<p>The title speaks for itself, folks.</p>
<p>I'm just interested in hearing opinions. I've gotten accepted to Rose-Hulman as well as Purdue. And I've applied to some other engineering schools.</p>
<p>I'm actually trying to find out the answer to this question, myself. I, too, have applied to Rose and many other top engineering schools, and I'm trying to get a general idea of where it stands.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, Rose has a very respectable reputation among all the top schools. I visited Cornell over the summer, and I got to talk with a Civil Engineering Professor over there, who was quite positive about the place. He said something like,"Oh, yes, Rose is one of the top undergrad engineering colleges in the world" and went on to say that many grad schools take Rose alumni.</p>
<p>I also got to talk with Roscoe L. Pershing, who, at the time, was the Associate Dean of the college of engineering (and I'm sure you know that UIUC is a great engineering school). He, too, was very positive about Rose and my other choices: Ga. Tech, Cornell, Rice, CMU. He said that any of those schools would provide an excellent education.</p>
<p>Let's look at it from another point of view. Every single one of these top colleges is ABET-accredited. ABET is an engineering organization that basically decides what the cirriculum should be for a given engineering major, and if a school is ABET-accredited, then it'll usually provide a great engineering education. In all honesty, you're pretty much learning the same stuff at these different schools, just in slightly different ways and perhaps with different focuses, difficulty levels, or depths.</p>
<p>To be honest, you could probably go to any of the top 20 engineering schools in the nation and get an amazing education. Rose has been ranked by the US News as number 1 for six years in a row in undergraduate engineering among colleges who don't offer Ph.D's. My dad has talked to some alumni from Rose, and they all enjoyed their stay. And you'll hear different things from different people. One guy my dad talked to has two sons: one went to Ga. Tech, the other went to Rose. The son at Ga. Tech seemed to have an easier course load, from what he gathered.</p>
<p>I think, all in all, you need to weigh some of the other factors besides reputation, such as size, location, majors offered, financial aid, etc. </p>
<p>And please take all of this with a grain of salt. I'm merely a high school senior, and some of what I say might be a bit off. I do wish you good luck with your choice, though! I know that I, personally, am about 75% sure that I'm going to Rose. If I get some financial aid, I'm definitely going.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>i think the social life at Rose is pretty bad though. Male/Female ratio is like 70/30.</p>
<p>And that is one of the factors that a prospective student must weigh. I, personally, don't care too much about a very active social life. As long as I can find a group of 3 or so good friends, I'm usually set. I'm not too anxious to meet girls in college, for I'll be spending too much time studying (engineering is impossible). It's just another factor. It's important for some, but not important for others.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info there, y2kwizard. I never knew about the ABET accreditation before.</p>
<p>I'm going to Rose-Hulman next week for a visit. (never been there before, I admit) Hopefully I might get something out of it.</p>
<p>I think you'll like the visit. When I visited, the tour was EXTREMELY personal. We took our tour with only one other family (though there were about 6 or 8 visiting that day), and the info session was with one of the main admissions people and that one family. The students are quite quirky...my guide was a Civil Engineer who was a bit obsessed with pushing his dorm building over the others.</p>
<p>Don't be afraid to ask a lot of questions. They love them.</p>
<p>Have fun! I hope you'll have something to say about it afterwards.</p>