Engineering Schools Help

<p>I am a student-athlete from a public high school in Michigan. I applied to these engineering schools and wanted you guys to rank them in terms of if I were to be accepted to all of them in an utopic scenario.</p>

<p>Things to consider:
1. Location is key; the more urban, the better.
2. Cost is not an issue.
3. Prestige is very important (ranking, for job recruitment, etc.).
4. Overall college experience, socially, organization-wise, and baseball life would be exciting for me to consider (currently recruited for baseball with some of the schools).
5. Not sure what I'm going to specifically major in, but most likely either BME, EE, or ME.
6. Size of the school is not too much of an issue, however, I've heard smaller schools tend to take care of you better than big schools.</p>

<p>The Colleges:</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon University
Case Western Reserve University (baseball)
*Colorado School of Mines (baseball)
Johns Hopkins University (baseball)
Georgia Institute of Technology
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (baseball)
*Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (baseball)
*Tulane University
*University of Michigan - Ann Arbor</p>

<ul>
<li>= Already Admitted into the Engineering School</li>
</ul>

<ol>
<li>Michigan</li>
<li>CMU</li>
<li>GA Tech</li>
<li>JHU</li>
<li>Case</li>
<li>RPI </li>
</ol>

<p>Don’t know too much about the rest.</p>

<p>Agree pretty much with above.</p>

<p>Congrats on your admissions so far!!! :)</p>

<p>Do you have baseball scholarships from those noted schools? Are you being recruited from all those schools? Will they give you full or partial head scholarships?</p>

<p>Since you’re a student athlete majoring in engineering, this would be my concern for you if you were my child…</p>

<p>Many engineering programs have sequential classes that must be taken during particular semesters (and aren’t even offered during the “other” semester.) </p>

<p>I would be concerned about your spring courses. How much class will you miss during your season? How often will you be traveling with your team? </p>

<p>Tulane only has a few engineering offerings. Does it have your program? Many kids change their engineering emphasis, so that could be an issue if you go to Tulane.</p>

<p>Rose Hulman and RPI are predominantly male. If that isn’t an issue for you, then fine.</p>

<p>Rose Hulman is kind of in the middle of nowhere, so that may be an issue.</p>

<p>I would say based on your criteria it is JHU, Ga Tech and Tulane. They are the 3 most urban that have good baseball opportunities, and Tulane stays in if you are sure about BME. Tulane no longer offers EE or ME, but the BME program is rock solid and highly rated. JHU is of course outstanding, but has a reputation for being ridiculously hard. Ga Tech (where I did some grad work but not in engineering) is possibly the best balancing of the factors you describe. CMU is urban and highly thought of, but I know nothing about their baseball. Same with Case. I would say since baseball is important to you that you might want to focus on the warmer weather sites, which means the 3 I originally mention also. After all you are not in regular session in the summer.</p>

<p>GT fits your needs.</p>

<p>Tulane stays in if you are sure about BME. Tulane no longer offers EE or ME, but the BME program is rock solid and highly rated.</p>

<p>True, but it can be problem if the student later changes his emphasis - as many do.</p>

<p>Since you’re considering BME, does that suggest that you’re possibly seeking a medical career, possibly pre-med?</p>

<p>I agree with you mom2college, you really have to be sure about BME if you pick Tulane. They do have ChemE also, and that’s all they have for engineering. The flip side is people do get into engineering and find out it is all wrong for them. From that point of view Tulane is very strong, as is JHU I guess. I say I guess because with Tulane you don’t get accepted into engineering, you just get accepted into Tulane University and so can pick any major. Of course BME has pretty set courses starting out, but if one finds that they want something completely different, the credits they pick up from those courses apply towards the distribution credits and there is no barrier to majoring in Philosophy or History or Chinese, because you don’t “belong” to a certain school yet. I don’t know one way or the other how it works at JHU, and Ga. Tech has good departments in other areas but no question is best known for engineering.</p>

<p>Just bringing this up because quite a few people really don’t know what they are getting into when they think they want engineering, and change their minds when they see the reality for the first time.</p>

<p>Thanks so much for the replies!</p>

<p>I guess I left out one very important detail:</p>

<p>Since I live in Michigan, UofM is one of my top choices, considering my family has gone there and it would cost very little compared to other colleges since I am an in-state. Also, UofM gives me great flexibility, if I end up deciding engineering isn’t for me. Also, I know UofM has a great 5 year BME program where you are given a masters degree at the end of the 5 years. I guess what I’m going to be doing is weigh in the other schools and compare them to the benefits of UofM.</p>

<p>Also, honest to god, Tulane was just a university I applied to because everything application-wise was free. I’m not considering the school too much since I don’t really think their strengths in engineering are as strong. However, this is just my own opinion, I don’t know too much about the school.</p>

<p>With regards to the baseball comment, yes I will be given baseball scholarships from those schools. The only school I am iffy on with regards to scholarship money is JHU, but for the most part, I’ve talked to coaches from all of those schools and I shouldn’t have too much problem getting into the schools (although for JHU, I would be aiming for the BME program, but it wouldn’t kill me to just get into the school). Also, the coaches have assured me that I will not be missing classes, and if I did, it’d be at most 1 or 2 sessions maximum.</p>

<p>The final comment I would want to leave is the emphasis on Japanese. I am bicultural (Japanese and White), and I have been attending a Japanese School every saturday since 1st grade, and I am most likely going to look to double major in japanese and engineering, and possibly studying abroad for a semester in Japan. This would be pretty important in my decision as well, because I want a university that is world-known, where my degree would be regarded well globally (or at least in both the U.S. and Japan) so that I can give myself the opportunity to work in both.</p>

