Engineering with a more "interesting" student body

College Search & Selection
1

<p>So, I'm currently a Freshman at Lafayette College (Easton, PA) and I'm not exactly liking this place as much as I'd hoped, so I'm thinking of transferring.</p>

<p>My big complaint about here is the huge lack of eccentricity. Every student is an athlete, and everyone is very... normal.</p>

<p>So, what I'm looking for is really overly specific, but maybe it exists.</p>

<p>I'm looking for an east coast school that offers Mechanical Engineering as a major, but has an eccentric student population, like an East Coast Berkeley. There's a lot of schools with the right mentality, like Oberlin and Grinnell and Reed, but they're in the middle of nowhere and don't offer engineering.</p>

<p>The best school I've found so far is Carnegie Mellon. (Which I was rejected from last year)</p>

<p>So, any suggestions?</p>

<p>Statistics:</p>

<p>HS GPA:
3.8 (weighted)
3.6 (unweighted)</p>

<p>SAT:
Math: 780
Writing: 690
CR: 690</p>

<p>ACT:
32</p>

<p>Extra curriculars:
Founder and president of a FIRST robotics team (for 3 years), and started a program to teach young students engineering principles.</p>

<p>College GPA:
3.8 (ish, so far)</p>

<p>College activities:
Tech work for a charity theater organization.
Joining Engineering Without Borders soon
Working on a piece of kinetic sculpture</p>

2

<p>Engineers tend to cluster in two types: a)the “conventional, regular guy” type you are describing, sort of like kindred spirits to undergrad business majors but better in science; and b) the “nerdy” type. A proportional tilt towards b) might be correlated with the highest stat/ most selective schools. A tilt towards c) other, or none of the above, with truly more diverse personalities, would most likely be found at schools with higher percentages of arts & sciences college majors and relatively smaller percentages of engineering and business majors.</p>

3

<p>Residents of Portland, OR, would likely disagree that Reed (within the city limits) is in the middle of nowhere. :wink: Reed has a 3/2 engineering program with Caltech, Columbia and Rensselaer, so you could get the best of both worlds, quirkiness and engineering.</p>

4

<p>Not sure how “quirky” the student body is, but the U of Maryland has an excellent engineering program and a diverse and large student body.</p>

5

<p>No reason not to try CM again–your college GPA is strong. </p>

<p>Do any of the quiry liberal arts schools have strong ME progrmas–Union; Skidmore, Juniata, Bard?</p>

6

<p>Swarthmore, though it’s not as math/science/engineering focused as some of the others you mentioned, and is of course very hard to get into. But it’s known for a sort of academic quirkiness; you definitely won’t find that everyone is an athlete. </p>

<p>Why not try CMU again?</p>

<p>Also, look into Case Western Reserve U in Ohio if you’re willing to move inland a little.</p>

7

<p>Try for U Michigan, and maybe even WPI, Stevens, or NYU-Poly would fit the bill, although NYC would be where your social life is for the latter two.</p>

<p>I would also say that U Rochester may fit your criteria well.</p>

8

<p>I am biased but Northwestern engineering has strong emphasis on creativity and design. That said, engineers tend to be more “normal”, a bit more conservative, or nerdy. But the music and communications schools have plenty of those creative or artsy types and there’s a dorm that’s filled with these students.</p>

9

<p>“But the music and communications schools have plenty of those creative or artsy types and there’s a dorm that’s filled with these students.”</p>

<p>That evokes a related issue, even where these different “types” coexist in the same university, the degree to which they actually interact may vary considerably. I’ve read about schools that have good engineering prgrams, and good art or theater programs, and the people in these two camps have virtually nothing to do with each other.</p>

<p>Left to their own devices, the various groups tend to self-segregate. A situation where the self-segregation is actually institutionalized, such that the colleges actually have separate dorms, would be least likely to meet OPs desire to actually interact with these other types to a greater, not lesser, extent. The OP would probably prefer a situation where there is true integration of majors in the dorms, not segregation by college. I know of one such university, but I imagine there are many.</p>

