<p>I don’t mean to highjack this thread, but considering you guys are giving opinions on some schools that I was interested in as well, what do you guys think of Rutgers Engineering? Its my instate school and it would probably the cheapest for me to attend.</p>
<p>Thank you eyemgh, I’ll look into WPI since it seems to be a popular school.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard anything about Rutgers. I worked with someone from New Jersey this summer getting a Master’s in EE at University of Delaware. I’m not sure why he didn’t go to Rutgers though–he didn’t say.</p>
<p>sunwardflyer,</p>
<p>You started out with a good list of varied schools. What you needed to do at that point was go visit the schools and/or do as much research as possible YOURSELF about the schools to find the best fit(s) for YOU! </p>
<p>Instead of taking care of business yourself, you’ve asked people on this thread to do that research for you and, in essence, make a fairly important decision for you. </p>
<p>Run your college search as you see fit, but IMHO, using the opinions of the people here to guide your selection/deselection process is a mistake.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d forget about this thread, start doing what you know you should be doing and maybe ask opinions (backed with facts) about a particular school now and again, but recognize them as subjective, very possibly biased, opinions.</p>
<p>I’ve worked with a number of Rutgers EE and CS grads, although more with master’s degrees than undergrads. I think it is generally a strong program, so definitely worth considering instate. However, you also have to consider if the undergrad experience is what you are looking for. The big multi-campus environment with buses to go everywhere isn’t for everyone. It wasn’t at all what my own (non-engineering) son and daughter were looking for, although they have many friends who are very happy there and love all of the opportunities that come with a larger school.</p>
<p>Binghamton does not have much of an established reputation because it is relatively new, starting in 1983 - before that, they had Engineering Technology degrees. I took a couple of classes there in the early 90s when I worked in Binghamton (I’m an RPI grad). It wasn’t RPI tough, but the teachers and students were a good group, smart and involved.</p>
<p>The university as a whole has a decent campus and a good mix of academics and pre-professional programs. The city itself is nothing to brag about but has an adequate support system for the students.</p>
<p>Look at Georgia Tech. Its excellent</p>
<p>maikai, I disagree with your assumption. I have visited a variety of schools already which is how I was able to narrow down my list to the one that’s been posted here. I believe that exploiting every medium (online research, college visits, and even word-of-mouth) is very important to my college decision. Being able to read about the experiences of others as well as gaining information from CC users is useful to me and to others.</p>
<p>I won’t be heavily relying on all of the information provided on this thread, but I’m not going to ignore it either.</p>
<p>Yup Sacchi, I absolutely wanted to avoid rutgers at all costs in the beginning for that very reason. But after doing extensive research, rutgers became a very favorable choice.</p>
<p>sunwardflyer,</p>
<p>It’s not an assumption. It’s how this thread reads. </p>
<p>You started with a list. You asked for advice. You got a bunch of responses, including some rather bad advice, IMHO… opinionated and completely unsupported.</p>
<p>You accepted all the advice and adjusted your list directly from it. That’s how this thread reads. Go read it for yourself. It’s kind of black and white… challenge-response. What did I miss? Where was the “exploiting every medium.” ;-)</p>
<p>If there were any indication in this thread to think you were actually doing your own research on these colleges you’re ruling out, I wouldn’t be writing in it. ;-)</p>
<p>Asking for suggestions to flesh out a list of colleges to then go do research on is not a bad idea. To use other people’s opinions to discount or rule out colleges from your search is a very bad idea. You are doing yourself a disservice.</p>
<p>Well then what’s the point of using College Confidential or being a member of it if one just ignores the advice that is offered?</p>
<p>sunwardflyer</p>
<p>Taking advice here is fine, but the way you use it is the issue. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you discount schools solely on the opinions of others. You don’t have to actually visit. You can research and you can call these universities and ask questions yourself. </p>
<p>IMHO, it’s a very bad idea to accept, as gospel, ClassicRockerDad’s advice (who has neither attended nor has a child attending these schools) telling you a school is not “rigorous” enough or say a school offers classes only because they have professors that can teach them. </p>
<p>A lot of his advice is supposedly based off conversations he had with the schools. Uh… so tell me… why can’t you pick up the phone and have the same conversations and make your own conclusions? Everyone hears things in their own personal context. How do you know you’ll arrive at the same conclusions?</p>
<p>In my career I’ve interviewed engineers from fresh grads to seasoned pros and I’ll tell you there is no way… NO WAY… I can tell any differences about the rigors of their school by their interview. It’s hard to tell even after they are hired, because every engineer is different. </p>
<p>Asking a fresh grad about his college? Really? They’re all very proud of where they went. From their perspective they went to the very best school on the planet.</p>
<p>Talking to staff at the school? Again, really? Every school you listed has some incredibly impressive stuff to talk about / brag about. It’s hard to imagine a conversation where a dean is exposing anything bad about their school. And if you’ve identified yourself as any kind of engineering manager, watch out for the full blown school marketing pitch!!!</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but the whole thing just doesn’t sound right. It completely conflicts with my personal experience… which, from the description of his position, should match rather closely. </p>
