final list - ChE with research in the future

College Search & Selection
1

Before pushing Submit and spending hundreds on application fees, can I ask for advice? I’m a parent and I have to admit I was the one who created almost the full list. He did use Naviance to filter it. My prospective student doesn’t care for anything except MIT. So he’ll apply, to not have any regrets. But I keep re-thinking the other schools. He wants to do a PhD in biochemical or material engineering eventually, and that is very unlikely to change. From many forums I understand chemical engineering is the base for it - please correct me if that’s not the case.

Here is the list with my reasons and doubts:
Boston University - already applied, the only reason is it’s home. Also, I think it’s safety - might be wrong.
U Minnesota - already applied.
UIUC - already applied.

Will be applying to:
Purdue
RPI
Georgia Tech

Doubts:
NWU - if he gets in, it’ll be most likely full price as he won’t be among the top accepted. Or not? He won’t be eligible for need based financial aid.
UMass Amherst - does he need it for safety? I may be wrong but we would only consider it if the only choice is BU full price vs. UMass at ~$20,000/year - a state fund would be paying tuition so it’s just room+fees. Any of the above state schools will be preferred to both.
Case Western Reserve - is their chem eng good? He likes many things about CWRU but would it be just like BU in terms of education quality?

WPI - not sure about the chances to get into a good grad school after it.
Cornell as reach.

Any other suggestions are most welcome!

He doesn’t care if it’s a big or small school, doesn’t care much if it’s in a city or suburbs. Money matters of course - for example I don’t think we’d be paying $70,000/year for RPI or even NWU.

Stats: 34 ACT, 800 SAT Math II, 800 SAT Chemistry, 3.74 GPA with the most rigorous classes the school (one of the well known public in MA) offered, + sports, work, his own hobby- I won’t bore you with the details here as it’s not a question about the chances.

Thank you for reading this long post!

2

UMass Amherst happens to have one of the top materials engineering programs - if the sub-specialty he is interested in is polymers

http://www.phds.org/rankings/materials-engineering

Their undergrad Chemical Engineering Program also places a good number of Chem Eng grads with NSF research fellowships.

Other schools with a high percentage of NSF research fellowships:
U Delaware
Case Western
Tufts (particularly strong in Biomaterials/Tissue Engineering)

Good Luck!

3

thank you! I heard about U Delaware but not about UMass. Keeping Case Western on the list.

4

I can only speak concerning Purdue but I would have him get his applications in ASAP. Purdue is a rolling admissions school but only has so many spots (albeit a lot of them) for First Year Engineering. As such, many excellent students can find themselves denied or waitlisted for engineering simply because they have filled so many of their engineering positions. In Purdue’s case the earlier you apply with strong stats the better because the applications are being considered as they come in not all together. There is no ED. They have a November 1 deadline for being considered for scholarships so many of their applications come in before that deadline. Decisions are released on a rolling basis as well.

5

Sending Purdue tonight, hope it’s not too late. I know we missed Nov 1, but I thought Jan 1 or before wouldn’t matter. The only hint I’m finding on their website is the 12 weeks decision, I missed it. Thank you!!

6

U Delaware has a long standing relationship with Dupont, hence the strong Chem E program. The recently retired CEO of Dupont is a Tufts alum - interestingly, she majored in Mechanical E. U Del has 10 NSF fellowship winners in the last 10 years and it graduate about 86 CHem E’s per year.

U Mass Amherst’s Chem E has had 7 NSF fellowship winners in the last 10 years (the highest of any of their engineering programs) For context, they graduate about 85 Chem E’s per year. RPI had 6 winners in 10 years with a class size of about 74 graduates/yr. Cornell had 8 awards and has 85 grads per year. U Minn had 5 winners and has 85 grads per year. MIT has 20 winners and has 42 grads per year. So UMass is not at the level of MIT (except for the case of Polymer Engineering), but it is a very good option - especially given that you are from Massachusetts. Your son would have a good shot at the honors college as well, which has it’s own (brand new) “campus within a campus”. The food at UMass is amazing due to the Hotel School.

Georgia Tech Chem E has 11 awards and has 172 grads per year. Purdue Chem E has 9 awards and has 158 graduates per year so these are much bigger programs. Size has both pros and cons - so it is good to be aware of that ahead of time. The engineering programs in Mass. tend to be small compared to some other parts of the country.

Case is a small program with a research bent (which is what you want for the Phd career track) The Chem E program has 9 awards and 30 grads per year. It also offers some merit aid, so it is good to have a school of that type in the mix.

BU does not offer Chem E, but it is possible to cross over into engineering from a strong non-engineering science program

WPI is a strong program, but it is known for its hands on, project based curriculum. Great for the path into industry, but a less common choice for academia/research.

