Someone already mentioned Purdue University in Indiana. It is a top rated engineering school and it has a flight school. Several well known astronauts attended the University. Innovative school and the leadership is top-notch.
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Purdue is a great Engineering school , but has a really large enrollment, and is known for itâs rigor. They also overenrolled this year, taking well over a thousand more students than normal. A friend of S2âs is one of three jammed into a room meant for two. This might affect their acceptance rate next year, as I can see them taking way fewer students to alleviate the overcrowding.
I agree that itâs near impossible to give much in the way of advice if you canât narrow down the type of Engineering you want to study. ECE is very different from ChemE, which is very different from MechE. Schools do some better than others.
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Wouldnât over enrollment at Purdue mean that, if frosh engineering is over enrolled, secondary admission to engineering majors later could be more competitive for those students?
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That, too. I would guess that both scenarios would come into play.
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Alright! Thanks
Will consider! Thanks
In terms of the smaller private schools: Rice and WPI seem to meet a lot of your needs/interests. Rice in particular is known for friendly students, is LGBTQ+ friendly, very progressive/politics pretty commonly discussed, no Greek life (everyone is in a residential college), diverse, etc. WPI has a unique academic system - five 7-week sessions, I think, so that could be a pro or con. Both seem to care about their students and the school culture and environment. Dartmouth has a Greek system and is more isolated than Rice and WPI.
In terms of the large publics, they are probably going to be more similar to each other than they are different. So it would come more down to location, type of student who attends, what engineering programs they have. One thing to really look at (and this could apply to small colleges too) is whether you have to apply directly to an engineering major and then you are locked in (Cal Poly SLO and likely the UCs although Iâm not sure) vs whether you apply to engineering school and then have some period of time (1 or 2 years) to decide which program you want to major in (CU Boulder). Also, in engineering, if you go to a large public it probably wonât matter much which one you go to. So you should prioritize it being in a location that you think youâd like to live/work after graduation because unless it is UCLA, Berkeley, or another highly known large public, it will be easier to get a job in that state/locally than across the country.
As other have noted, you probably should do some narrowing down of your priorities. For example, one of my kids wanted a highly-academic, progressive, non-Greek, smaller size college, good humanities (and location was not important). One of my other kids could care less about politics, humanities, or whether there is a Greek system, but cares a lot more about location, that the students are not competitive with each other and arenât achieving 24/7, and ideally smaller size but open to larger. Both knew they wanted to do engineering but wanted a year to figure out what major within engineering they wanted or at least the flexibility to change their direction within engineering.
Good luck and know that there are a ton of great places out there for you so it will all work out in the end!
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Thanks for the advice!
You may have to clarify a little what you mean by a traditional engineering school, what you value in an engineering education, if you can. Would prefer hands-on or more theoretical or do you want a balance of both?
UCâs and Cal states admit by major to the College of Engineering so they really do not give you much time to explore different disciplines however, it is much easier to change majors within the College but not guaranteed.
Will consider! Thanks
Good point! Thanks