<p>Anyone going to the Engineering Open House this Saturday (4/14)? I am a UNC grad and parent of a UNC freshman, but our son (a h.s. junior) wants to go into engineering, so we are visiting Va. Tech Thursday, Duke Friday and NCSU Saturday. I am particularly interested in looking at some dorms, especially UT.
Pam</p>
<p>Goheels81, just curious, why the special interest in University Towers?</p>
<p>Just seems nicer than campus dorms, a la Granville Towers at UNC (although my daughter chose to live in a campus dorm and not in Granville). We know some kids who live in UT now and like it, except that they say it's pretty loud. I've been in one dorm on state's campus -- I've forgotten which one, but it was an old high-rise near the RR tracks -- that my daughter stayed in for a high school cheerleading camp one year, and it was pretty dumpy and prison-like. I really have no other basis for comparison, that's why I'd like to see what's available.
My son spent three weeks at Duke last summer for TIP camp and stayed in a terrific older three-story remodeled dorm on west campus. Would be interested to know if NCSU has any like that? Low-rise, remodeled, a/c, etc.
Pam</p>
<p>All of State's dorms are air conditioned. My S lived in an old dorm (4 floors) on Central Campus and really liked it. There are alos some old dorms that have been remodeled on East Campus. Look on State's website under student housing and you can see the pictures to get an idea. The high rise your D stayed in was probably one of the Tri-Towers on Central Campus or Lee Dorm on West campus (H lived there many moons ago). </p>
<p>Just his opinion but S had no desire to live in UT.<br>
One thing he saw as a big drawback to UT (remember this comes from a young male who loves to eat) was that their meal plan only covered UT dining. So the kids he knew from UT rarely came over and ate at Fountain (dining hall) on campus with all the other kids because they didnt have an NCSU meal plan (only the UT one).</p>
<p>I never dreamed I'd post something like this on the site of my alma mater, but my son, also interested in engineering, was accepted at Duke (Pratt), VaTech, GaTech, and NCSU (where he would have been 3rd generation, including both parents), and rejected all in favor of Clemson. We are in-state, which offers great lottery scholarships intended to help SC keep the best students at home, but it is also a smaller campus than NCSU and VaTech...around 14,000 undergraduates...very pretty and in a mild climate, with a solid engineering program, and committed to excellence...admission stats are more competitive every year. The new CU-ICAR graduate school of automotive engineering will bring even more recognition to the school. They have a great Honors program, and often offer out-of-state tuition waivers to high caliber students. I've been very impressed. My blood runs NCSU red, but my wolfcub decided to go Orange, and I think it was the best choice. Check them out, and good luck!</p>
<p>Good luck to your S Mom2010. I know lots of Clemson grads. who just loved it. My wolfpup S dated the D of a Clemson alum for a couple of years in h.s. and he had a blast attending football games with them. He would have considered Clemson if they had NROTC. He is happy in the Wolfpack Battalion now.</p>
<p>We are planning to visit Clemson, too, just not this week! Three schools in three days, plus a side trip to Chapel Hill to visit our daughter, is enough for our spring break! My husband interviews and hires new engineering grads every year, and he really likes the Clemson program (he likes NCSU's program, too!) As a matter of fact, when we were visiting schools with our daughter last year, we visited UNC, UNC-Wilmington, Meredith, Georgia and Clemson, and the best tour by far was at Clemson. I think the campus is beautiful, and we have friends whose kids are there and love it. Plus, it's only a 2-1/2 hour drive from us and our son has the SAT score necessary to qualify for in-state tuition. So it is definitely on our list!</p>
<p>Son and I will be attending the Open House Saturday. Hopefully the weather will be okay -- we went on a general tour back in December, and it was cold and rainy (didn't make the campus look particularly attractive!)</p>
<p>I did notice that they will be doing tours at the Honors Village...I believe it's a group of smaller dorm buildings that are grouped together (not a tower).</p>
<p>Son is also interested in NROTC (and maybe AFROTC)...he's been accepted to USNA Summer Seminar, so I'm anxious for him to investigate all his options. PackMom, you said your son was happy in the Wolfpack Battalion -- I'm guessing the campus is "friendly" to the ROTC kids?</p>
<p>Yes Vaultmom, the NCSU campus seems to be ROTC friendly. They have ROTC for all miltary branches at State so there's a pretty good contigency. Also "back in the day" before women were admitted to State, every student was required to participate in ROTC. So NCSU has a long history there. NCSU's NROTC is larger than both UNC-CH and Duke and soundly beats them both in field competition every year. </p>
<p>The Honors dorms are on East Campus and are indeed old dorms that have been renovated recently. I think that would be Berry, Becton and Bagwell and maybe Syme.</p>
<p>We took son to the Engineering Open house a couple years ago when he was still considering that major. All the professors we met were very friendly and go to answer questions (especially a woman--can't remember name-- in biomedical dept.). They also had current students around that would fill one in on the real nitty-gritty if you asked.</p>
<p>Only problem we had was trying to find a place to park!!</p>
<p>We just got back from the Va. Tech tour -- beautiful campus but it was cold and windy! Went to the engineering info. session then looked around eng. buildings, then took campus tour -- our guide was a female freshman eng. student, so that was great. Going to Duke tomorrow and the NCSU thing Sat. -- I also am worried about the weather...</p>
<p>goheels81, Crossing my fingers for good weather for you.</p>
<p>How did the open house at NCSU turn out. My son was there as a current ECE student and was probably around the Student IEEE display if there was one! Before going to NCSU, he was accepted at VA Tech, Clemson and Univeristy of South Carolina. NCSU was his 4th choice in the beginning, but being in-state, NCSU offered the most financial to him. Now as his undergrad comes to an end, he has never regretted his choice. He did a co-op locally and that experience has been invaluable. As a freshman, he participated in the Scholars program and lived in Sullivan (high rise near RR tracks). Except for slow elevators, he had no complaints. Best of luck whatever the decision!</p>
<p>The NCSU Open House was very good, and it didn't rain! I'm just freaked out right now, because we were at Va. Tech on Thursday, and then this tragedy happened yesterday...
Anyway, at NCSU, we spent a lot of time in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering building, and we talked to some really great students who were enthusiastic and showed off projects they were doing. We especially liked the mechanical design project where the students were making a new holder/tray for a bread company, because the bread keeps falling off their current trays. We also enjoyed talking to several professors, especially one of the EE profs at Centennial Campus. Centennial campus looks more like a business park than a college. We also enjoyed seeing that car that runs by itself, and we will certainly look for the Discovery Channel feature that was being filmed on it.
My husband, who works in the nuclear power industry, was very disappointed that the nuclear engineering building was locked up. Some years ago, he did a bit of consulting for them, and he wanted our son to see the little reactor and the facility.
The best part of the experience is that after visiting most of the engineering departments, our son confirmed that he wants to major in mechanical, no matter where he goes to school.
We got to tour Owen dorm, but since I understand that that dorm is only for first-year undecided students, most of the kids visiting at Open House are probably going to major in engineering, so wouldn't they be housed in different dorms? My son really doesn't care what dorm he is in; it's me, his mother, that is worried about him getting a nice dorm.
We enjoyed our tour at Duke, too. They have nice new engineering buildings, but $48,000 a year, plus the fact that they only admit 1,600 students out of 19,000 applications makes it a bit daunting. I was surprised that they only have four engineering programs, and that mechanical is the smallest.
Still plan to visit Clemson and Georgia Tech, too.
Pam</p>