For aerospace engineering: Notre Dame or top ranked school?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi,
I know the big decision is a long way off, but I am just asking this question hypothetically assuming I get into the colleges that I am applying to (which is a pretty fair chance anyways).</p>

<p>First of all, I want to major in aerospace engineering. I am applying to many of the top ranked aeropspace engineering schools such as MIT, Michigan, Purdue, Stanford, and Princeton. I am also, however, applying to Notre Dame, which is not near the top.</p>

<p>I have grown up loving Notre Dame. I was fed as a baby wearing a "Future Domer" bib. My father went to Notre Dame for computer science and loved it. Notre Dame is the school that I always told everyone that would listen that I would go to, even before I knew what I wanted to major in. I have visited Notre Dame many times (yes, even not on game days) and I love everything about it. I love its atmosphere, the housing concept, the campus, the service opportunities, the sense of community, and of course, the football and intramurals.</p>

<p>That is not to say that I do not like the other schools that I am applying to. I have, of course, visited these schools, and I do like them a lot. I love MIT. It's program is top-ranked and I adore Boston. Michigan is also a wonderful and welcoming school. As is Princeton. But none of them will ever be able to take Notre Dame's place in my heart.</p>

<p>I do, however, want to get the best education possible in aerospace engineering. I do not want to lose opportunities for internships, career placement, experience, etc. I do not want to put my future chances into jeopardy by choosing Notre Dame over a top-ranked school in aerospace engineering. In other words, I don't want to be "behind" others in my future field. </p>

<p>To sum it up: I am torn. I love Notre Dame and would be sad to give up my 18-year-long dream, but my future is (hopefully) longer than 18 years and I want a good education and receive the best opportunities possible.</p>

<p>Any thoughts (or knowledge/experience)?</p>

2

<p>Your best bet would be the AE program at your flagship state university. In Mechanical and Aerospace engineering the state school are held in higher regard than most private engineering colleges. If you live in Michigan, Iowa, California, Washington, Indiana or Virginia for example, you’re in luck. There are excellent and highly ranked (if that’s important to you) AE programs at public universities in those states. It’s likely that you would be fine with a B.S. from Notre Dame, but the reputations of schools in the states I mentioned are superior to UND.</p>

3

<p>^A prime example of a preachy answer that doesn’t actually answer the question.</p>

4

<p>I am also in a similar predicament.</p>

<p>From everything I can gather, even though Notre Dame may not be ranked particularly well as an engineering school, the alumni network + overall reputation of the school seem more than sufficient to get you into either great job or graduate school, whatever you aim to do post-graduation. I know of at least one person at Notre Dame (he was giving my family and others a campus tour) who transferred from Yale (and was accepted to Stanford, MIT, Princeton, et cetera) to Notre Dame after his first year. He was a biomedical engineering student. </p>

<p>I would say go to Notre Dame- it may not be “the best of the best” for engineering, but it has so much more to offer that makes it more than worth it. Your long-term goals would hardly be affected, if at all.</p>

5

<p>You need to better employ your reading comprehension and critical thinking skill, Ghostt. The OP said “…I want a good education and receive the best opportunities possible.” And I replied in part “…It’s likely that you would be fine with a B.S. from Notre Dame…” with the caveat that there are Colleges of Engineering that have a stronger reputation than the ENGR program at UND. And that’s true of ENGR departments at many state research universities. How is that preachy? Enlighten me.</p>

6

<p>Fortunately, ND does have a fairly detailed career survey:</p>

<p>[Career</a> and Internship Data // Career Center // University of Notre Dame](<a href=“http://careercenter.nd.edu/about-us/career-and-internship-data/]Career”>http://careercenter.nd.edu/about-us/career-and-internship-data/)</p>

<p>With aerospace engineering results:</p>

<p>[Aerospace</a> Engineering // Career Center // University of Notre Dame](<a href=“http://careercenter.nd.edu/about-us/career-and-internship-data/future-plans-data/aerospace-engineering/]Aerospace”>http://careercenter.nd.edu/about-us/career-and-internship-data/future-plans-data/aerospace-engineering/)</p>

7

<p>Here is some info on Michigan:</p>

<p><a href=“http://career.engin.umich.edu/annualReport/Annual_Report0910.pdf[/url]”>http://career.engin.umich.edu/annualReport/Annual_Report0910.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;