Trying to plan some visits for my son who has very high grades and SAT (1520), ACT(35) but is not a typcal book worm. He does well, but is not driven/competivive. Currently he is taking 5 AP’s,in the school play and works at Chick-fil-a 20 hours a week and likes playing videogames in his spare time. He is interested in a rigerous STEM/Engineering degree but wants a “chill” cooperative enviroment and not a cut-throat college. We are in the southeast. Any sugesstions?
WPI in MA - my son loved the vibe when we visited - smallish, cooperative, curriculum includes two big group projects.
Rice University sounds like it would fit the bill for him. Great STEM programs, residential colleges, smallish school in a big city with lots of opportunities.
USC
DS 2021 was looking for the same thing. Strong engineering and collaborative/laid back environment. His list included Rice, UT, Stanford, and Northwestern.
Good suggestions so far. How much can your family afford? I would run NPC’s on schools before visiting unless money is no concern. There have been a lot of posts on CC where families visited, fell in love with their dream school, and only later found out the costs were out of range. If you are looking for merit and a strong school, you could also look at Case Western and University of Rochester. Neither is cut-throat, but a bit colder than the southeast!
Olin, Olin and Olin. Look it up. In the Boston area, it is as well respected as MIT but project based, small and personal, very appealing school.
Lehigh
Georgia Tech
Case Western
All suggested schools have strong programs. As your question deals with environment, you really need to visit and to talk with a small sampling of students. Olin, WPI, and Tufts are all within easy driving distance if you visit Boston area. All three of these schools do not have the “dog eat dog” or classic “boot camp” approach to education as they believe in cooperative approaches and teamwork to solve real problems. Mentoring is an important part of the WPI and Olin programs.
A Boston tour also means you can visit BU, MIT, Northeastern and RPI (a three hour drive). MIT and RPI are not known for a more laid back approach. I can’t speak to BU or Northeastern campus vibe. I have a niece who finished with high honors as a double major at MIT and had lost all interest in the subjects by graduation, but this is only a one case sample. My niece told her sister with a similar HS background, to go elsewhere As near as I call tell, RPI is working very hard to be MIT.
UCSD - Jacobs School of Engineering in a very chill environment.
Embry-Riddle Prescott is a great option if he is interested Aero/Mechanical Engineering. Super laid back campus vibe with a rigorous STEM curriculum. They also have an honors college if he wants to kick it up another notch.
Look at Brown and Tufts.
I just want to mention that I am impressed by your son to be taking such a rigorous curriculum with excellent grades at the same time he is in the school play (usually requires many hours) and works 20 hours per week. Kudos to him!
@compmom beat me to it. Olin is a very academically rigorous and rewarding school, and everybody that goes there is quirky in an interesting way. It’s super collaborative. Throughout their time there I got tons of snapchats from my friends who were E-Eng and Comp-Eng majors and they were always working on projects with groups.
Many state flagships would fit the bill. UW-Madison would give him a good peer group but he can choose his level. He may surprise himself and work harder once he gets to take classes that interest him with like minded students.
@TatinG Your comment about UCSD surprises me. Is that in comparison to UCLA and Berkeley? I would say UCSB is much more chill and friendly than UCSD. But I’m not totally sure how UCSD is these days. My impression (having attended there back in the day) is that they are super hard workers, but not much school spirit which makes it less chill in my mind.
Michigan Tech LOL…it’s a million miles from anywhere and respected but definitely chill if he’s an outddor lovin’ kid.
One of the reasons my youngest applied to Notre Dame is its reputation for collaborative work and happy students.
Cal Poly has a reputation of not being cut throat and its OOS tuition is not bad relative to a lot of state schools, especially if he’s interested in engineering. Not exactly close though since you are in the southeast.
visiting Boston in May, so will check it out!