Engineering - Which Schools?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I am a high school junior this year, and although this is still subject to change, currently, I desire to go into engineering. With that being said, I am most intrigued by biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, nuclear engineering, aerospace engineering, and naval architecture and marine engineering. However, I have varying interests, and would like to double major or minor in other fields during university. After secondary and post-secondary education, I would like to become an engineer in the armed forces and possibly go on into medical school. Universities with strong engineering/science departments are what I am looking at. I am considering the following schools/programs to apply to this autumn. Does anyone have any suggestions or comments for me?</p>

<p>1) Johns Hopkins - Biomedical Engineering (I have heard nothing but good of this top program in the country!)
2) University of Pennsylvania - Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology (Dual degree with Wharton sounds very appealing and would be a practical choice for me to pursue my other academic interests during university)
3) Brown University - Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME) (Would take the pressure off of the stressful medical school application process in senior year, if I so choose to go into the medical field, rather than engineering)
4) Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5) California Institute of Engineering
6) Stanford University
7) University of Berkeley</p>

<p>In addition, I recently discovered that Columbia's Fu School of Engineering offers the 3-2 Combined Plan program with select universities? Does anyone have any opinions about this program?</p>

<p>Besides the list of schools above, I was wondering about the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth. Although it offers a fully-accreditated professional engineering degree, there are not many choices in specific engineering disciplines. I have heard that it is more of a school of engineering for those who do not want to become an engineer, but have strong interests in the field in general. Does anyone have knowledge and information about it? Dartmouth, on the other hand, has a fantastic biology department, and would be an excellent preparation for medical school, which is another career track (Besides engineering) that I am strongly considering. Does anyone have knowledge and information about this as well?</p>

<p>Harvard is quite a tough choice for me. I personally love the school, but I have heard that it doesn't live up to the name, at the undergraduate level. I am specifically focusing on its the school of engineering. How does it compare to the engineering departments at other technological powerhouses such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, and Stanford? Will it prepare me for prestigious and competitive engineering graduate programs? Or is it simply not worth it?</p>

<p>Thank you! All helpful comments and/or suggestions are welcome and greatly appreciated!</p>

2

<p>Slow down!!!</p>

<p>Let’s look at your interests. You mentioned med school, five almost completely different disciplines in engineering (the only two you said that were some what related where chem and bio), business school and the armed forces.</p>

<p>First off, there is no way that you are going to do all this in college. Also, unless you decide what you really want to do, I would just go with the schools that are all around strong in all of the areas that you are looking at. The ones that have every thing you are looking for are MIT, Berkley, and Stanford (although it does not have an undergrad business program), and although it is not on your list the University of Michigan also has all of the programs you are looking for.</p>

<p>JHU, Upenn, and Brown don’t have the engineering strength that the other ones have (except as you mentioned JHU for biomedical). And I am assuming engineering strength is important since you are posting on the engineering forum. Keep in mind there is a good chance might end up switching disciplines within engineering, and if you try to do that at JHU, you will end up with a still good, although not as good program.</p>

<p>As for Harvard engineering I can’t don’t really know anything about it personally, however, I do know have a friend who went and visited as an admitted engineering student. He quickly decided that he did not want to go because he did not want to be one of three electrical engineers on the campus. I don’t know what it is like for the other types.</p>

<p>As of right now, I am just telling you to go where the overall program strength in the areas that interest you are the highest since it does not seem like you really know what you want to do.</p>

<p>Last thing, are you an American citizen? I just ask because of your name. If you are, why are you not considering the military academies if you want to join the armed forces after college?</p>

<p>Last thing, are you such a baller that you are going to get into all of these programs?</p>

3

<p>You do realize the four most prestigious schools for engineering are numbers 4-7.</p>

4

<p>^-- Agreed</p>

<p>you want prestigious engineering w/ Nobel-laureates , then you go for MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley ,and Stanford.</p>

5

<p>Dear firehose,</p>

<p>Thank you for your advice. Yes, I do have a wide range of interests – but then again, how can you expect a high school student to know for certain what he/she wants to do in life, when for years they have only been exposed to a broad liberal-arts education? I am not really considering pursuing a career in business, but I just think it might be worthwhile to have a business degree during university. Working in the armed forces is also something I am really just slightly considering right now – the odds of that is really not that high. <strong>And no, I am not such a baller that I think I will get into all of these programs. It would be completely ridiculous for me to expect that confidently – nobody can really. And when did I say that I think I will get into all of these prestigious schools? I am just merely making a list of possible schools I would like to apply to this autumn, because I do not want to waste money applying to schools that are not suitable for my interests right now.</strong> </p>

<p>I’m not an American citizen, and even if I was, my parents will not let me apply to the military academies. I am just saying that working in the armed forces is something that I possibly might do. </p>

<p>Thank you again for your suggestions, and for everyone else’s so far on this forum.</p>

6

<p>I agree with you: I also find it extremely difficult to decide what I want to pursue in college. Having varying interests is killer. I know if someone were to ask me what I was going to major in right now, I could not give them an honest answer. I’m torn between Nuclear and Aerospace at the moment, but many would tell me to just go mechanical which just makes things even harder. </p>

<p>If I were you, I would ask yourself this: How badly do you want to pursue medicine? I was considering med for a while, but after much thinking I concluded it just wasn’t the path I wanted to take. If you rule out medicine then you have narrowed things down a bit further. </p>

<p>Next is, if you are already doubting that armed forces is what you want to do, then just rule it out. Makes the decision even easier now. </p>

