How to pick an engineering school?

College Search & Selection
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We’re still waiting for some decisions to come in, but it’s looking like my DS is going to be in a good place in terms of acceptances. He’s already got a good handful to choose from, and he doesn’t know how to narrow it down so I was hoping for some suggestions for how I can help give him some tools to narrow down or things to think about or what have you.

To know:

  • He wants to be an engineer, probably civil, maybe not. He really doesn’t know so he’s very excited about schools that have some kind of first year program where you get to see all the engineering disciplines and sort of try them on.
  • But he’s also worried that what if he doesn’t stick with engineering, will the school have enough other choices? To know here, he has loved his humanities classes in highschool. He’s gotten fives on AP tests in English/History/Latin and tends to really enjoy his “social studies” type classes. He’s also done well in his math and science, and loves tinkering with things and building things and solving problems. Engineering seems like a good fit, but if it’s not, I could see him wanting something liberal-arts-y.
  • He plays a sport. Two of the schools he’s applying to (Lehigh and WPI) have the sport as a school team, and he’d likely make the team. The other schools have club teams - at some it seems ok, at others his high school team is likely better. He mostly plays for the comeraderie and fitness, but he really doesn’t like losing. At at least one of the schools on his list, the team would lose. A lot.
  • He’s not super into social things, but he likes people. He’s always been too busy with his sport to be really social, but I could see him enjoying a school with games and things to go to, although he’s not actively looking for that.
  • He will likely want to live on the East Coast when he’s done with school, so alumni networks or internship opportunities that are stronger in the East would be better.
  • He has a learning disability. He’s dyslexic. He’s able to manage it well, and reach out for help when needed, but a school where class sizes are reasonable and it’s expected that students will reach out to and work with professors would be good.
  • He goes to a very competitive high school. He’ll likely be successful academically at all the schools to which he’s applied. But I’d like him to not feel as stressed out all the time as HS has been for him.
  • Cost - we’ve gotten merit aid for all the schools for which it would be needed to make them feasible (with the exception of the one school we haven’t heard back yet where merit would be needed) so while cost isn’t the same for these, it’s also not a major factor.
  • Location - he likes the idea of being city-adjacent, or at least able to get somewhere to do/see something, but realistically, I don’t know how often that will happen. He also really liked campuses that felt like a real campus, where you knew you were there when you were on campus.

So - our choices (thank you to anyone still reading along here…)
He’s in at Pitt/Engineering, Case Western, WPI, Purdue and waiting to hear from Lehigh, RPI, and Va Tech.

He doesn’t have any one school that “spoke” to him when we toured (we’ve visited all but Purdue). Right now he’s sort of got a top three (Pitt, Case, Lehigh) with WPI a somewhat distant fourth (the whole “what if I don’t want to be an engineer” thing). Any suggestions for how I can help him figure out which of those might be the best fit?

Thank you! (Also to know, I’m a poli-sci person, I know nothing about engineering, recruiting for jobs, life paths etc. So I am totally unable to help him visualize if one school would better position him than another in that regard.)

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Congrats to your son looks like he’s already got great options!

My D is also interested in STEM (originally interested in engineering, but currently comp sci)
but also the humanities/social sciences, and has very similar wants as your son – strong STEM program, opportunity to explore the breadth of STEM options, good non-STEM options, in/near a city, more collaborative than competitive students.

If you don’t have a few hours to read through my thread above your post (Undecided STEM Girl), just want to let you know that from your list, my D also applied to Pitt (SCI not engineering), Case Western and WPI based in part on recommendations from others here. She’s only gotten into WPI so far but like your son, the biggest concern is if she decides not to do STEM.

Hopefully your son will get a chance to visit and get to know the people and campuses better? There are tons of folks here who will be able to share lots of info and experience and I’m sure they’ll chime in shortly. :wink:

Anyway, just want to say congrats and good luck with the decision – sounds like he’ll be in a great spot whatever he chooses!

ETA: Oops just saw you have already visited most campuses. Did he say why Pitt, Case and Lehigh were his favs so far?

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Perhaps going back for admitted student days at his top picks might help bring some clarity.

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Thanks Chrisntine! He seemed to like different things about each of them. He really liked the access to the city for Pitt and Case. He liked the cost for Pitt (he got some merit aid there, bringing it down more). He really liked the size and the combination of liberal arts and engineering at Case and Lehigh. He really liked the athletic program at Lehigh (he would be on the D3 team for his sport there).

I’ll go check out your post and see what folks have to say. I am so new to this forum that I hardly know how to search, so it’s good to be pointed in the right direction - thank you!

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Our goal is to get to go back for admitted student days. The challenge is that he plays a spring sport. And it was cancelled his sophomore year for COVID and really really truncated last year. He wants one last good season and so really doesn’t want to miss much time. But I think we’re going to need to carve some out.

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WPI offers a lot of non-engineering majors. I’d have him look at those options. Then, I’d certainly make a trip to Purdue. After that, he’ll have to go with his gut. It’s a very well vetted list, with each school having its own strengths. No school is without flaws. He can’t go wrong. Good luck!

