My son is considering Florida Tech (for ocean engineering) and Embry Riddle (for mechanical engineering) and would love to hear personal experiences with either. Costs are similar, so we are taking that out of the equation for now. Admittedly, the majors are different - he could go either way so I don’t think that’s going to be the deciding factor. He has visited both, and really liked both campuses - however, the tours were very different so it’s difficult to compare (FIT showed more of the overall campus, ER more of the engineering facilities). He’s very interested in hands-on project work; likes the more “tech” atmosphere; is unconcerned about the skewed male/female ratio; isn’t particularly interested in specific sports. A few things he is thinking about -
- Florida Tech’s campus was quieter, but they have a lot of international students so we were presuming that many couldn’t be on-site because of the pandemic. Is that typical?
- Both schools have a heavy flight/aerospace focus - do the students who are not in those tracks feel “out of the loop”? Particularly at ER - would he be the outlier?
- Looking at Forbes, FIT’s financial health is a bit of a concern - ER is on more solid ground (according to them). Any insights?
He is still considering a few other schools (not in FL - we live in the northeast) but these 2 seem to be going head to head in his comparison. Any experiences/comments on these are appreciated! Thx!
My daughter went to Florida Tech in civil engineering (I think that is the smallest department on campus). She never felt out of the loop. She knew a few of the pilots, but they really don’t interact all that much. Many of the pilots live in the extra housing in the Greek village, which is owned by the university and is about 4 miles from campus (and the airport is about 4-5 north of that).
She has a good friend who was in Oceanography, and I think one teammate was in Ocean Engineering. Both liked their programs. I get the alum magazine and it always has a lot of cool stories about swimming with turtles and manatees and projects in the Bahamas. Florida Tech does have a lot of international students (including athletes) and many of the dorms in the center of campus are considered the international village.
You may have felt the campus was particularly quiet but honestly, it’s never a wild place. You’ll see athletes out and about and Greek members playing games on the field across from campus, but there are some pretty serious students there. You’ll find them hanging around the Maker Spaces, in the labs working on cement canoes and lunar vehicles. Saturdays may be a little noisier, but Sundays they get back to work. The first time we toured, I saw a guy heading into the library on Sunday at about 11 am - with a 12 pack of Mtn Dew. Exciting!
ERAU is in the same athletic conference so there is a little bit of interaction. I think ERAU is more computers, mechanical engineering, cyber security. Florida tech has a big psychology (autism) section, more of the biology type things like oceanography, environmental engineering, biotech. Florida Tech makes a big deal of its astronauts (Buzz!) and I don’t know if ERAU does too.
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Thanks - that’s really helpful information. Both made a really positive impression on him, so just trying to help him weight it all at this point. I appreciate the insights!