How would you rate mechanical programs at these schools?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1
  1. Washington University in St Louis
  2. Cornell
  3. University of Rochester
  4. Purdue University
  5. Lafayette College
  6. University of Washington Seattle
  7. Cal Poly-Pomona
  8. Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo 9.University of Southern California
  9. University of California-San Diego
  10. Virginia Tech
  11. Georgia Tech
  12. Northeastern
  13. University of Michigan 15.Drexel

If you guys had choose out of all these schools which would be best to go for mechanical engineering?

I need help narrowing down schools to transfer to after community college

Thanks in advance.

2

Are they all ABET? If so, I’d start with whichever one would leave me with the least debt. I wouldn’t necessarily finish there, but I’d definitely start there.

3

How are people supposed to give advice with no criteria except a list of schools?

4

@boneh3ad The criteria is which school is do you consider to have the best mechanical engineering program. When I say the best I mean access to better resource, teachers, more opportunities for co op or internships, which l colleges you heard have had more hands on vs theory based classes etc this question mostly for me narrow down my list so I wanted hear other people opinions on these schools

5

@50N40W thank you for the tip

6

Cornell, Purdue, UCSD, Georgia Tech, and UM are all known for their engineering programs and are known to provide great preparation for working in industry. Reputation of the program is important, but not the only factor you should consider. Other important factors may include cost, location, and whether or not you feel that you will be happy on campus for the next two or three years.

As long as the program is ABET accredited and you are able to maintain at least a 3.0 GPA, you should be able to find a job somewhere.

7

Thanks @umcoe16 are you engineering major at University of Michigan? How do you like it so far if you are?

8

These questions at very difficult to answer and responses like @umcoe16 gave are simply unsubstantiated and quite frankly, silly. Tell Boeing, Amazon, Apple, Raytheon, Lockheed, Tesla and Microsoft that UW and Cal Poly don’t prepare their students for industry and they’ll just laugh in your face. They all employ lots of grads from both schools. That’s the problem with CC, anyone, me included, can just spout out drivel like its fact.

If you want to know more, you need to give more guidance. What are you interested in, both academically and non-academically? What region do you want to live in? Does school size matter? Does class size matter? Do you prefer the anonymity of a large professor taught lecture and TA driven discussions and labs or would you prefer the classes be smaller and taught by professors?

It also depends on what company(ies) you might want to work for. Cal Poly never makes the “best” lists because they don’t offer doctorates and are thus not ranked the same. If you trust that people join LinkedIn reasonably equally from all schools and across all employers, you’d probably choose Poly over Cornell if you wanted to work for Apple. According to LinkedIn there are over 533 Poly engineers at Apple and just over 100 from Cornell.

It’s like asking is a Porsche Carrera better than a Chevy truck. Most people would pick the Porsche, until you tell them you need to haul wood and tow a trailer.

So, they are all OK. Which one is best depends solely on what’s important to you.

9

@eyemgh what I am looking for to answer your answer questions is a school that that on west coast preferably warm weather but I would be fine with east coast if I got into somewhere like Cornell. Academically I want to be challenged and able have opportunities that you can’t just get anywhere in college. After college I am hoping go into Navy doing something with engineering and hopefully work for company doing aerospace related research then somehow end up at NASA (I know bit out there and don’t really have specific coherent plan its a working process).

School size matters to a extent I don’t want a too small school. I could deal with class sizes being around 200 people that’s fine but professors teaching lectures would be better.

Non Academically socially speaking a place that has some type of LGBTQ community would nice it doesn’t have to overwhelming but some type community would fine. Also I like the outdoors so a place that is close to state parks would be cool.

I am from PA so a school that a portion of its students that is out state also would make easier to get know people when I finally transfer.

I am not really looking to get my doctorate until after my time in NAVY so a school not having offering Ph.D would be fine.

I know a lot things I am looking for and in a perfect world this would all be possible.

10

Just out of curiosity, why the Navy?

11

I guess because they seem to do most traveling and it was down to the Air Force or Navy so I went with Navy

12

Also it the seem best course of action if I wanted to work for NASA or any government agency to go into the military would be a smart move

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It’s arguably the best course if you want to be an actual astronaut. Other jobs there are much more skewed to the civilian side.

I was just curious as the Navy and possible PhD portions of your plan will combine to put off the research part of your plan for years. A PhD takes typically 4 to 7 years past a BS and the Navy will require a 2 or 3 year commitment to active duty (something like that, anyway). Just figured I’d make sure you were aware of that.