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Thanks for the pep talk eyemgh! He did a lot of advance work building his list, finding schools where he thought it would have what he wanted, and he’d be able to get in, and we could either outright afford it or he was reasonably likely to get merit aid. There were some schools he really loved from their online info, but they were either too far away or didn’t give merit aid (and were too costly). It’s nice for him to have choices, and to know that they are all good choices and that he can likely be happy at any of them. Of course, with choices comes the need to make decisions. :wink:

One of the challenges of WPI - in his head - was that our tour guide made kind of a joke about the non-STEM classes. Like they were sort of laughable, and then she told us how to get out and around having to really do classes that were more in the liberal arts vein. Which… just made my kid think that if that’s what he ended up interested in, is there really nothing more than a joke? And I don’t think that’s true, but her one off-hand comment really put a pall over the visit. Other than that, it was the school that really felt the most right to him. So I really want him to look at it again. Where I’m struggling a bit is that I can’t tell if I want him to look at it again because it’s the school I like best (it is) or because I think it’s really the best fit for him (I don’t know). And I’m trying to not overly influence his decision.

Either way, thank you for the vote of confidence in his list!

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My D applied to some of the same schools but choose Purdue. That said, if your son isn’t sure about engineering, I’m not sure Purdue or RPI are the best choices. For a possibly undecided student, I’d choose Case or Lehigh.

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Yikes, I hope you have a lot of time if you’re going to read my post! :joy: This is a shorter one I found helpful that gave a lot of similar feedback on schools: Non-stress culture engineering programs?

You can also just do a search with the school name and engineering and hopefully get some good info.

My D didn’t look into Lehigh but I’ve read good things about the school although I don’t know how well recommended it is for engineering versus the other schools on your list (the only negative feedback I recall was the surrounding area might not be great and it was hard to walk up the hills).

If he gets into Pitt Honors, I’ve heard that can help make the school feel smaller too?

That’s tough if he can’t attend Admitted Student days, but totally understand you’d want him to get that final sports experience as a senior since the last 2 years were so bad. My D hasn’t visited WPI and we were hoping she could attend their Admitted Students Day but looks like they conflict with robotics tournaments (which were also canceled the last 2 years :cry:). So we’ll probably try to visit another day and ask if she can sit in on classes or do other similar things to get to know the school better. Maybe you can do something similar on a second visit?

Also for WPI like eyemgh said I thought the non-STEM offerings seemed better than I initially expected, though not of the breadth or caliber of some of the others. I got some feedback on this issue here: Feedback on WPI

Your tour experience makes me so sad as we also love the WPI community so far. I get that you don’t want to overly influence your son but I’d hate him for him to walk away based on one tour guide. Maybe he can ask on the WPI reddit or other forums and chat more with current students?

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@chrisntine - it was almost funny. The WPI tour guide was, by far, the most engaging and interesting, and “like him” of all the tour guides we saw. But that one throwaway off the cuff paragraph is causing him grief. Maybe I’ll suggest he check out their reddit. He’s on some kind of accepted student group chat, so maybe that will help too…

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Thanks @momofboiler1 . I think he’s going to ultimately decide Purdue is too large for him and too far away, so it’s probably going to come off the list. RPI seemed like the school he connected to least, and if he’s going to go to a tech school, I think he’d probably lean more towards WPI, so I think your suggestion there is in line with his thinking too. I really like Case and Lehigh for him. We’ll have to see what happens with Lehigh. Since they don’t have an EA program, he won’t hear from them for a bit. And Case already gave him some nice merit aid, so if Lehigh doesn’t, that might be the decider.

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Sounds like he might already be crossing off Purdue, but here’s more info about Pitt, Purdue and VaTech. This was a topic I learned/am learning a lot about on this forum: First year engineering programs' secondary admission to major criteria

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We were searching for good fit and high merit (or lower full price cost). Our son ended up at Cal Poly, but he agonized between CP and WPI until 2 days before the deadline. Staying west was what sealed the deal. There were never any doubts about staying in engineering though. He ended up with a MS and has been working for 3 years. :+1:t3:

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Have him be sure to look into how one gets into the major. Some colleges allow students to enter engineering as “undeclared” and then have gpa cutoffs for the various majors or, even worse, simply take the top N applicants by gpa.

Also look into how the survey of disciplines you mentioned works. At more traditional programs you take few if any courses in engineering until sophomore year; the first year is math, chem, physics. See for example UCLA’s https://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/curric-20-21/81-civil-cur20.html Without the math/science background I wonder how much exposure to various fields you really can get that 1st year, although hopefully they have something nice set up.

