Hello, I am a senior who already applied to both UIUC and Purdue for engineering.
Recently, I found 3-2 Engineering program interesting.
I always wanted to go to nation’s top schools such as Columbia and Cal-tech, but my HS stats are not even debatable to any of applicants for these two presitgious schools.
So, I searched some schools lately and found out OWU. OWU was not competitve to get in compare to other schools that offer 3-2 engineering program in both Cal tech and Columbia. Moreover, OWU seems to be one of a few school that I can get a huge financial aid.
At this point, I have some questions!!
I am curious that do students from Swarthmore(top LAC that offers 3-2) and OWU basically get same education that is helpful enough to adapt in Top schools that offer 3-2??? If the answer is “NO” Is it necessary to apply to more prestigious LAC to
successfully get accepted? ( Idk … I feel like in OWU I can get a better GPA maybe?)
What is your overall opinion about 3-2 program??
If you know some LAC colleges that is highly acceptable for 3-2 program, what would it be?
In general, any LAC that doesn’t have an engineering program in its own right is not going to give the same engineering background to a student that starts out in an engineering program since they generally do not have the infrastructure and programs built up to get some of those early engineering classes in that a student might have otherwise taken at an engineering school. How much this matters will depend on the individual student. Whether or not a place like OWU and Swarthmore give the same level of preparation for the “2” portion of an engineering program is not something that would be terribly easy to answer. You might have to look at stats like the percentage of each of them that continue on to the “2” portion, and then the percentage of those who actually finish the “2” portion and graduate with an engineering degree, and those stats may or may not be easy to obtain.
This topic has been addressed at length in this forum in other threads. I’d suggest doing a search and reading those. The short answer is that most people around here do not like these programs because it introduces a lot of uncertainty into your studies in that many people never make the jump over to finish the “2” portion, and those that do don’t have the network of friends and study partners built up at the new university that would help them excel (though it certainly isn’t impossible to fix that issue over the course of a semester or two). Further, it adds an extra year to your studies for which you must pay tuition.
I wouldn’t exactly call Columbia a “top school” for engineering. It is a good school, but not in the upper echelon of engineering programs. Caltech, on the other hand, is definitely in that group, but there are some legitimate concerns about whether it is a good place to be for an undergraduate. I’d think long and hard before deciding to go that route.
If cost is a major consideration, the fact that a 3+2 program involves 5 years of costs, and that Columbia does not guarantee to meet need for 3+2 students to the extent that it does for other students, should give you pause.
Agree with Boneh3ad; Columbia is a fantastic university as a whole, but traditional engineering is not one of its strengths. Incidentally, OWU is a very fine college that I often recommend, but you would do better to begin your education at a STEM university. Also, just because admission to OWU is less competitive than an Ivy, OWU’s academics are not a cake walk, especially in the sciences.