<p>I posted a thread on the Stanford board asking how Stanford Engineering compares to MIT solely in terms of rigor. I would love to attend either Stanford or MIT but I guess a part of me is more keen on MIT. However, I'm smart enough to know that both schools are very hard to get into. I don't have SAT stats yet (haven't taken them) but I can definitely say I am much better at Math than anything else so i'm sure i want to do engineering (Aerospace to be exact). Anyway, I plan on also applying to a few public schools in case I don't get in. However, I would like to eventually attend MIT for grad school so my question is, how does MIT view the engineering undergrad academic preparation at the following Universities: </p>
<p>1) Georgia Tech
2) Michigan
3) Purdue</p>
<p>Please, don't quote USN&WR rankings. I just want to know how these schools are generally viewed by MIT. Please, try to be objective and don't say stuff like "They are crap compared to MIT". I just want to know that if i decide to go to one of these schools that I will be able to handle MIT as a prospective grad. student. Thanks a lot.</p>
<p>Someone will have stats on this, but I'm sure all those programs send at least a couple of students to MIT's grad programs. Have you considered Embry-Riddle (sp?) for aerospace?</p>
<p>Anyways, I don't have much to say, just wanted ta holla at ya.</p>
<p>Hi pebbles. Nice to meet a fellow aero/astro geek. I have actually been to down to Daytona and seen the ERAU campus. It's quite beautiful. The funny thing about ERAU is that I got the impression that is more of a school for pilots and aviation technology and there wasn't as much of a focus on hard-math/science aspects of engineering. This isn't a knock against the program, just my impression. Of course, I'd love to hear what you have to say about it.</p>
<p>Well, part of what attracted me to MIT is the opportunity to do so much more than just engineering. Sure, the engineering education will be top-notch, but I'm taking visual arts classes and poetry classes and doing dance and literary magazine and astronomy and... </p>
<p>yeah, you get the point. And I have friends with all sorts of interests whose only commonality is a love for some kind of science/math/engineering and a pinch of ambition. I know I'd miss that at a less rounded tech school. You'd have to make that judgment yourself :)</p>
<p>In fact, MIT is the only "...of technology" school I applied to for that reason. I'm a very physics-happy person.</p>
<p>Any undergraduate program could potentially prepare you for graduate life at MIT, so long as you push yourself really hard and take the most difficult classes available to you.</p>
<p>MIT undergrad aero/astro is notoriously difficult and time-consuming (hello, rocket science is hard), and the sophomore core class, Unified Engineering, covers all the material that some other schools cover in two or two and a half years. You could use sites like Open</a> CourseWare to ensure that your undergraduate curriculum is appropriate to prepare you for the graduate program.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your replies. I checked out Open Courseware and though i haven't taken differential equations or physics yet, it seems pretty reasonable if you are at that level. I'm still a junior so I have some time left. I'm very passionate about flight and engineering and know I want to at least get a Masters. Well, I guess I'll see how things go on the standardized tests. Of course, my dad is pressuring me to attend Purdue because he did his Ph.D Aero/Astro there. Of course, that is one reason i'd like to avoid the school. It'd be nice to go somewhere else like Michigan or GAtech.</p>
<p>If you truly want aerospace engineering, consider Embry-Riddle. They even have an airfield.</p>
<p>They do focus on quite a bit of aviation, but relevant field work is great.</p>
<p>To answer your question, I think all of those schools are fine for undergraduate. MIT won't look down on their caliber. In fact, they may be better than MIT for undergraduate if your goal is MIT for grad school (because of GPA and recommendations).</p>
In fact, they may be better than MIT for undergraduate if your goal is MIT for grad school (because of GPA and recommendations).
[/quote]
Nah. The recommendations certainly aren't difficult to get -- the undergrad aero/astro program is pretty small, and I know my boyfriend (who's a junior) is very close with several faculty members and has been able to participate in the department's research every term he's been here. He goes flying (RC airplanes) with his favorite faculty buddy pretty frequently, and went to a conference to fly with another faculty member last summer.</p>
<p>A course 16 student who's applying for the masters program in aero/astro isn't going to have his or her GPA scrutinized as carefully as someone coming from an outside school -- after all, the admissions committee members probably all know the student personally and know what he or she is capable of, something that's not well-described by GPA.</p>
<p>(This is actually an area of very strong current interest for me -- I need to decide on a PhD program by April 15, which basically means that Adam has to decide by then where he's going to do his masters, even though it's a year early... :))</p>
<p>
[quote]
To answer your question, I think all of those schools are fine for undergraduate. MIT won't look down on their caliber. In fact, they may be better than MIT for undergraduate if your goal is MIT for grad school (because of GPA and recommendations).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I highly doubt that that last sentence is true. If anything, there is strong home-court advantage at MIT. They say that the easiest way to get into MIT grad school is to go to MIT for undergrad and never leave. When you're an MIT undergrad, your most important part of your application to MIT grad school is going to be your faculty rec's, because, like mollieb said, everybody knows each other. If an existing current faculty member at MIT strongly endorses a particular MIT undergrad, that's probably going to override any other objections. And like mollieb said, faculty rec's are fairly easy to get at MIT.</p>