<p>Title question.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>bioengineering is lovely, top 10</p>
<p>and being linked to #3 med school / #2 research funding from nih helps</p>
<p>Depends on the engineering/science program you have in question. There are supestar departments (bioengineering) and a lot that could only be considered “decent”</p>
<p>In engineering, Penn is generally ranked 23th-28th according to US News. Per the NRC ranking (which at this point is 13 years old, but still considered higher quality than US News), Penn appears a lot stronger overall, especially in Materials Science, Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering [top 10 in all three fields].</p>
<p>Penn is particularly strong in interdisciplinary areas that aren’t the classic engineering majors such as mechanical, electrical, etc. Penn has world class offerings in nanotechnology, robotics, systems sciences, digital design, bioinformatics and certain areas of AI. I’d suggest Penn is top 15 in these areas (perhaps ranked 8-12 in these disciplines), but certainly not top 5. Outside of these fields, Penn has maintained an impressive strengths in materials sciences and bioengineering [definitely top 10].</p>
<p>In the sciences, in almost every ranking I’ve seen, Penn is not in the top 15. That includes biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, geology, etc. This is the most glaring weakness in Penn’s academic offerings. While Penn may be considered decent in the sciences, and generally just slightly behind Columbia, Yale and Duke among elite schools, it’s definitely a follower not a leader. Penn is probably slightly ahead of Chicago. The giants in the sciences among the elite schools are Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley, Caltech, MIT and to a lesser extent Princeton. Cornell is very very strong too.</p>
<p>Penn has great bio, microbio programs. If you are interested in research science or medicine, it is a great choice.</p>
<p>What about environmental engineering? And is it easy for Wharton students to take classes in a engineering course?</p>
<p>It is easy for students in ANY of Penn’s undergrad schools to take courses in ANY of the other undergrad schools–and a good deal of the grad schools for that matter.</p>
<p>One University policy. Live it. Love it.</p>
<p>Yeah, it is pretty easy to just take classes in more than one of the schools. I don’t know about double majoring between them though, I think that’s a lot harder. </p>
<p>Graduate engineering is where you REALLY need to look at a specific program. For undergrad, sure it’s important to go to a school known for good biomed/environmental engineering/etc. But your diploma is always going to say Bachelors in Engineering with a concentration in a certain field… where as for grad school it’s going to read PhD in Electrical Engineering or something like that.</p>
<p>For undergrad, I think it’s a lot more important to choose a school based on your “fit”, feel, and impressions of campus and the city, etc… while still paying some mind towards individually strong majors. But, undergrad is more about the cohesive picture. Wait until graduate school to really start analyzing strengths of various departments.</p>
<p>Penn does not have environmental engineering. (Or civil engineering, or aero/astro, or nuclear, for that matter). </p>
<p>Also, I respectfully disagree with keepitcoolidge in some form. The quality of your department matters a good deal when it comes to undergrad engineering. You don’t get a [Penn] Engineering degree, you get a [Penn] [Chemical, bio-, materials-, electrical-, computer science-] engineering degree. Obviously for undergrads, the strength of the whole institution is important (and Penn is obviously tops in that metric), but those individual engineering departments carry a lot of weight when it comes to applying to graduate schools (or not applying to graduate schools, because you may not need to!)</p>
<p>oh thanks. </p>
<p>But I wanted to know more about how easy it is for Wharton students to fit engineering courses in to their schedule? Will it mean a substantial amount of more work? (I would like to take engineering course just for the interest, not for a degree or anything at Penn)</p>
<p>It’s easy for Wharton students to fit an engineering course or two in their schedules. An engineering course is more work, and more difficulty, than a typical Wharton student is willing to undertake.</p>
<p>and they perhaps wouldn’t want to risk their GPA either.</p>
<p>what is the engineering coursework like in general?</p>
<p>lots of problem sets / assignments; midterms and finals</p>
<p>okay and how about difficulty? obv since it’s engineering it’s difficult, and esp at an ivy it’d be even harder, so can you describe its difficulty relative to all of that?</p>
<p>that’s kinda difficult to say… it’s more quantitatively rigorous, obviously, but since you’re often working in groups it’s not too bad</p>
<p>and though it may be “harder” than, for example, a liberal arts courseload, we have less reading and more calculations such that the amount of work may be the same</p>
<p>some classes are harder than others, too - right now, as a senior, i’d say my courses are “not that hard”</p>
<p>Those are some very general questions - anything more specific you’re curious about?</p>
<p>College is harder than high school in infinitely many ways. However, most people still survive it…</p>
<p>okay, well i guess i’ll give you a background on me:</p>
<p>i’m majoring in CBE. i excelled in ap chem jr year, got a 5 on the exam, prolly the 2nd best student in the class of like 40 (top kid is unbeatable in anything and everything… he’s a genius haha officially number one at chem in ct) but i know someone at yale who got an A in ap chem at our school, a 4 on the exam, but he’s got a B/C in gen chem right now. i think our ap chem was a little easier than many…</p>
<p>i’m in bc calc right now and have had the highest grade all year (ranging 95-99) of about 30 students. uconn called our book “too easy” to get automatic credit by taking that class, but yale uses the same book. anyway, again the kid i know did A-/B+ work in BC last year and is doing like low C work now (mind you he has only improved his study skills).</p>
<p>moral of the story, he’s freaking out bc he did so well in HS and now not nearly as well in college, which happens to be an ivy. i look at this as wow i’m doing basically as well as he did in HS, and i’m going to an ivy next year… so am i gonna do this poorly? i guess what i want to know is how ridiculous it’s gonna be and if i can graduate with a decent gpa.</p>
<p>also, sorry for all the info, but the guy’s roommate was gonna go into BME, but he’s not doing that well in calc either. his career advisor told him if he’s not doing that well in calc now, and has many more levels to go, he should consider a different major bc i guess a 3.0 in ivy engineering isn’t good… sorry if that makes me naive for thinking that isn’t too shabby</p>
<p>A 3.0 in ivy engineering is about the bare minimum where you can be satisfied. Anything less than that and you’ll be automatically rejected from almost all jobs, and while you may love engineering, that’s a frustrating position to be in. (Keep in mind, of course, that a higher GPA is better). </p>
<p>It sounds to me like you’re placing all of your predictions based upon this kid’s performance. He’s not you - don’t sweat it so much. </p>
<p>The adviser’s on to something. Intro level calc (in most programs) is one of the easier, more straightforward classes. He should evaluate why he’s not doing well in calc - as most engineering classes are heavily quantitative, and if you don’t have your study habits in good shape, you won’t survive.</p>
<p>HS and college require very different time management skills. You shouldn’t worry too much based upon this kid. Go into it with your chin up.</p>
<p>Well to answer OPs question, I dunno, but how do you define good and how do you define bad. All programs at top 250 colleges cover similar amount of material, some just have better research opportunities</p>