Good News for Prospective Harvard Engineers

<p>This article: </p>

<p>Harvard</a> Launches New Engineering School (Tech Talk)</p>

<p>speaks about the new engienering school that harvard has started, but more importantly this line made me smile</p>

<p>"and the greater autonomy that school status implies, Harvard engineering plans now to double the size of its faculty and student body."</p>

<p>I looked on the Harvard website and there are 105 engineering majors (17 African americans like me :)). So if we assume that each class has an even distribution there are about 26 engineering majors that matriculate in any given year. To double that means that there will be about 52 admited this year.</p>

<p>For any African-Americans, since there are 17 AA then that's about 6 enrolling per year, double means 12 this year. Those admission stats don't include those that are admitted and choose to go to schools like Stanford or MIT instead, which I would assume would have a high cross admit rate.
Obviously this is good news for any prospective engineering majors!</p>

<p>I just got a minuscule drop of hope! :)</p>

<p>The article was "posted by Bill Sweet on September 22, 2007 3:09 PM"</p>

<p>Hate to burst the bubble, but I think this was talking about the 07 - 08 year.</p>

<p>^^^Even if that is true, the college would still be looking to admit more engineering if they want to maintain a consisent number of engineering majors. I mean if they want to build the program up, then they are going to have to consisently admit a high number of engineering majors.</p>

<p>yay! that makes me happy. My chances just doubled! - from .5% to 1%!:)</p>

<p>I think it is fair to say that Harvard doesn't want to be second to any college in the strength of its engineering program, not even that Brand X college on the other side of Cambridge, Massachusetts, so Harvard will continue to put a big emphasis on its School</a> of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Of course, it's competitive to get into Harvard with any intended major, so a would-be Harvard engineer should still apply to other colleges, possibly including Brand X, and should prepare thoroughly during high school. </p>

<p>Good luck to this year's applicants.</p>

<p>It seems odd that yale and Harvard are starting schools of engineering the exact same year, but it better for us. I applied to both under engineering so hopefully it will be a boon come April.</p>

<p>
[quote]
It seems odd that yale and Harvard are starting schools of engineering the exact same year.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>What's even odder is that last year wasn't the first time that Yale and Harvard started schools of engineering the exact same year. Both the Lawrence Scientific School (Harvard) and the Sheffield Scientific School (Yale) were founded in 1847. Lawrence was eliminated as a separate entity in the early 1900s, after essentially ceding a lot of its energy to the recently established MIT, and Sheffield was folded into Yale College shortly after the end of WWII.</p>

<p>Pardon my cluelessness, but what exactly has changed at the two schools (Yale and Harvard)? They both already had engineering. Are they just taking more students and increasing there efforts in this area or is there something specifically new? D applied engineering to Yale (as well as MIT) but not Harvard. I think she disliked how remote it was at Harvard, like it was an afterthought. </p>

<p>Since she is straddling Biomedical/Biological engineering and Neuroscience/Biochemistry, she has applied to each school (all 10) according to what curriculum of that college/university matches her best. (She did not apply engineering to WPI or RPI either.)</p>

<p>Nothing much, really. They are acknowledging that they missed the boat by letting their engineering programs wither in the past, and elevating the status of engineering by giving it the status of a separate school (at the graduate level, not the undergraduate level), with a dean, a coat of arms, etc. They have both also hired additional faculty, raised new money, and built new facilities. All of that happened without calling their engineering programs "schools", but calling them schools helps market it. There may be some concrete advantages at the faculty level, e.g., I don't know whether establishing a separate school simplifies tenure procedures for junior faculty.</p>

<p>What does it mean to "apply engineering" to Yale or Harvard? Correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the definite impression that neither college has separate undergraduate admissions for its engineering school (unlike Columbia, Penn, Cornell). Students apply and are admitted to the college, and they can major in engineering or French literature as they see fit.</p>

<p>Sorry, on the application there is an opportunity to state intended major.</p>

<p>For Yale's supplement, she indicated Biomedical Engineering.
For Harvard's supplment, Biological Sciences.
For MIT's part II, Biological Engineering.</p>

<p>I forget that that is not really applying a particular way.</p>

<p>I agree with a previous poster that the biggest "advantage" must have been the applicants last year interested in engineering. Still, it might be a help but it will not guarantee admissions in any way just because you put down "engineering" as one of your interests. They will look to see you have a real interest in the field, based on ECs, essays, etc.</p>

<p>^^Yeah that is something ppl should consider as well. You need to have demonstrated interest in the sciences and engineering. For me both of my essays dealt with science and i have been invovled in scientific research every year since seventh grade, so it was logical for me to already be inclined toward a technological field.</p>