Is your desire to enlist just for a chance to see the world? Financial? Sense of duty?

14

First, let me start by telling you this, there are lots of good schools. Next, I’ll limit my comments to schools that I have first hand experience with through my son’s search.

He eliminated large OOS state schools right off the bat. Sure UIUC, Michigan, Purdue, FL, the list is long, have good schools, but OOS schools are not generous with merit aid, tend to have huge classes, and use TAs frequently (Berkeley has over 60 ME TAs, Poly…3). In the end it didn’t make sense to pay 300% more than his instate flagship! Oregon State. Even if they were slightly better, there isn’t a chance in hell that they were $150k better, so, he didn’t even look.

He wanted a “more typical” college experience, so even though he visited, he didn’t apply to schools like Olin or Mudd. He wanted access to outdoor activities. He didn’t want an old school 2 and 2 curriculum where you don’t take any engineering classes until you’re a junior. They’re getting rarer, but any school with pre-engineering was out, especially ones like UW where admission into your major is competitive your second year (he had the stats for direct admit, but then we’re back to over $200k with OSU at $80k). He wanted “hands on” through curriculum, clubs, labs, etc, but didn’t want a program that watered down theory to achieve that. He avoided schools with reputations as grinds, ones that heap on bulk and little support, with no better engineer, and a few suicides to show for it, mainly Colorado School of Mines and CalTech, although I’ve read GT can be that way too.

Of your list, he didn’t apply to Cornell, because he didn’t want to take physics with 600 other students. Cornell’s classes are huge and it’s cold as hell. He didn’t apply to Lafayette because they are just too under resourced in engineering. A school he did like though that’s in the neighborhood, is relatively small, and has much better engineering, is Lehigh.

He visited USC. The campus is nice, Viterbi is decent, they (students and staff) seemed VERY friendly, but at the end of the day, it’s in LA, in a crappy part at that. He wanted no part.

He ended up in SLO at Cal Poly and is very happy there. PM me if you have any questions about Cal Poly.

As you look, keep these things in mind: 1) most rankings are based on a school’s doctoral research output. 2) they take nothing into account about who teaches UGs 3) they take nothing into account about UG class size 4) they take nothing into account about job placement.

I used to think it was a right of passage, a survival of the fittest sort of thing, because I did, to have lectures with 500 or 600 students. Looking at my son’s experience, his learning environment is way better than mine was.

What state are you from?

15

@boneh3ad I want to see the world and help where I can I wouldn’t say I have sense of duty more I just want to help its hard to explain I see people on news being affected what’s going on and I want to help like I said its hard to explain and also financial is a reason hopefully after my service the Navy can help pay for my graduate expenses

16

@eyemgh I am from Pennsylvania so all publics I have I would be paying OOS tuition and I know crazy but I don’t maybe by some fates of the engineering gods I get nice scholarships from these schools

Also if I get into any of these schools I next I have to worry about switching from semester schedule to a quarter

I guess my question for you how does semester schedule compare to quarter system is really faster?

I am willing to go Penn State as like last resort if I had no other option not Lehigh though I already know is not the right fit for me and I looking to get out of PA

17

Couple of things…
Science in the military generally means being an officer. Paths to getting a commission (as in commissioned officer, e.g. Lieutenant, captain, ensign, etc.) are generally a service academy, ROTC, or OCS. Of these three, ROTC seems more consistent with your goals.

Don’t discount the Army and Air Force as technological paths. It once was expected that every naval officer would spend time at sea, but I don’t know if this is still the case. Regardless, the Air Force has labs and development centers scattered around, as does the army, believe it or not. Phillips Labs, Redstone Arsenal, white Sands, Arnold AEDC, all come to mind. Ultimately, though, you’d be an officer, and “the needs of the ________ come first’” meaning that even a PhD in physics might spend a lot of time aux vaches … sleeping under the stars. Probably won’t, but might.
In PA I’d look pretty hard at Pitt and Penn State, especially since my credits might transfer more easily.

18

Is Penn State not an option?

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Graduate expenses will be essentially free anyway. I don’t know if the Navy will pay for a degree that you earned before joining, but if not then it may be worthwhile to do the Navy first. Alternatively, you could do ROTC and end up as an officer rather than enlisted. Just some food for thought.

20

Remember - most of these schools are going to need to see near perfect grades to to counter balance mediocre SAt?ACT and mediocre high school grade point. Are you going to bring AP credit with you too? Where did you apply initially?

and yes ROTC seems like a strong direction to solve many of your wishes

You are planning too many steps ahead.