Been lurking on the forum for years but first time I feel I need to post. There is very little discussion of the engineering program. S has been accepted for engineering. I am wondering about the quality of the program relative to his other acceptances. My perception is that Biomedical Engineering is very strong but wonder about other engineering programs here. One reason he likes Wash U so much is that he believes it will be easy to do a double major outside of engineering.
- Looks like they are in the middle of a multi-year expansion of engineering. Will the department grow in the next 4 years?
- New dean starting in July. Are there other new faculty being hired? Are other areas being expanded? Specifically Mech E or Computer Science.
- What are the average class sizes first year and in the other 3 years? Is there a high retention rate in the engineering program?
- Are student collaborative or competitive?
- Are there research, co-op or internship opportunities for non-biomedical engineers? Where do graduates end up? Industry? Graduate School?
Would appreciate any insight or student experiences. We did not have the opportunity to do an engineering specific tour when we visited so our information is all from written materials. Thanks in advance!
My daughter is going into Olin in the fall. But her best friend who was applying for engineering didn’t apply to washu. Her mom told me that biomedical engineering is the only highly ranked engineering program at washu and the rest of them were not that highly ranked. She’s going for either electrical or chemical engineering. But that’s all the info I have. Can’t speak to it personally. I guess it depends where else your son got accepted.
Congrats to your daughter on Olin - a super engineering school. Appreciate your feedback. I’m disappointed in the lack of response but perhaps the lack of feedback says a lot.
I think Olin in this case is the business school at WUSTL, not the Olin College of Engineering in MA?
I mean honestly, it’s because I personally have answered all of these questions at least half a dozen times each, and it gets a bit tiring to see the same questions over and over again when a basic search would answer them.
(I’m probably one of the more active members on this board with a wustl engineering background; I myself have actually done a co-op, and ended up in industry - most people though go on to grad school).
In general though, from a 100% non-bme perspective:
- Yes, a lot.
- Yes, I believe the current focus is actually mechanical & compsci, actually. Also, the next building to be built is for MechE. As far as I’m aware, everyone’s excited about the new dean.
- For non-freshmen classes, my (ESE) classes were typically 10-25 people for electives, 30-50 for core classes for the most part. The ese dept does a really good job at increasing section offerings when enrollment grows. They’re also absolutely fantastic about taking student criticism/critiques and making improvements.
- Collaborative. This has been discussed on this board in hundreds of posts.
- The co-op program is fantastic, for those who choose to take advantage of it. Not many do though because a lot of people choose to go into research, not industry. WashU is a research powerhouse. Although those (like myself) who are industry-inclined are certainly NOT left out.
I have been following the posts but didn’t seem to find many recent engineering posts. I very much appreciate your response . Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.
I did read a post of yours regarding a double major and how difficult that might be. Appreciate that too.
Wow reading back over that my response was WAY more snark than I intended. I’m studying for a major prof. engineering exam right now and my stress levels are not currently ideal…
If you have more specific questions I’m more than happy to share my thoughts though 