10

<p>@monydad:
I know that engineers tend to be fairly normal, but I’m looking for schools that are strong in other programs as well, to balance out the monotony. I’m fully willing to go outside my major to find more quirky students. They’re usually easy to find (brightly colored) and pretty friendly. Even if all I could find were a pile of nerdy engineers, I’d be content with that. The people here are just all very average.</p>

<p>You said you know of “one such university”, which one is that?</p>

<p>@Vossron
Oops, I think Reed got thrown in there is because it’s somewhere I don’t particularly want to go. I’ve lived on the west coast (although much further south) my whole life, and want to get away from it. I AM starting to seriously look at some 3/2 programs though, there are some really cool ones.</p>

<p>@dwight
U Maryland is an excellent school, but it just seems really centered around sports and greek life to me, which is largely what I’m trying to escape.</p>

<p>@yabeyabe2
I’m definitely applying to CMU again. It was my dream school back then, and I haven’t given up on it quite yet.
Union has an ME program, but (like U Mich) seems to be pretty sports/greek to me.
Skidmore, Juniata, and Bard all have 3/2 programs which look pretty cool, and I’m definitely looking further into them, thanks!</p>

<p>@CaliforniaDancer
Swarthmore is a bit above my level, but I’ll be looking into Case Western more.</p>

<p>@OHKID
Let’s see… U Mich looks sports/greek-ey
I turned down WPI for my current school for the lack of artists (although that might have been a mistake)
I toured Stevens and didn’t like it because students weren’t allowed to use the machine shop… ever.
NYU is certainly under consideration
I’m not really sure what it is about Rochester, it really just doesn’t scream out at me.
Thanks though!</p>

<p>@Sam Lee
Right now I’m looking at those more artsy schools that offer 3/2 programs, hopefully a couple will call out at me.</p>

11

<p>OP, why do you want to be in the EAst Coast? Why won’t you do down South where UT-Austin and Rice are. They’re excellent for engineering and have campus culture similar to Berkeley’s. There are plenty of jobs for engineers in Texas as well. Better yet, apply to Berkeley or UCLA. These are pretty tough schools to get into but who knows!</p>

12

<p>RML, Berkely and UCLA are just too close to home for me. I was really considering Rice, but I don’t think that Texas and I would agree politically (although I suppose I could give Rice a try). I haven’t looked into UT-Austin.</p>

13

<p>“You said you know of “one such university”, which one is that?”
I was thinking specifically of Cornell, but I wasn’t offering it up since I don’t know that it is truly your best-fit school. There are all sorts of people there, but to best experience its true student diversity requires living in the dorms as a freshman. Most of the upperclassmen there live off campus.</p>

<p>Re: 3/2 programs, before you go that route talk to people at the prospective college and find out how many students actually complete this program there. With nobody at your college to help you guide your way in engineering, no courses there,and with the need to disrupt your life and studies after three years (2 in your case?) to go study at a different college, it would be no surprise if at most schools few people if any actually wind up completing such a program.
Also find out, in detail, what the entrance process and requirements are for getting into the named “partner” engineering schools subsequently. At some I looked at, the process seemed little different than applying to the engineering school as a transfer, acceptance was by no means automatic. Frankly, IMO if you go that route the odds that you will actually wind up being an engineer are not very high.</p>

14

<p>

</p>

<p>What what WHAT? I know my experience isn’t everybody’s, but that statement sounds about the same in my head as “I know that water tends to be fairly dry.” :D</p>

<p>I quickly polled a few friends (MIT-alum engineers) explaining what you were looking for. They suggested RPI and Virginia Tech. I might add WPI - a safer bet than RPI - to that list. I know some WPI people, and their presence there suggests that the school is eccentric-friendly. CMU is the obvious choice, but you already have that down.</p>

<p>Also, yeah, UT-Austin. If it’s politics you’re worried about, from what I understand, Austin is sort of the great liberal oasis of Texas.</p>

15

<p>If you complete the 3/2 program, you end up with two degrees; transferring gets you one.</p>

<p>I agree with monydad that 3/2 completions are low; many decide that they don’t want to leave their “3” and their friends, or that, like many matriculants, they change majors, no longer wanting to be an engineer.</p>