<p>Lastly, when it comes to engineering disciplines, I would just apply to one of the one’s that interest you, then use your first year of college to really think it over. It should not be difficult to switch between majors. However, if med is something you wish to pursue along with engineering, I think biomedical is your best bet since there is a lot of overlap with premed req’s.</p>

7

<p>Dear aGGieENGiNeeR,</p>

<p>Thank you for your suggestions. I found them to be very thoughtful and useful. You are right – I do need to ask myself whether I would even want to pursue medicine. After the question you asked, and after careful consideration, I realized that like you, it isn’t the route I want to take, and the career I would like to have and could see myself working in. Thank you so much!</p>

<p>You are also right – I do not know much about working in the armed forces right now at all. I will not completely rule that out, but it certainly is pushed towards the back of my mind. I will wait until I am at university and have more knowledge about what I want to do in life before I make the decision about whether that is something I still want to do. </p>

<p>And like you, nuclear, aerospace, and chemical engineering is what I am most torn between at the moment. Are you a junior too? What schools are you thinking about applying to right now?</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

8

<p>I know TWO people who got accepted into JHU’s BME program and they both didn’t go. If you truly want to be a doctor, I was told it was not the best option since their GPAs were low (told to me by some former colleagues at JHU).</p>

<p>But overall - chill out like people have said. You are a high school junior and A LOT of these programs are quite difficult to get into!! Don’t treat this lightly if you really do want to go to one of these schools, almost no one is guaranteed to get into any of them…</p>

9

<p>I am a senior who will attend Texas A&M. TAMU has so many options in their engineering program and they are all well respected so it won’t be an issue if I have to switch majors. If I were you, I would apply to schools that give you the most options. JHU, as said above, has great biomedical but everything else would be mediocre and they have no nuclear program that I know of. So, I would pursue colleges more focused on engineering as a whole.</p>

10

<p>Dear TheMan777,</p>

<p>Thank you for your advice about Johns Hopkin’s Biomedical Engineering Program. First of all, I would like to ask why are people asking me to chill out? I’m already a junior – in several months I will be applying to universities. Am I too high-strung just because I’m asking a lot of questions about competitive schools and programs…And secondly, why am I treating this lightly when I really want to go to one of these schools? I know the odds of getting in, and they are definitely quite low, and I’ve certainly prepared myself for this hypercompetitive process.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

11

<p>you have two categories of schools there. Ones that are highly influential in engineering research and industry and ones that are almost oblivious. </p>

<p>Most Ivy types, especially Dartmouth and Brown, belong to the later category; this is supported by their low engineering rankings and lack of ‘in the know’ prestige. It’s important to realize this is where people need to let go of the rankings and use some common sense, these programs are oblivious because of their small size not because of their lack of excellence which is evident in their overall elite reputation. A student at darmouth (ranked 70th) or harvard, yale, will have excess to the same excellence as a top 5 engineering school. imho</p>

<p>Many public state schools and some privates belong to the first category, these colleges of engineering are big and highly influential in industry and research drawing top students because of high rankings and tremendous reputation and popularity with respect to engineering, these schools are synonymous with engineering. solid reputations for engineering that beat out the ivy types; also in many some cases they are the only affordable undergraduate options (or people are just reluctant to shell out 100k more for a program when their instate is a flagship engineering school). And lastly, because even if the ivy’s are in reach cost wise for those with the money the admissions are highly competitive and many people just get rejected by all of em’</p>

<p>I’d say that whether your going to GaTech or Yale you’re in excellent shape. (ignoring costs of course, lol)</p>

12

<p>Reebok or Nike? Which elite sneaker brand will bring me the most success as an athlete? I know, fodder for a different forum. </p>

<p>But the nonsense quotient is the same.</p>

13

<p>

Let’s look at this for a second. The top athletes are sponsored by Nike or adidas (let’s say in soccer, since this is the easiest for me to compare to). Nike soccer has an entire set of training equipment, some things that you would look at and not even know what to do with it. Doubt Reebok takes a second look at the shoes they make because first of all they are straight up ugly, and second of all, they suck. Nike employs aerodynamics engineers apparently (if anyone is familiar with the Mercurial line, that is the one), and they’re the top company in the market.</p>

<p>Likewise, MIT is world class, the Nike of engineering. Then there’s VT, which is somewhat like Reebok. Now no one said that VT sucks (okay, maybe if you did the analogy correctly, but I only bashed Reebok because I’m decked out in all Nike gear), but there is no argument that MIT will provide a much better education than VT will, even though both will get you an engineering job.</p>

<p>Wearing Nike won’t make you a better athlete if you suck, or it might but you’d still suck. But if you’re good, it’ll help you just that bit more to become better, although you’ll still be good if you were sponsored by Reebok, you just wouldn’t have access to all the equipment that could help you be better with Nike. That’s the key word there: could. You’d still have to work hard as an athlete to get better, it would just be easier with great Nike gear.</p>

<p>And then there’s Under Armour, which makes great sporting and training equipment across the board. That would be Harvard or Dartmouth. They’re top class overall, but if you saw anyone wearing Under Armour soccer cleats, well you’d just have to laugh at them.</p>

14

<p>Dear cyclone10, toblin, and hadsed,</p>

<p>Thank you very much for all of your advice. It is well-appreciated! I wonder if any of you are students yourselves or have any first-hand knowledge about the engineering departments and undergraduate programs at such “Under Armour” types of schools?</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

15

<p>I really like hadsed’s analogy in those last two sentences; well said, that’s exactly right.</p>

16

<p>OP - Try talking to your guidance counselor about finding ways to refine your interests. Discussions, volunteer work summer programs, etc. If the guidance counselor is really busy (as often is the case), you may want to investigate hiring a private consultant.</p>