I was wondering of i could get some feedback on the schools i have been admitted to for engineering. I was admitted to RPI, WPI, Lehigh, Purdue, and UMD ( in no particular order).
RPI and WPI are pretty similar to each other - small engineering schools - very techy - students go to these places for engineering and science
Purdue and UMD are similar to each other - large state unversities with large engineering programs - and many other departments
Lehigh is smallish - in between the two clusters but has a huge variety of student’s majors - there are non tech and business majors there
Which one of those three types would make you happy?
or compare the apples to apples to start
Seems like you’ve waited a bit long to actually investigate your target colleges. You had specific reasons to apply to each of them, didn’t you?
All are ABET accredited and would provide a fine Engineering Education.
So you need to think about:
Net Cost
Number of Undergraduates
Faculty Student Ratio
%of students that live on campus
Housing- do they offer all 4 years? freshman only?
Urban/rural/suburban
Is this a commuter school? (do students go home on weekends)
Surrounding area - what is the nearby town/amenities like?
Transportation - how would you get home and how long will it take
AP Credits - can you get credit for AP/IB tests you have taken
Male/Female ratio
Greek life - what % of students are in greek life
Parking
Diversity
Safety
Sports
Jobs - what happens to seniors after they graduate
Internships - depending on your major, is it easy to get internships?
…and whatever makes sense for you
You might not care about, say, greek life. but if 50% of the kids are in greek life and you don’t want to be, that is something to know. Or you may want a big time sports scene or you might not want one. Grade them from 1-5 as they make sense to you.
Then look at each of them and see which makes sense for you
A tool to help is https://colleges.niche.com/compare/default.aspx?&tab=tab-rankings
At some point it boils down to personal preference assuming they are all affordable. Do you want a large public? a technical based school? or a mid-sized private? You can get a good engineering education at any of them.
Ok thanks for the responces everyone. I was also looking for more anecdotal advice from students or alums, things they liked or disliked about the schools
RPI and WPI have big gender imbalances toward males.
Lehigh has some terrific combined majors in engineering like the IBE program and one with applied sciences.
Lehigh is known for a very exciting social life and good Patriot League rivalries. The alumni are very organized and extremely supportive.
Try going to the subforums for each of the colleges…e.g. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/lehigh-university/
Read these…you get a sense of the colleges from there. Also you can ask why people picked that college.
Also contact your admissions counselor and ask to speak to a current student or alumni…right now they are trying to court you so they will be happy to hook you up.
Don’t forget weather…do you like snow?