Help!!! LOTS of questions about Case!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Case Western Reserve University
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A couple of weeks ago I was accepted into Case’s School of Engineering. I wasn’t too serious about the school when I applied, but it’s quickly moving up the ranks (they gave me a lot of money). I plan on majoring in mechanical engineering and possibly minoring in a language. Here’s a long list of questions I have about the school and the engineering department. Any info would be greatly appreciated!
Does the engineering school have grade deflation?
Are the professors easily accessible/ nice people?
How hard is it to get accepted into the 5 year BS/MS program?
Are internships easy to come by? How about research?
How good are the career services?
Is it difficult to study abroad for engineers?
How would you describe the student body in 5 words?
Does Case do a good job at preparing students for the work force and grad school?
Is the mechanical engineering program solid or just average?
What’s your favorite and least favorite thing about Case?
Is there pressure to join Greek life?

Research opportunities and internships for undergrads is something they stressed a lot when I visited the campus. Is it really as easy to get involved with these things as they say?

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Go through all the pages of the case forum for some really good insight to life at case

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Many of your questions can be found at this helpful and fairly accurate link. I don’t think there’s pressure to join Greek life, and the research/internship opportunities vary by your major and interests, but seem like in engineering you need to be an upperclassman.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/case-western-reserve-university/1729119-a-definitive-objective-description-of-case-western-by-a-current-studen

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The link didn’t work.

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Does the engineering school have grade deflation?
Not really. They definitely don’t have grade inflation. Upper level classes are very difficult to get good grades in. However, I don’t think anyone is doing this intentionally. Case wants you to be well prepared graduates, so they give you tons of work and cover extraordinarily large amounts of material.

Are the professors easily accessible/ nice people?
Most of the professors are nice. All professors are required to hold office hours every week, so go to those if you want to talk to professors. Professors generally reply to emails quickly as well.

How hard is it to get accepted into the 5 year BS/MS program?
Not very. The gpa requirement is not that high. Getting in is more about being motivated than anything. If you switch majors ant any point, you probably won’t be able to do it. The program is a lot of extra work, so BSMS is not that popular.

Are internships easy to come by? How about research?
Neither is difficult. Finding research positions is more about putting in the work to find open labs. If you ask around enough, you can normally find a position relatively quickly. Many people find internships or summer research. This is also mostly about looking around. The career fair gets many people internships.

How good are the career services?
I have no clue.

Is it difficult to study abroad for engineers?
Yes. It’s possible, but normally means cramming classes into other semesters unless you’re going over a break. There are spring break, summer break and winter break study abroads. I would recommend this for an engineering student.

How would you describe the student body in 5 words?
overworked, stressed, kind, studious, nerdy

Does Case do a good job at preparing students for the work force and grad school?
Yes. Case literally puts all of its effort into doing this. This is why Case students have so much work all the time.

Is the mechanical engineering program solid or just average?
No idea.

What’s your favorite and least favorite thing about Case?
favorite- the people. People care about each other. Someone is always willing to help you.
least- the administration. They don’t care about students and only care about looking good and getting money. They often completely ignore students and make decisions that are detrimental to all students.

Is there pressure to join Greek life?
No. It’s really big on campus, but no one cares if you join or not. There are over 200 clubs on campus, so there is plenty of social options other than Greek stuff.

6

Thank you so much for the response!

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My son attends CWRU, majoring in physics and math, and several friends have children there in the Engineering college. From what I understand, engineering majors have the option of co op programs and good payed internships after sophomore year, with options to work on campus for CWRU professors starting in freshman year. It is easy to find research positions on campus in physics, engineering and even economics. My son is doing a project in econometrics this summer, with a grant he won from the university. My son joined a fraternity in the freshman year, it was not really a good fit, because it was focused on fund raising for buying a fraternity house, and now lives with a group of friends, in on campus housing, and really enjoying that more. He seems to have an active social life, without the fraternity. There are career fairs every semester. Its very easy to find low priced apartments if you work near campus in the summers. There very good art museums, a fantastic professional orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, right on campus, and students go for free to the art museum and can buy a very reasonably priced tickets for the orchestra. My son was able to win a grant to attend a leadership conference, all expenses payed, for three days at Annapolis in the sophomore year. He enjoys the other students, who are often from the midwest or east coast. He took a travel trip to Toronto in the freshman year, with other students, and the entire three day trip cost only $80, including the bus fair and hotel. CWRU sponsors trips to interesting cities, for fall break, and a spring trip as well. The art history, foreign language, music and English departments are all excellent, so you should find the language courses for your minor. My son really enjoys the film courses in the English department at CWRU.

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Mechanical; Engineering is top-notch.

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Does anyone know if there is anything like environmental engineering at case or anything to do with environmental sustainability/ sustainable energy?

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I’ve also heard that the tuition goes up each year. Is this true?

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tuition goes up each year at almost all colleges

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Tuition goes up every year.

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Does the engineering school have grade deflation?
I don’t think so. It doesn’t have grade inflation either.

Are the professors easily accessible/ nice people?
The professors really want you to succeed. They are friendly and even the biggest researchers will talk to you give great advice.

How hard is it to get accepted into the 5 year BS/MS program?
It’s easy. The GPA threshold is pretty low. One just has to fill out an application, pro forma really.

Are internships easy to come by? How about research?
Yes, professors are always looking to take students. It is readily available, even as a freshman. The SOURCE office is devoted to matching students to research, and the office will fund students for summer research projects.

How good are the career services?
They have a career fair that I have been to. They bring in a lot of companies. They offer other services, but I haven not used them.

Is it difficult to study abroad for engineers?
They have short-term programs for engineers. For example, taking engineering core courses abroad. This is something they recognize and are pushing for. THey want everyone who is interested to study abroadand have a goal of having a high percentage of students complete a study abroad experience. While it is hard for a full semester, they are working to make it easier. The Engineering office recognized employers, in this global age, want students who’ve studied abroad. This is an important goal of the University’s - get more students abroad.

How would you describe the student body in 5 words?
stressed, tired, carrying, happy, prepared.

Does Case do a good job at preparing students for the work force and grad school?
Yes, it is very well respected particularly among grad schools.

Is there pressure to join Greek life?
Not at all. A lot of people are, but you won’t be pressured. It’s a great way to get involved and meet people.

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Stressed and happy? Seems like the two emotions don’t co-exist well with each other.

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Could you explain what you mean by carrying?

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@book24 That looks like a typo. Based upon descriptions others give of Case students, I think that should read “caring.”

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I’m sorry, I was on my mobile device and just gotten back from a trip.

That was a typo, it should be “caring”
Happy and stressed were right. Stressed because the day to day work can be monotonous and overwhelming. However, there is a level of contentedness. People enjoy what they are doing - they work hard. They are friendly, (most) make time for fun activities. Despite the stressful day-to-day, people are optimistic and excited about their future.

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@cle4life - thank you for expounding further. It’s just that ‘stressed’ is a word I’ve seen associated with CWRU more than once. You would think that is not uncommon for students to be stressed but I don’t see it on the forums for the other universities we are looking at so it concerned me a bit.

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@singermom4 I’m speaking about the engineering school, and I think most good engineering curricula are demanding. Case is very well respected among the top graduate schools because they know Case is rigorous. They know the students have a good work ethic and will excel. Many people are involved in a lot of extracurricular activities, so your son can decide how busy (and stressed) he wants to be by regulating the extracurriculars.

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Does any have any specific insight into the mechanical engineering and/or chemical engineering program?