How to find good engineering schools without us news

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I've concluded that usnews is BS and am, rethinking how I want to find good engineering schools to apply to. I've based most of my choices on this <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1213609-usnwr-2012-best-undergraduate-engineering-programs.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1213609-usnwr-2012-best-undergraduate-engineering-programs.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I only have a very vague idea of what school i want to apply to, these are basically my only requirements.
1. Southern California public school or private school anywhere, LAC, regular, whatever.
I'm a Northern California student, but i want to go to somewhere new. I don't think OOS public schools have good enough financial aid.
2. 75% ACT of 29 or higher. ( Any lower and it's way lower than a safety for me )
3. Has engineering and is good at it. </p>

<p>Here's a list of 32 schools i have compiled. Most of them are reaches but when I narrow it down for the application process it will be more balanced.</p>

<p>I left out a few notable colleges for personal reasons ( Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, All tech schools that are 65%+ male, some very religious colleges )</p>

<p>Cal Poly ,UCSB, Lafayette, Loyola Marymount, UofSanDiego, UCLA, UofVirginia,Bucknell,Lehigh,UniversityofRochester, TrinityUniversity, Brown
California Institute of Technology, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, MIT, John Hopkins, Harvey Mudd, Swarthmore, Tufts, Northwestern, Princeton, Rice, Penn, USC, Vanderbilt, WashU
Yale</p>

<p>How do I go about looking for more colleges that are good in engineering? Either listing some that you think I should consider or giving me advice on how to differentiate great engineering colleges from the average</p>

2

<p>Go to ABET.org and check the list of accredited programs. All will be perfectly good. Some will be better than perfectly good. There are no bad accredited programs in engineering.</p>

3

<p>Some OOS publics do offer good merit based aid. For that, see the threads on merit aid at the top of the Financial Aid forum.</p>

4

<p>Not considering any with more than 65% male is going to limit you, unless the engineering school is part of a bigger university.</p>

5

<p>One thing I’d look for in addition to whether they have an engineering school that is good or great is what kinds of programs and supports they have for women engineers. USC has WISE, that has graduated many women engineers. The year our S graduated in 2010, ALL the top engineering awards went to women! I believe the WISE program is quite supportive of women. </p>

<p>You may wish to ask any women (and men) engineers you know where they got their degrees and any insights they have about their Us and any programs they specifically have to support women in engineering.</p>

6

<p>Are you a junior or senior?</p>

<p>what are your stats?</p>

<p>How much will your parents pay?</p>

<p>I don’t think OOS public schools have good enough financial aid.</p>

<p>Well, they don’t have good need-based aid, but some have big merit for strong stats.</p>

7

<p>*June of Freshman year, 0 studying except finding out how the format works:
Got a score of 29
June of Sophmore year, about 2 hours of studying in the two nights before the test:
Got a score of 31</p>

<p>I will take my next ACT on February 8th next year. I’d like to get up to at least a 34, preferably a 35, and i certainly wouldn’t mind a 36. If I get a 35 or 36 i won’t bother taking it again but if i get a 34 or under ill probably give it another ago in June or the fall of senior year. I have 82 days until that test date and 11 weekends. I don’t really understand how to study or what’s worth studying. Obviously at this stage a valid answer wouldn’t really be pay attention in class or to read more books.*</p>

<p>Ok, it looks like you’re a junior who currently has a 31, but with potential for higher.</p>

<p>Right now, Alabama would give an eng’g major with your stats free tuition plus 2500 per year.</p>

<p>It’s 75th percentile is an ACT 31+, but it still would be a safety for you since you would get accepted. </p>

<p>Bama has very good eng’g. All of its eng’g disciplines are ABET accredited. Fabulous facilities.</p>

8

<p>Within the scope of ABET accredited engineering majors, consider your preferences:</p>

<ul>
<li>Kinds of engineering majors offered, and ease/difficulty of changing major if you are undecided.</li>
<li>Course offerings and curriculum, including elective choices within your major and out-of-major elective space.</li>
<li>Location near employers hiring for your kind of engineering.</li>
<li>Research opportunities if you are considering going on to PhD study.</li>
<li>Net price after scholarships and financial aid.</li>
<li>Non-academic school preferences.</li>
</ul>

9

<p>What makes you think that US News report rankings of Engg colleges are BS? Do you have engineers in your family/friends/teachers to guide you otherwise? </p>

<p>There are tons of info (if you do not have direct influencers) on the web to for you to make a call. My only suggestion - drop the idea of going to a LAC to do Engg. if you are serious of following Engg. as a profession. I am from the Lehigh Valley area and am totally aware of folks who go to schools like Lafayette and Bucknell…Lehigh is a much better choice. As WSJ has already mentioned a while back, school name does play a big role.
[Engineers</a>, Accountants Say School Matters - WSJ.com](<a href=“Engineers, Accountants Say School Matters - WSJ”>Engineers, Accountants Say School Matters - WSJ)</p>

<p>Here are some sites for more info that can help you to decide:
[Top</a> 100 universities for Engineering and Technology 2013-14 - Times Higher Education](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013-14/subject-ranking/subject/engineering-and-IT]Top”>Subject Ranking 2013-14: Engineering & Technology | Times Higher Education (THE))</p>

<p>[Academic</a> Ranking of World Universities in Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences - 2013 | 2013 Top 100 Universities in Natural Sciences and Mathematics | ARWU-FIELD 2013](<a href=“http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldENG2013.html]Academic”>http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldENG2013.html)</p>