16

<p>OP, </p>

<p>if you can get into Berkeley Engineering (…and for In-State tuition), it doesn’t sound sensible to abandon it for a school like Virginia Tech, Rochester, Purdue, NYU-Poly or even CMU, Cornell, Michigan, Northwestern or Duke and the like unless you really hated Berkeley. I can understand turning down Berkeley Engineering for MIT, Stanford or Princeton, but for CMU? It doesn’t sound sensible to me, to be honest. Berkeley Engineering is a solid top 3 in America, and Berkeley is a global name.</p>

17

<p>I don’t necessarily agree with that, as a blanket matter. I think CMU has a great reputation in engineering, and its undergraduate students are very good. I would imagine CMU is both good enough and well known enough in the field that its students should get interviews by the major companies, and then, if you but get an interview, whether you are good enough is a function of you as an individual, not your school. </p>

<p>On the other hand, there is a regional bias to recruiting generally, everyplace, and Berkeley likely provides greater access to employers on the West coast.</p>

<p>Berkeley undoubtedly has more of a global name, but that’s more graduate school related and most engineers plan domestic employment anyway. At the undergrad level, domestically, I don’t think the difference in the name brand , as an undergrad, will get you much more juice one vs. the other. Except on the West coast, maybe.</p>

<p>IMO all major engineering employers know CMU, and its grads are well respected.</p>

18

<p>moneydad, If the OP gets into Berkeley Engineering, than this is going to be a case of Berkeley In-State vs CMU for engineering. In such case, Berkeley wins hands down. Why?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Berkeley engineering is superior to CMU Engineering although not by much as CMU is also quite good for engineering. But, of course, Berkeley is a solid top 3 for engineering in America. CMU is lagging behind and is in competition with several others for the 4th best spot.</p></li>
<li><p>The Berkeley name is more prestigious than the CMU name whether in the East Coast, MidWest, South and even more so in the West Coast. </p></li>
<li><p>Berkeley is cheaper than CMU as he’s in-state.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Considering all those factors, again, unless he’s willing to burn all his parents’ savings to a school that’s less prestigious, and not even as good academically, he should aim for Berkeley. If he wants a more solid engineering school offering solid engineering program that’s more well-regarded than Berkeley, then there is only one school that fits the bill – MIT.</p>

<p>

I would bet that the Berkeley Engineering name is well respected across America. It does not seen inferior to CMU even in the East Coast. </p>

<p>

I don’t think many employers see it that way. Employers and people, in general, don’t ask engineers if they’ve studied in Berkeley engineering for undergrad of postgrad. All they care is the Berkeley engineering degree, knowledge and skills.</p>

19

<ol>
<li>It’s M-O-N-Y dad, not $$$$</li>
<li>I don’t know what “many” employers do, but back in the day I was hired out of an East coast school by a large midwestern engineering consulting firm, and they did not recruit at Berkeley, so far as I know. They did not recruit at Stanford either. But they recruited at MIT. Not because they did not think these other places were well-regarded, but they found what they wanted more locally. Ie, regional bias. The names of these colleges were respected there, but at the same time they weren’t recruiting there for jobs. You can’t eat respect.</li>
</ol>

<p>3) If hiring undergrad they care about the skills and capabilities of the particular undergrad individual they would be hiring. Undergrad capabilities at CMU and Berkeley clearly overlap, both are likely well-trained. Engineering insiders are perfectly capable of distinguishing between grad and undergrad,there really aren’t that many top engineering schools at the end of the day, and these people aren’t idiots.</p>

<p>The reality is you will get to work and there will be people hired, and advancing, from lower ranked schools than either of these places, and they will be promoted based on their individual capabilities. You will work for some of them. There are few industries where undergrad pedigree means less than engineering (within reason), talent is distributed at many places and it is all about where’s the beef/ what can you do. Not your school, to the same degree as some other fields. Schools matter when deciding where to recruit, but the recruting list does not always look like a list from US News; it will frequently be regionally-influenced, and generally include many lower-ranked regionals.</p>

20

<p>^ Okay; but that’s too assuming that the OP would really want to remain in the East Coast after graduation. And should the OP decide to head NE after earning an engineering degree from Berkeley, I don’t think he would have a problem getting one, if jobs are available.</p>

<p>BTW, sorry for misspelling your name.</p>