<p>I honestly think ClassicRockerDad simply gave you his completely unsupported biases and subjective opinions about particular schools and when challenged, tried to defend them with… well… an incredibly weak set of arguments. </p>
<p>Our company has a University program with the engineering departments of many of these universities. We give seminars, provide tools and I break bread from time to time with some of the staff at colleges you mentioned. As a whole the staff is usually very pumped about their own universities and they always have some exciting student projects and successes to share. The reason for that is the colleges you listed are all good colleges. Yeah, real news flash! The most important differentiating factor between them will be how YOU fit in them, not how ClassicRockerDad fits.</p>
<p>I just have to say the advice you’ve used to make key decisions about your future is very, very poor. You apparently don’t want to hear that, but as an adult with a child in college, I feel compelled to “lead you to water” nonetheless.</p>
<p>And to change metaphors…
It’s your bed. You decide how to make it. You have to sleep in it. Not me, not anyone giving you poor advice… just you.</p>
<p>As much as I disagree with Maikai on his belief that everyone should live in big cities, I do think there are some good points made in this post above.</p>
<p>I have always been a firm believer in picking a college with the best personal fit. And no, I’m not just talking about finding the school that best matches your GPA and SAT scores! I’m talking about finding a school that you can call home for the next 4-5 years of your life.</p>
<p>Thank you, maikai and fractalmstr.</p>
<p>I’ve learned of many new resources I can use to determine which college is the best fit for me. The main reason I came to this site was because the only resource I really had for research was the colleges’ websites (which don’t offer much unbiased insight into actual student life) and the marginally helpful college visits I went on.</p>
<p>Sunwardflyer, visits tell a huge story. If you’re wanting to get your hands dirty, who has the toys and who lets undergrads use them? Do you have to be a junior to take your first engineering class? Can you enter declared as an engineer? As a particular type of engineer? What is the rest of the curriculum like? How do the non-academic opportunities jive with your interests? Hiker? Skier? Partier?</p>
<p>My son is a classic example of doing it fractalmstr’s way. He has the stats to be in the hunt anywhere (no one is a lock at places like Stanford that take less than 10% of applicants no matter your stats). He visited LOTS of schools. After learning everything he could, his two top choices are not household names to non-engineers, CalPoly SLO and WPI. His safeties University of Utah and Colorado State are neither Purdue or UIUC, but they start engineering early, have a reputation for collaborative learning and offer non-academic activities that he likes.</p>
<p>Are any powerhouses? Nope. Will he be a great engineer? You bet, because he’ll thrive at any of them because they are all a good fit.</p>
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<p>These questions can be answered before visiting. In some cases, the answer may not necessarily be a quick one that is easily answered accurately by a tour guide on a visit. For example, Brown has an open curriculum without breadth requirements generally. However, ABET accredited engineering bachelor’s degree programs there do have humanities and social studies breadth requirements, which might be overlooked when someone is discussing Brown academics in general.</p>
<p>Visits are best done when you know what you want to find out on the visit that cannot be found out other ways.</p>
<p>The main point was really that you can’t see the toys without going there and it’s really hard to sort out how real the early experiences will be. </p>
<p>Everyone says they have great stuff. Everyone says they start early. Everyone says you can do it all. Sometimes you just need your feet on the ground to sort the wheat from the chaff. </p>
<p>Some were far worse than expected (Brown and Lafayette). Some were far better (Utah and CSU).</p>
<p>JMHO. YMMV.</p>
<p>Sure. But if one of the things you want to know is the frosh engineering student experience, you may want to print out the recommended schedule for frosh engineering students, so that you can ask about specific listed courses and how they are run (including lab facilities and such) on your visit.</p>
<p>Absolutely, but that should be how the list gets narrowed down for visits. Then, amongst the ones that seem like they’d fit, the prospective student can figure out reality.</p>
<p>It’s very much like looking at houses. You can decide traits in a home that you want and form a search based on that. Then you narrow based on the posted pictures, descriptions, google drive by, etc.</p>
<p>Nothing seals the final reality like an in person visit.</p>
<p>I’m certainly not suggesting the OP visit willy nilly, but that it’s important, after the list is narrowed, and WAY more important than any opinion garnered from CC.</p>
<p>Youtube can also be a good source if you’re looking to find out what the campus vibe is like for a particular school. There are campus tour videos for virtually every college out there, and many of them are made by students, not the school (for an unbiased perspective). </p>
<p>Once you get your list down to a small handful of schools, I would agree with the others here that campus visits are a good way to seal the deal. The campus visit was how I decided on my undergrad school. </p>
<p>Also, don’t ignore the surrounding area! Make sure the local area around the school is somewhere you can be happy living in for the next 4-5 years. Are you in to outdoor activities? Does constant cloud cover year-round depress you? These types of questions are important… It’s not just about the school. Ideally, you will pick a place that will inspire you, motivate you, and keep you focused on what you’re studying… all while giving you some great memories to look back on after you graduate.</p>
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<p>Hmmm, when I was looking at colleges a few decades ago, the visits did not make or break the deal with any of the colleges that I visited. Of course, information was much less available, so basic information that can be gotten without visiting was harder to get, making it harder to use such information to make the most of one’s visit.</p>