Ivy Engineering

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I havent seen this question posed before, so I am going to ask,
Out of all the Ivy's, which has the most and least competitive engineering school?</p>

2

<p>This question was posted like three days ago.</p>

<p>Edit:</p>

<p>Yup, last post, three days ago:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/732080-rank-ivy-league-engineering-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/732080-rank-ivy-league-engineering-schools.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>I think the most competitive is Cornell, if you mean “selective”. This is based on SAT scores, which are comparable to MIT. I don’t know the SAT scores at the other Ivy engineering schools.</p>

4

<p>least? columbia, maybe?</p>

5

<p>Competitiveness is nearly impossible to compare without someone who has actually enrolled in two different Ivy league engineering schools.</p>

<p>The common perception is that Cornell is the most competitive, and I would wager that the least competitive is probably Dartmouth, Yale, or maybe Brown.</p>

6

<p>If “competitive” means “labor intensive”, Cornell is really a lot of work. The department chair at Cornell told me that “work-ethic” is part of the hidden curriculum at Cornell Engineering. If “competitive” means competitive for grades, grading at Cornell Engineering is tough. Most students do fine because they are bright and they work hard but it is possible to get D and F grades.</p>

7

<p>My question is…why does this matter? All of the Ivy engineering schools are well-known for their rigor and for their excellent education, so it seems like the differences between them don’t really matter.</p>

8

<p>can ivy league engineering grads (except for cornell) get good pays or enter engineering powerhouse grad schools (e.g. MIT, caltech, stanford, etc)? </p>

<p>are ivy eng. grads disadvantaged because ivy engineering rankings are so low (again, ignore cornell)?</p>

<p>thanks</p>

9

<p>I think an excellent engineering student from any of the Ivy schools has a shot at a top engineering grad school depending of things like GRE scores, internships, and research experience. Engineering graduates of Cornell, Princeton, Columbia, and Penn might have an advantage.</p>

10

<p>

Well-known for their rigor? in which areas? … work load, engineering curriculum, cutting-edge research?</p>

11

<p>If you can get into Harvard engineering or Princeton, go to either school, because they’re better places for undergrad engineering than is Cornell. For postgrad engineering, Cornell has a better reputation.</p>

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<p>Harvard does not have a very good engineering program. They only offer a degree in general engineering. It is a small program with only a few graduates each year. Limited course offerings. Many of the faculty are borrowed from other departments. The only thing Harvard has going for it is that you can cross-register at MIT but there are limits.</p>

<p>I think Cornell and Princeton are the best places for undergraduate engineering in the country. Cornell engineering has an undergrad focus.</p>

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<p>Cornell and Princeton are NOT better than MIT, Stanford or Caltech for undergraduate engineering. In fact, they’re probably not even as good…</p>

<p>They are the best IVY engineering schools though…</p>

14

<p>how disadvantaged exactly are eng. grads from dartmouth, harvard, yale, or brown?
they don’t get job offers? or they can’t get to good grad. schools?</p>

15

<p>MIT and Caltech have a narrow tech focus. I don’t think that is the best environment for an undergraduate trying to expand horizons. The atmosphere and culture are different from Ivy League. Not as good for undergrads IMO. Caltech grad rate is rather low for the most selective school in the nation. Stanford engineering is only about 35% undergrad. Stanford lacks an undergrad focus. MIT, Caltech, and Stanford are great for graduate students, though.</p>

<p>What is lacking in engineering at Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, Brown? They have a limited curriculum, limited opportunities to specialize and obtain research experience in an area of interest, fewer resources, fewer faculty for mentorship, faculty are not as well or broadly established in the field of engineering. I think students can still get jobs in engineering and still get into good engineering grad programs but it is more difficult.</p>

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<p>Cornell engineering’s sat scores are not at the same level as MITs:</p>

<p>see post # 20: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/636271-how-would-you-rank-ivies-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/636271-how-would-you-rank-ivies-2.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Columbia engineering has higher SAT scores than Cornell engineering, see post #15</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/466591-better-columbia-seas-cornell-seas.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/466591-better-columbia-seas-cornell-seas.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>this was back when they published columbia seas and Columbia college sat scores separately.</p>

<p>I’d say Harvard, Princeton and Columbia seas are all more difficult to get into than Cornell Engineering. But Cornell engineering is a better traditional engineering school.</p>

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<p>The math SATs in Cornell engineering are 720-790 (25th and 75th percentiles) which is very close to MIT, maybe 10-20 points difference.</p>

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<p>“Columbia engineering has higher SAT scores than Cornell engineering, see post #15”
…where you are quoting your own assertions, made only by you and nobody else on CC and with no published institutional data source to corroborate. It may well be the case, but that link is no substantiation, not sure why you referenced your own unsubstantiated assertion as 'evidence".</p>

<p>Anyway these programs are all different. they vary considerably in their focus, the number, depth and breadth of their offerings. And maybe the degree to which they are recruited by engineering firms, and future destinations of their graduates generally.</p>

<p>As one exercise, count the faculty, and courses, in a particular major area of engineering at each of the schools. Take civil engineering, for example. If they don’t offer a particular area or subarea you will likely not have a realistic option of pursuing it. College can be a time of discovery, to find what interests you. If they don’t teach it you will not discover that you like it. As an example, the subspecialty I actually practiced, for a while, was probably only offered at one of these schools. If I’d gone to one of these others, I could have become an engineer, but probably not in this field.</p>

<p>Various of the programs may be plenty good enough, or superior, for a particular individual based on their goals and level of commitment in studying engineering.
If you already know you only want to be a PhD researcher in certain particular fields, that may direct you one way. If you have no intention of ever practicing engineering, but really want to be an investment banker, but nevertheless, for some reason,want to study engineering, that may point you one way. If you actually may really want to be an engineer, and hence want to have maximum exposure to what is out there for you in engineering,to best inform your path within the profession, that might point you another way. Etc.</p>

19

<p>^ here take a look at this:</p>

<p>[Fu</a> Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_Foundation_School_of_Engineering_and_Applied_Science]Fu”>Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>it’s been on wikipedia for years, and was once published on the Columbia website.</p>

<p>cornell engineering was 1360-1520, columbia seas was 1440-1550. I remember looking at old data where Cornell engineering had a higher acceptance rate than cornell overall, which has a higher acceptance rate than Columbia seas. Cornell has a great engineering program (in a traditional sense better than Columbia, Princeton and Harvard), but you absolutely cannot argue that Cornell is more difficult to get into than Harvard, Princeton or Columbia for engineering.</p>

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<p>no institutional source is referenced for that statement, for all I know you wrote it. Of course it may well be true, as I said.</p>