Hands on vs theory

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

WPI in MA says it has a very hands on project base
undergrad program. Compared to more traditional
engineering programs is this something to weigh heavily
in undergrad school selection? Think my son is
very hands on and would enjoy. Just not sure
if it’s common and just better advertising by WPI,
or most eng schools do same ?

Others visited such as RPI, local state universities,
local liberal arts colleges that have small engineering
departments (Union NY, and some more famous selective ones).

Just wondering if WPI is unique, and if so,
worth going over a possibly more competitve
nationally known school (or cheaper state school) ?
Also in the mix, athletics, but will leave that aside
for now, want to make sure a good academic choice
is made. Kids has grades and athletic skills
that may allow a more famous school or
entry to competitve/inexpensive state schools.

2

Even if a college’s program doesn’t focus on hands on projects in the classroom, most students join project-based clubs outside of class (SAE, ASCE Steel Bridge Competition, Robotics club, etc.). Look to see what extra-curricular teams are on campus and how active they are. These competitions are great because sometimes during events you can network with other schools competing with you and meet more people outside of your immediate area.

3

WPI is a unique program, for several reasons. First, there’s the project based learning. As @Seirsly said, you can get “hands on” experience in other ways, but at WPI it’s part of the curriculum. It’s like having three capstone projects instead of one. What’s often looked over at WPI is the schedule. Terms are 7 weeks and you only take 3 classes at a time. They also offer a unique travel abroad program. For a 7 week term students can work on an engineering project in others places around the globe. WPI has many ongoing projects all over the place. Last and maybe most important, students seem very happy there.

It isn’t ranked super highly, but that’s partly because they were moved from regional to national recently. Rankings aren’t really that important though. You might encounter a snob here or there who looks down because you didn’t attend a big name grind university, but for the most part their engineers are widely respected.

Maybe @HPuck35 can chime in. He’s very familiar with WPI.

4

OK, I’ll chime in. My daughter graduated from there in 2014 with a degree in mechanical engineering. It was very much a good “fit” for her. She likes the hands on work but isn’t a real mechanical tinkerer type. She also liked the size of the school; only around 3500 students (grad and undergrad).

All engineering schools are hands on to some extent. You need that experience to be a good engineer. WPI is probably a little more hands on (i.e. in the lab type hands on) than most, but not by a lot. Where the real hands on is the project work. There are freshman seminars that feature trying to solve real world type problems, albeit in the classroom. Those seminars are not required but you are encouraged to take one.

There are two required projects; typically during your junior year, you work on a term long project that is outside your major. My daughter did her project in London studying the public transit system and how to increase ridership, make the system more efficient, etc. She was part of a 6 or so person group doing the project. There were several other WPI project going on in London at the same time. They all lived in the same student housing and there was a professor and his wife that watched over them (loosely) while they were there. They would go on group trips and got to see quite a bit of the local countryside. Not cheap but well worth it IMHO. One of DD’s roommates did her project in New Zealand and the other did hers around Worcester.

Her major project was a joint one between the ME department and the materials department. It was perfect for her as she minored in materials. They ended up publishing their final report in a scientific journal. That group was about 4 students and a professor/advisor.

Cost wise it is a more expensive school, sticker price wise. DD did get a merit scholarship that paid a good chunk of the tuition. My son went to a state school and had to go 5 years because of class availability issues. He was also in mechanical engineering with a specialization in mechatronics. Tuition was much cheaper for him, but he got no scholarship and went the extra year (and living expenses weren’t cheap where he went to school). It ended costing me less to send DD to WPI as she did graduate in 4 years (and could have graduated a term early but her apartment was already rented thru the end of the school year and so the delta cost to stay wasn’t that much and she got to get some extra classes in).

DD also liked WPI’s odd schedule. There are 4 seven week terms, thru the September thru May school year, with at least a weeks break in between. You come home with no assignments hanging over your head and can really relax and unwind. Gets you in a good mood for the net term.

And as eyemgh says, the students there always seem quite happy. Lot to be said for that.

5

WPI has an excellent reputation for project-based learning. From what I’ve heard, there would be more scholarship money from WPI than RPI, especially if student is a NMF. Both are STEM schools, great if that’s the right fit.

What are you in-state options? They often are the most cost effective choice.

6

Thanks all.
We do have some great in state schools that would save us
some money. Also looking at private schools because some
of them are considering my S for their Athletics.
WPI, RPI and a couple of liberal arts schools with ENG,
are D3 division schools and have engineers on teams.
D1 schools usually have few if any ENG due to the
larger commitment if time (more travel). Our state
schools with ENG are all D1 athletic schools.
Under consideration but not for sports.
My son loves both STEM and sports and wants to
do both if possible. Eas tough even in HS, doing FIRST
ROBOTICS and varsity sports. FIRST is where he realized
he likes hands on learning and engineering.

7

If he ends up a D1 w/o official sports, encourage him to find some kind of club/rec team. It is good for ENG students, especially those used to sports team activity, to keep moving in college. The brain works better with physical activity too.

8

I would say that many of the [url="<a href=“http://theaitu.org%22%5DAITU%5B/url”>http://theaitu.org"]AITU[/url] schools (of which WPI and RPI are examples) have the same characteristics: small size, strong engineering programs, hands-on experience built into the curriculum, and D3 sports. As an example, my university, Illinois Tech has the [url="<a href=“http://ipro.iit.edu/%22%5DIPRO%5B/url”>http://ipro.iit.edu/"]IPRO[/url] and Olin does a lot of these same things too.

9

If Lafayette, Union or Bucknell are in the mix, I’d encourage you to look at their respective curricula and course catalogues for engineering. I think you’ll find that WPI has much more to offer. I know WPI has better facilities (more labs, etc). We visited all of them before our son made his final choice. If you haven’t visited, you should if you can.