<p>[Best</a> Schools for Engineering Majors - College Salary Report](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2014/best-schools-by-major/engineering]Best”>http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2014/best-schools-by-major/engineering)</p>

<p>[School</a> Rankings by College Major ? Job Recruiter Top Picks - WSJ.com](<a href=“School Rankings by College Major – Job Recruiter Top Picks - WSJ”>School Rankings by College Major – Job Recruiter Top Picks - WSJ)</p>

<p>Good luck !</p>

10

<p>Also, reconsider your outright rejection of schools with a gender imbalance. Those are the ones that might offer you the best merit aid since they are always trying to change their gender ratios! And many of them have great programs to encourage women in STEM fields.
You may want to research them a little more and add a few to your list.
WPI is a good example - [Undergraduate</a> Admissions: Women - WPI](<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/admissions/undergraduate/perspective/women.html]Undergraduate”>http://www.wpi.edu/admissions/undergraduate/perspective/women.html)</p>

11

<p>*What makes you think that US News report rankings of Engg colleges are BS? Do you have engineers in your family/friends/teachers to guide you otherwise? *</p>

<p>I can’t speak for the OP, but the truth is that those rankings are somewhat meaningless for most prospective eng’g students. </p>

<p>We see kids falling over themselves looking for Top 10 eng’g schools as if that’s really meaningful. </p>

<p>This country has 50 states. 10 schools cannot even begin to provide enough eng’rs. They’re providing a drop in the bucket. </p>

<p>And when the focus is on “top ranked programs” it ignores the obvious fact that there are over 100 very good programs. The state of Calif has over 25 very good eng’g programs alone…and then there’s the other 49 states! </p>

<p>Nearly every state has a few very good programs. </p>

<p>Plus, when people look at rankings, they think it’s a strict ranking of how good the program is in the classroom…but it’s not. </p>

<p>So, that’s why the rankings are somewhat worthless.</p>

12

<p>Yes, in engineering, I also don’t see the wisdom of leaving out any colleges that are over 65% male. I’m a woman too and I understand wanting to be around women, but 65% seems like such an arbitrary number. Colorado School of Mines comes to mind, for example, but it’s 73% male - but I’m not sure that 65% is qualitatively different than 73%? (It’s also a public university, but may offer some merit aid.)</p>

<p>I also wouldn’t limit schools solely on the basis of ACT scores, as there are other things about a student’s package that make them competitive. ACT scores will cease to matter once you’re actually in classes with everyone, as they are only moderately correlated with first-year GPA, and ACT scores alone is not a good way to measure the academic value of your classmates Besides, you want to apply to some places in which you are in the top 10-25% of applicants because that raises your chances of getting some meirt money.</p>

<p>Iowa State University is another public OOS university that offers good financial aid and has good engineering programs. I also agree with the suggestion of Alabama. Alabama’s middle 50% range is 22-30, which means that you may be eligible for some of their automatic merit scholarships. Purdue is also an excellent engineering school with some decent scholarships for OOS students (their biggest one is $12-16K pear year for nonresidents, and they have another that’s $5-10K per year). Indiana University (another excellent engineering school) also has a variety of OOS scholarships, including the Wells Scholars program (a full ride).</p>

<p>i012575, do you have any reason for your suggestion that OP drop the idea of going to an LAC for engineering?</p>

13

<p>Some more tools for researching engineering programs:</p>

<p>Here is a search engine for sorting engineering programs based on many different parameters. It also has information on each school (check dates as info for some schools is older) I set the search criteria to programs with a high percentage of women. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.findengineeringschools.org/Search/Demographics/highest_percent_women_BS.htm”>http://www.findengineeringschools.org/Search/Demographics/highest_percent_women_BS.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>One might argue that an area of research that would have a high impact on undergrad engineering programs would be ”how to teach STEM courses more effectively”. Surprisingly, there are only a few schools in the world that have Phd. programs in this area. </p>

<p><a href=“engineeringeducationlist [licensed for non-commercial use only] / Engineering Education Departments and Programs (Graduate)”>engineeringeducationlist [licensed for non-commercial use only] / Engineering Education Community Resource;

<p>Here is a list of engineering teaching award winners (at the international level) . Click on recipient.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/undergraduate”>http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/undergraduate&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Here is a list of STEM mentoring awards (at the national level)</p>

<p><a href=“President Obama Honors Outstanding Science, Math, and Engineering Mentors | whitehouse.gov”>http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/11/15/president-obama-honors-outstanding-science-math-and-engineering-mentor-0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“NSF - Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) Active Awards | NSF - National Science Foundation”>NSF - Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) Active Awards | NSF - National Science Foundation;

14

<p>My daughter also did not want to be at a school which is mostly male. I don’t see any reason to apply to tech schools if that environment doesn’t suit you. There are still more good engineering programs housed in Universities than you could possibly apply to, and you can get generous aid at some of them. Engineering is one of those majors which seems to have a high weed-out. In addition to that, for whatever reasons, there are relatively few women completing engineering programs. It’s always possible that you will be one of these statistics. Or want to be one. I like the idea of my daughter being at a school where she will complete an engineering program because it’s what she wants to do, and that if she changes her mind about it for whatever reason, she will be able to pursue other, entirely different, opportunities at her school.</p>