<p>If you’re in-state for U Michigan and like it, it would take a lot to go anyplace else.</p>

<p>Also, the noted schools are the only schools I really have the skillset as a baseball player to play at the varsity level, and are actually getting recruited for. For the other schools, I will be admitted based on my academics. </p>

<p>For schools that aren’t noted with (baseball), there are several reasons:</p>

<p>CMU: no varsity baseball team
GT: varsity baseball team is way too good (top 20 every year in NCAA D1)
Tulane: never really looked to going to this school so I wouldn’t know
UofM: I will try and walk-on, but I am not recruited to be on the squad.</p>

<p>Well, not so much for your sake then but in case others read this thread that might be interested, Tulane has an excellent relationship with Japanese universities that have been in place for many years, so that area is pretty strong for them. The baseball is consistently one of the top D1 teams in the country, often contending for the College World Series title and a few years ago the team was ranked #1 most of the year and just missed winning the CWS. So they might be too good also, similar to what you say about Ga Tech. They have a fantastic new stadium (Turchin Field) on campus that looks as nice or nicer than some AAA parks.</p>

<p>But I tend to agree with the others on here, based on your new information. Focus on UofM and GT, and maybe JHU if you get in and want to really challenge yourself. As I mentioned, it has the reputation of being the toughest program of the ones you mention, maybe the toughest in the country. Case on a baseball scholarship could be interesting also.</p>

<p>My husband is a Tulane grad with a BSME–long before Katrina and the elimination of most engineering programs there. Right now, Tulane’s baseball program is better than its engineering program. It is the strongest of their sports.</p>

<p>*Also, the coaches have assured me that I will not be missing classes, and if I did, it’d be at most 1 or 2 sessions maximum.
*</p>

<p>I don’t understand that. Don’t you play several days in a row at “away schools”? Or am I confused. Even if I’m wrong, certainly for away games, you’d miss a lot of time to study and do homework.</p>

<p>I like the idea that you can go to UMich (super awesome school) and not have the pressure, time demands, and distraction of playing for a team.</p>

<p>I come from a family of engineers - father, uncles, brothers, cousins, husband, and now a son studying. Although they are all smart, none of them would have had the time to play a college sport. Engineering often requires 17 credits (or more) per semester.</p>

<p>I know with Rose-Hulman, games are mostly played against schools that are close, and rarely do traveling that are very far. This is why I would not miss too much school. This goes for many DII and DIII schools.</p>

<p>There are people that play D1 sports like football, basketball and baseball and still do extremely well in majors like engineering, physics, chemistry and the like. Other people cannot handle the time demands. Some find the fact that it forces them to budget their time beneficial, others not so much. It is a very individual thing. I fell into the former category with 3 music groups (one that toured southern and some midwest colleges few weekends a semester), a club sport and research besides a full load of courses. I got my best grades when I had the least time to waste. Everyone is different in this regard. Also D1 schools, and maybe others, provide extra help (tutors and the like) for athletes. This helps bridge the gap.</p>

<p>There are people that play D1 sports like football, basketball and baseball and still do extremely well in majors like engineering, physics, chemistry and the like. Other people cannot handle the time demands.</p>

<p>While that is true, those people are in the minority. </p>

<p>Another concern is that the OP won’t really know which type he is until he’s made his choice and is in the midst of his classes and sport. What if he chooses an expensive school that requires his athletic scholarship to be affordable, but then he finds it too hard to balance team demands and engineering? Will he transfer? Will it be easy to transfer into UMich engineering at that point? I don’t know.</p>

<p>This is true, because my father, a mechanical engineer, played football for UofM and had said that student-athletes were given help when needed by tutors. However, come to think of it, yes I am a little worried because I know engineering is very demanding timewise, as with baseball.</p>

<p>Well, maybe he is a minority, lol.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Of course, how would you know? It just seems to me under your reasoning no one with this major in mind would ever even try to participate in these sports. I think that would be a shame. Anyway, I am sure he can talk to the coaches, his parents, faculty advisors and make a reasoned decision. Besides, he specifically said cost is not an issue.</p>

<p>*This is true, because my father, a mechanical engineer, played football for UofM and had said that student-athletes were given help when needed by tutors. However, come to think of it, yes I am a little worried because I know engineering is very demanding timewise, as with baseball. *</p>

<p>Since it sounds like you live the closest to UMich, I would visit UMich’s College of engineering and have a talk with them. You need the most up to date info for what current engineering students are required to do, what they’re expected to participate in (such as group projects or eng’g clubs), how easy it is to schedule all engineering classes and LABS early in the day, and whether internships would still be possible as an athlete. (My son has many labs late into the afternoon.)</p>

<p>Whatever you learn at UMich will somewhat apply to those other strong engineering schools. :)</p>

<p>Besides, he specifically said cost is not an issue.</p>

<p>I didn’t know if he said that because the athletic scholarships were making those schools affordable.</p>

<p>Maybe it’s because I’m from a public high school in Michigan that sends off like >80 people per year to UofM (mostly the LSA school though), but apparently in my school, UofM isn’t regarded very highly. how highly is it truly regarded in the rest of the country and maybe possibly around the globe? because if someone were to say they got into JHU, CMU, or GT, that’d definetly awe my peers and teachers in my school much more than getting into UofM (not trying to sound as if the college process is all about aweing people… I’m just talking about the prestige i guess of the school and how employers would look at them).</p>