The beauty of D3 sports is that a student can walk away at any time for any reason and not suffer financially. As you already know, D3 can’t offer athletic scholarships.

I second what @colorado_mom said. No matter where he goes, physical activity of some sort is very important.

10

@blevine My daughter was in a similar situation - wanted to continue her sport at the D3 level. She could have gone to more well-known D1 schools, but preferred the smaller size of the D3 schools so went in that direction. It’s a very personal decision that has more to do with fit than prestige.

There is certainly a balance between hands-on and theoretical. In my opinion, you need a little of both to succeed over the long haul though there is a range of what works. You absolutely need the theoretical basis to progress up a technical ladder within a company. Some say you can pick up the hands-on aspect in your first job; but, that really depends on who you work for, how the work and training is structured for new hires, and what the expectation is. I have seen newly minted engineers who probably had a good handle on the theory, but couldn’t actually do the real work of engineering. It can be difficult to turn that around.

The knock against WPI is that it isn’t as theoretical as other engineering schools. The origin of that could be that so much time is spent on the two mandatory projects. However, most schools have a senior capstone project, I don’t see this as being any different. What is important is the quality of the project. Some are better than others. The additional project (besides the senior project) is the junior year interdisciplinary project, which is often done abroad, as mentioned by @HPuck35. You would have to balance the skills one would gain from such an experience with whatever the cost would be, whether it be one less class, less undergraduate research experience, etc.

I think the education at RPI is also hands-on, though some say it is less so than WPI. I don’t know if that is really true across all departments.

I have worked with some terrific WPI engineers, each of whom had a very good theoretical foundation and could hit the ground running. They have been strong contributors throughout their engineering careers. Both WPI and RPI students get into excellent grad schools and/or are well-employed after undergrad. RPI is definitely better known outside of the Northeast.

I second the suggestion to really look closely at what is offered at a Union College or Lafayette. I understand it is attractive to some to attend an engineering school in a Liberal Arts environment. However, any accredited engineering program will require a certain amount of math, physics, chem, etc. Engineering is very structured. So, there isn’t that much flexibility to take many outside courses,although the quality of the liberal arts courses at a Union would probably be stronger than at RPI/WPI. The Mech E department at Union is good, but small. This means there are probably fewer upper level courses offered on a regular basis. You would need to compare the undergraduate catalog at the various schools you are considering to see what is available at the upper levels.

11

Even at the D3 level, sports can be quite competitive and take some time. I know several athletes (both at the D1 level and the D3 level) in college that were stars in high school but didn’t want to put the time in to do well in college. Not that they couldn’t have done well, but there were so many other things to do that interested them. Most still had fun with their sports at the intermural level.

I played D3 ice hockey in college (not at WPI). I found that I was so tired after practice that all my “nervous energy” was gone and I could do a better job just sitting and doing my studies. You also have to time manage much better to fit your sport and everything else in. I did enjoy the comradeship with my teammates and playing my sport. I still play hockey twice a week. I do recommend playing sports in college or at least find something to do outside the classroom that fits your passion.

12

Just heard from my son last night who graduated in May this year. He was relaying to me how he was able to call upon the knowledge that he gained working on his MQP (major qualifying project) at WPI in his new job as a software engineer. His co-workers were apparently surprised how much experience he already had working with certain technologies. I really am sold on the WPI approach.

13

To be fair, I had a similar experience calling on some of the practical knowledge I learned as an undergraduate at a school that is more known for having a pretty hefty dose of theory.

14

Wouldn’t all ABET-accredited engineering degree programs include a substantial amount of both theory and design projects in their required courses and curricula?

15

There is certainly a minimum amount of each of the two sides of the coin that are required for ABET accreditation (e.g. capstone projects and foundational courses), but programs seem to have a pretty large amount of leeway in determining how far in either direction to skew with electives or how many hands-on design courses to offer/require.

I will say that theory-heavy programs seem to be generally (though not universally) better preparation for graduate school. The two approaches seem to be more equal (each has its pros and cons) when it comes to preparation for working in industry, and which is better likely depends on the individual student and the specific job(s) in question.

16

From what I’ve read, I’m a fan of WPI approach. But no first hand experience, other than working with a fantastic WPI grad 30 years ago.

17

What’s a classic “theory heavy program”? I looked at the ME curriculua for UCB and Cal Poly and they don’t look that different. Cal Poly has labs for things that most other schools don’t have facilities for, vibrations for example. I guess those hours have to come at the expense of something else, but on the surface it seems like they get to have their cake and eat it too.

18

They are likely to be more different than they look based solely on the degree plan. It may come down to the content of individual courses and how individual professors tend to teach certain topics. A school like Caltech is likely to attract more theory-oriented people than a school like WPI even if their degree plans look quite similar (largely owing to ABET requirements, no doubt). That doesn’t say anything about the merits of each approach, just that the approach might be different without showing up in the degree plan.

As for a classic example of a theory-heavy program, I’d have to cite Caltech. Berkeley probably skews that way as well (as would most of the “top” programs that get their reputation largely from their graduate programs).

19

You are correct. I don’t understand why some people exaggerate this “hands on” vs. “theory” thing, as if there are major differences between schools… Any ABET accredited program is going to have a mix of both, but most of the work (85-90%) is going to be theory-based.

Will there be minor differences? Sure, but it’s not like we’re talking about 75% hands on at one school and 5% at another… the differences are usually small.

20

I remember reading (I forget where) that an early introduction to hands-on work ends up increasing the retention rate of students. It is nice to have something to put the “chalk and talk” into perspective.