georgia Tech and I never heard anybody say that they were not challenged enough.</p>
<p>As far as the “bro culture” goes, well, welcome to the real world! Women in Engineering are always going to be the “odd” ones. </p>
<p>The best thing your daughter can do is join the local chapter of SWE( Society of Women Engineers), I am sure she will find other women who have similar talents and interests.</p>
<p>I have to give her credit though for majoring in Mat E, I can’t think of a more boring subject BUT people are wired differently and certainly have different “talents”. I hope she finds the right university for her.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. She had a really difficult and overly challenging high school career and wanted not to be at the bottom of her peer group for a change. Turns out its just as awkward at the top, so we’re looking for some middle ground. I’ll have her look at GT again, as it was ruled out as too intense the first time around. </p>
<p>I f she wants challenging — Cornell, Michigan, Illinois, and Maryland. Just because a school has a strong athelic environment that doesn’t make it a party school</p>
<p>More importantly, just because it is a party school doesn’t mean one has to party. Especially at the larger schools, there will be a group of individuals with whom just about anyone can fit in.</p>
<p>You have some of the [url=“<a href=“http://theaitu.org%22%5DAITU%5B/url”>http://theaitu.org”]AITU[/url</a>] schools on your list already, you might want to look into the others too. Most of them are small and have demanding programs with little grade inflation. Students work too hard to party…</p>
<p>High school GPA and test scores are typically still relevant for sophomore level transfers, but less relevant for junior level transfers (who have more of a college record to evaluate). Some colleges also prefer junior level transfers over sophomore level transfers, so that may be relevant to the decision process.</p>
<p>There are 58 schools with ABET accredited materials engineering degree programs.</p>
<p>Thank you all. We really appreciate the input. </p>
<p>@xraymancs…hoping you would chime in…the AITU list is just what she needs. @ucbalumnus…she thought she wanted to be a chemical engineer during the college visits. We aren’t a STEM family and she didn’t realize that what she wanted to do was called materials engineering until close to May 1st. Her current University is ABET accredited in her field. It was between it and Kentucky. I didn’t realize until you pointed it out that actually those were her only choices.</p>
<p>Case Western, Boston University, Penn State, Rensselaer. Further south there are interdisciplinary Materials Chemistry majors at George Washington U and Vanderbilt U. Also, there’s much support for women engineers at U Tennessee-Knoxville, particularly in the MSE Department.</p>
<p>Don’t pass on Case because a friend attends…it’s big enough for both of them and chances are they will both be too busy to be in each other’s space…he has probably made many new friends and she will make her own- </p>