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OctoberKate, Your son and mine have a good deal of overlap on schools to which they have been accepted - CWRU, Pitt and Purdue. My son also applied to MSU, RHIT, UofM and CMU. One of the things we liked about Case was that students were not locked into a major until late sophomore year, so they had a chance to explore before committing. The school also encourages minors and double majors (our tour guide was a MechE with a minor in Econ). Our son applied as a MechE, but he is also interested in BioChem and BioMed, so could could very well change his mind at the end of his freshman year. Another plus, is the location in a nice neighborhood in Cleveland which has restaurants, bars and shopping just off campus. If your son likes tinkering, the Sears Think Box at CWRU would be a playground for him. The downside is that Case is not as highly ranked as other schools to which he has been accepted, like Purdue.

Note that at Purdue, students apply into the general engineering program, then apply for their major - MechE, CivE, etc. - sophomore year. The higher the student’s GPA, the better chance they have of getting their desired major. In demand majors like EE and MechE may require higher GPAs to win acceptance. I tried to get details from the Engineering Dept, but they were very cagey. Supposedly, if a student has a 3.2 they will get their choice of major. That sounded like a high hurdle, but the advisor says freshman average GPA is around 3.4. (The world has certainly changed from when I was in school in the 1980s and engineering colleges were trying to fail kids out.) This admissions system would likely be a source of stress, and it is one of the reasons our son will likely not choose Purdue. If your son wants options outside of engineering, the sciences, or business, Purdue will not have much to offer. Also, at a large school like Purdue intro classes will have a couple hundred students, and the professors will be focused on research. The tradeoff is the high school ranking, huge alumni network and massive resources of a large R1 university.

We liked Pitt more than we thought we would. Though it is a large state school, the campus is manageable and the engineering and science buildings are only a couple blocks from the main dorm. It is located in the Oakland neighborhood, which is great, even if The Original Hot Dog Stand (aka Dirty Os) closed. Like Purdue, freshman and sophomore class sizes will be large. If he decides to go there, he should apply to their Honors College, if he has not already.

Regarding cost, CWRU appears to be generous with merit aid. They offered my son $26K/year in merit aid, and they just invited him to apply for additional scholarships up to 100% of tuition. If you have not seen the email, you should check for it; applications are due by Feb 1.

I would not assume that a strong engineering school won’t be a challenge for a student from a competitive high school. These schools are drawing high stat students from great high schools. You may want to focus on culture of the school… is it collaborative, or cut-throat? Is there lots of support, or are students just a number?

It sounds like your son has some great options. I wish him success, where ever he lands.

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Honestly it sounds like Case is the best place for your son. It’s a nice program and can change majors. Know many kids that graduated and are there currently.

As far as doing well because you did good in high school… Well… This is engineering. It can be challenging for the best students. Getting used to the way you need to study for college vs high school is usually the biggest obstacle to over come…

Good Luck

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You have some very good options. I went to Pitt for graduate school ( not in engineering though). Very good option if he likes a more urban campus, enjoys watching D1 sports. One of my kids went to Virginia Tech in engineering and loved it. Very manageable campus for a bigger school, great big time sports, very nice college town. Depends on what you are looking for in terms of location, cost, academics, atmosphere. All of the schools you are considering have very good, well respected programs. You can’t go wrong. Good luck!

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The question is, does this matter. No offense to Purdue. It’s a great school for engineering, and was befor rankings existed. So was Case, well before they merged with Western. Purdue is MUCH bigger though. They produce a lot more research. That’s where reputations are made. The USNWR engineering methodology is 100% reputation.

So, what can one look at? I like average salaries at 2 years as shown in College Scorecard and top 10 employers for a major on LinkedIn. The following is for ME. I left off any jobs associated with the schools, like ThinkBox or Cleveland Clinic. Student jobs impact those too much.

Case $69,854
NASA Glenn, Goodyear, Swagelock, Lockheed, Rockwell, Ford, GE Aviation, Timken, Parker Hannifin, Lubrizol.

Purdue $71,255
GM, Cummins, Ford, Boeeing, Caterpillar, Rolls-Royce, Lockheed, Northrop, Apple, Tesla

Toss up to me, regardless of what the rankings say.

BTW, we’ve discussed that my son had very similar stats back in the day. Case gave him $25/yr. They are consistent. :smiley:

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@mikemac - thanks for the reminder that I should really compare the first year programs to see what it means that schools have them. I think I see another chart in my future. :slight_smile: He and I have looked at all the schools one-by-one, but I think it will help my son to really see it all laid out in one place - at college X, first year looks like this, and at college Y, first year looks like that.

Or who knows, maybe he won’t care at all. But at least I’ll feel better for having given him a potential additional data point.

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Congrats on the great acceptances. I agree with those who suggest a tech school like Purdue, WPI, RPI might not be the best fit.

Case and Lehigh could make a lot of sense, but they are really different vibes, IMO. Case is more ‘nerdy’, Lehigh less nerdy, more social/party focused campus. With that said, students of all types can thrive in either environment. Pitt could be a great fit too, albeit larger than Case and Lehigh, and a great city setting more like Case than Lehigh.

Lehigh is D1 sports…has he been in touch with the coach?

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