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Mastadon - huge thank you! I had no idea about NFS and to use it as a criteria. My first degree was in EE (in another country), and the second in CS, so chemistry is not something I know much about, and I’m also usually overly cautious (about getting Honors-merits in this case). Leaving UMass and CWRU on the list. BU (I think) has a very strong biomedical engineering (I thought biomedical & biochemical would have some intersection but apparently it’s very different from what he wants to do).

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@Mastadon would you advocate for the UMASS program? My DS has been accepted. Or would you pay $15K per annum more for WPI??

9

My D faced a similar choice - also ChemE - and similar stats to your S. She’s now at RPI as they offered the most generous aid (cheaper than in-state tuition in the end). Your son likely to get good aid there as well. Very rigorous academics and has a very good reputation in the industry and grad schools. Very nerdy student body. She likes it there.

She also applied Cornell, and Rice (waitlisted at both). Rice meets full need and has a great engineering school - perhaps one to consider for your S. She got into CMU as well but RPI offered her more aid so chose RPI. She didn’t apply to any of the others on your list (she didn’t want to go to a large public college and was “scared” of MIT :), instead she filled up the rest with high reaches - Stanford, Chicago, Princeton, Penn - which in retrospect wasn’t the smartest approach.

Your list looks well balanced - my only suggestion would be to consider adding Rice and/or CMU as reaches. Also Chicago a very interesting new molecular engineering program which my daughter liked (but she didn’t get in (waitlisted))

I’d say BU is a safety for your son. RPI and WPI as well. WPI is good as well - could be worth applying to in order to compare/negotiate aid packages? But I’m pretty sure he’ll get into BU, RPI and NWU.

CMU is another good choice - not as generous as aid, but might work for you (we needed A LOT of aid). Your son is in range (CS is impossibly selective but engineering less so). Also, I later discovered that CMU matches fin-aid for its “peer” institutions which includes RPI (but by then my D had lost interest in CMU).

10

Hi insanedreamer, thank you for your story and reassurance! I actually was against applying to high reaches (not just because of the application fee of course), and now I feel guilty but it’s too late - yesterday my son told me their school sends the package in the mail, so he can’t add schools to the list before 1/3 which is after application deadlines. I had been under impression that it’s done by one click… Anyway, we visited RPI and liked it, I guess it’s just the fact that his friends got early into Yale, Harvard, JH makes me feel guilty. Although I never said No to applying, I did not support that either. Thank you again!

11

@aandaparent I understand the comparison with his other friends, but it looks you are applying to Cornell and he has a shot at getting in, and if he does, it’s a better choice than Yale or Harvard for engineering (as is GaTech). Even RPI is arguably as good/better for engineering than Harvard/Yale (minus the prestigious name/network).

12

FYI:
Found the following on the WPI website. The latest data available was for 2015.

104 students graduated with BS in Chemical Engineering in 2015.
54 were employed by 54 different companies including Exxon Mobil, IBM, Naval Surface Warfare Center, DOW…
28 went to graduate school. The graduate schools were:
Case Western Reserve
Michigan State University
Northwestern University
Texas A&M
Tufts University
University of Alabama
University of British Columbia
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
University of Michigan
University of Notre Dame
University of Rhode Island
University of Texas
Vanderbilt University
Virginia Tech
Washington State University
WPI

There are 15 full time PhD students studying in the WPI CHEM ENG department.

Susan Roberts (WPI BS '92, PhD Cornell '98) was just appointed department head in Chemical Engineering. Most recently she was associate dean of the Graduate school at U Mass Amherst and director of the Institute for Cellular Engineering and the associated IGERT program at U Mass Amherst for the past eight years. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of health and the Glass Foundation.

Kristen Billiar (BS Cornell, MS & PhD in bioengineering from University of Pennsylvania) has just been appointed department head in Biomedical Engineering. Billiar is a Fulbright fellow and serves on boards of the ASME Bioengineering Division and the Biomedical Engineering Society and is associate editor for the Journal of Biomedical Engineering. His research is funded by the Whitaker Foundation, American Heart Association, National Institute of Health, National Science Foundation, and the department of Defense. He has been on the WPI Faculty for about ten years and has listed 60 published papers on his website which deal mostly with biomaterials.

WPI has seven research centers associated with materials engineering. Prof. Diran Apelian (Drexel '68, ScD MIT) has been honored as a Fellow in three different engineering societies and has published over 500 papers in the field. He heads a center which is one of the largest materials research centers in the world.

Interdisciplinary thinking is at the center of the WPI philosophy.

Graduate school placement, chemical engineering research, materials engineering and biomedical engineering are all very strong at WPI.

It might be helpful to explore the WPI website in greater detail.

Please excuse my verbosity, but I am a proud alumnus who worked explaining the “new” WPI Plan for ten years when it was first being developed.

Best of luck!