I’m shocked no one has posted this question. But I was accepted very early to Mines through their Golden Ticket application. I was going to just take Mines off my list because of the poor ratio of girls to boys (I think it’s 25/75). But now I expect to receive generous merit aid later this month making it hard to take it off the list.
When I toured Rensselaer in NY last spring the ratio was the same and every girl looked miserable (might have been the school too - yuck).
Can anyone offer any honest insight into whether it would be awkward and uncomfortable being a girl in a mostly boys only campus? I know its subjective, but I truly want my college experience to be memorable for all the right reasons.
Thanks.
Have you visited Mines? If not, I think the visit would set you at ease. I visited with my daughter, who is considering and was accepted, and had a female tour guide. My daughter felt comfortable and the tour guide talked about not feeling out of place. We know a female schoolmate who is there and just loving it. So I wouldn’t worry about the issue.
We also visited RPI and my daughter really liked that school. I think she’d pick PRI over Mines. We had a female tour guide who also set us at ease in terms of being a girl at RPI.
Mines is a great school and offers lots of outdoor activities. Also so close to Denver which is a great city (we’re from Colorado). You’ll have a memorable experience. Good luck!
Mines is a great school. I’ve been there a few times because I’m involved with a sorority, and the girls are all very nice, very smart, and involved. I met one from the volleyball team and another on the riding team. Back in the olden days when I was a student, we used to go to parties at Mines because it was only 10% female so they had to import girls. Three of my friends married guys from Mines.
My daughter goes to a tech school with a 25/75 ratio. She is on a sports team and joined a sorority, so has female friends. The ratio doesn’t seem that ‘off’ until you look at a picture of the RA’s (3x as many men!). Many of the women are the school leaders, presidents of the engineering societies, the student government, and other groups. The woman who was the president of D’s sorority was also president of the Mechanical Engineering fraternity, on the all-female jet car team, and received full scholarships for grad school to Columbia, GaTech, and two other schools.
Just tonight a friend called to ask about Daughter’s school. Her son was just accepted and he’s worried about the ratio - he wants a girlfriend! I will say that my daughter and all her friends who want boyfriends have them.
I think the ratio matters less than other factors once the ratio gets to 30% women. Your intended major will also then put you in classes with more girls or less girls depending on the major. RPI is much stronger in electrical engineering and computer science and physics than Mines. Mines offers no business college. RPI does. RPI has a nice breadth
including a fine school of architecture, but its location may turn off many girls as its isolated and Albany is not really a draw. SUNY Albany is there and several liberal arts colleges are in the area, and its really not that far to New York City. RPI also offers a theatre program. Its surprisingly broad for a techy school. Mines is good in geology, geochemistry, geophysics, petrolueum, chemical and mechanical engineering. Civil engineering and metallurgy are OK. You can do OK as an electrical engineer there. Applied math is good at MInes. So really study more about what industry you want to be part of , to find the best fit. If you are interested in petroleum, oil and gas, Mines is your pick. RPI does not offer much focus in the petroleum industry compared to Mines. MInes is also well connected to jobs in Texas and Oklahoma and well respected by that industry who regularly recruits there.
I would not worry about the Hudson River location and Troy New York as much as I would worry about what you want to do for your four years. If its earth science related, then Mines is your pick. If computers interest you, for sure, RPI is way way stronger. If its chemistry or physics, just depends a little as Mines does have a very nice connection to the wind and solar energy lab, DOE lab in Goldren, called NREL.
RPI has very strong biology, and does work out at Lake George in New York State. Mines is not focused on biology at all, although I guess you can major it it there. Lots of students drop out of Mines because they want to major in business and there is no accounting or business math offered yet. Mines seems likely to expand in the business side. With the downturn of the oil and gas industry, Mines may need to reinvent itself. Stay tuned. Both schools have similar rigor.
2017-2018 Merit Scholarship Charts are now on Mines website. What merit aid offers are being released in December?