<p>Is the engineering program pretty good at harvard... ? See i want to apply because this lady called me from harvard and said I should based on my grades etc.. but i want to double major probably computer sci/Elec engineering. is harvard good in these fields... do they have a strong research program also?</p>
<p>Harvard engineering is solid, but very, very small.
You won't have nearly as wide of course selection as MIT, Stanford,
Princeton, Cornell, Berkeley, Michigan, etc. Of course, you can cross-register at MIT...</p>
<p>Harvard engineering is for those students who want a liberal arts education primarily, and see engineering as just a major... as opposed to other schools where engineering is a way of life.
It's a GREAT launching pad for those who want a broad undergrad education, but will specialize in grad school in engineering, or MBA...
Harvard engineers have a great track record of getting into top PhD programs, but probably a harder time of getting a hard-core engineering job right out of undergrad, compared to other elite schools.</p>
<p>Harvard isn't one of the powerhouses in Engineering (it's ranked around 31). The real good engineering schools are Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Caltech, Cornell, etc. Moreover, if ur interested in electrical engineering and computer science, i suggest u apply to MIT, which has a specific Electrical Engineering Computer Science major.</p>
<p>Harvard is a smaller engineering school, but in terms of quality it's actually one of the top ten programs in the country.</p>
<p>See this thread for an explanation:</p>
<p>It's hard to argue that Harvard is "top ten" in "quality" when it's ranked #31. </p>
<p>Stanford and MIT would give you a much better education.</p>
<p>Read the thread (and the rankings posted in them). Harvard is one of the best schools for undergraduate engineering.</p>
<p>harvard is not in the top 25 for electrical engineering.</p>
<p>Harvard's "division of engineering and applied sciences" is very small. There are usually only 10-20 Engineering Sciences majors each year ... most of them don't end up going to engineering graduate school or getting high-powered engineering jobs (many eventually end up in medical school, law school, or business school). This isn't necessarily because Harvard engineering students aren't "good enough" ... I think they're simply qualitatively different from students from the top undergraduate engineering programs.</p>
<p>Having said that, there are a few truly excellent engineering faculty at Harvard. But anybody who calls it "one of the best schools for undergraduate engineering" or "one of the top ten programs [in terms of quality]" is either seriously misinformed or seriously deluded. Those links posted regarding impact factor have no relevance to undergraduate education.</p>
<p>It is still arguably one of the best programs, and I would argue based on many factors one of the top 10. The best school for you isn't necessarily the best school for everyone. Even though a school is smaller, doesn't make it worse. Just compare the fancy restaurant in your town versus McDonald's and you'll see why. It's one versus 50,000 but McDonald's isn't better.</p>
<p>A smaller school doesn't always make it better, either. For a discipline like engineering, smaller is usually worse. Large universities tend to have a more diverse and varied selection of programs, as well as lots of resources and a broad range of research opportunities. Some of the Ivies lack entire engineering departments; Harvard doesn't have chemical engineering, for example. One can have a great education at a large university and still have access to numerous faculty and facilities for research opportunities that might not exist at a smaller program.</p>
<p>Harvard is investing millions upon millions of dollars into their engineering facilities--it is a great time to be a concentrator right now--I was seriously considering Envio. Engineering for awhile, but decided it wasn't for me...</p>
<p>it is also a much more rigorous course load than most accredited schools--concentrators are required to get ~2-4 classes in each of the sections of engineering that they are not particularly focusing on--for instance, an enviro concentrator has to take EE, MechE classes, among some others...thats mainly the reason I switched to biochem...</p>