<p>I would really like to do Chemical Engineering, because it has so many applications.</p>
<p>I was looking at some of the Ivys, despite them not being particularly strong in the Engineering Department.</p>
<p>Which Ivy's other than Cornell have decent engineering programs?</p>
<p>Harvard has a new engineering department. Considering its long relationship with MIT, I find this puzzleing.</p>
<p>Check the Ancient Eights websites for current programs.</p>
<p>I heard somewhere that Brown had a decent program? I could be entirely wrong though. Other than Cornell, none of them are really outstanding in engineering...
I think your best bet would be to disregard the Ivies entirely and find other similar schools better suited for your major.</p>
<p>Columbia and Princeton.</p>
<p>^^ Thats what I thought- I know neither of those programs are "outstanding" like at MIT, CalTech, but for Ivys....</p>
<p>If you're studying engineering, and want the top schools for it, sorry, but the Ivys really aren't what you're looking for. What you're looking for is schools like Caltech and MIT. Why do you want to go to an Ivy? You seem to know that they're not even the best schools for what you want to study.</p>
<p>Stanford would be the best ivy equivalent choice.</p>
<p>from the latest US News</p>
<p>Undergraduate Chemical Engineering</p>
<p>Best Colleges Specialty Rankings: Undergraduate engineering specialties: Chemical
Ranked in </p>
<p>1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
2 University of California--Berkeley Berkeley, CA
3 University of Wisconsin--Madison Madison, WI
4 University of Minnesota--Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN
5 Stanford University Stanford, CA
6 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA
7 University of Texas--Austin Austin, TX
8 University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL
9 University of Delaware Newark, DE
10 University of Michigan--Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
11 Princeton University Princeton, NJ ***** IVY *****
12 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
13 Purdue University--West Lafayette West Lafayette, IN
14 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA
15 Cornell University Ithaca, NY ***** IVY *****
16 Pennsylvania State University--University Park University Park, PA
17 University of California--Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA
18 Northwestern University Evanston, IL
19 University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA
20 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD
North Carolina State University--Raleigh Raleigh, NC
University of Florida Gainesville, FL
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA
24 Texas A&M University--College Station College Station, TX
Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA</p>
<p>^^ Thank you.</p>
<p>For Ivies, Princeton and Columbia are the way to go. Harvard is building a new school of engineering but we'll have to see how that turns out.</p>
<p>NK9230-</p>
<p>I am also from upstate NY. I think Cornell would be a perfect choice for you. I had a housemate who was in ChemE and he loved it. There is a real sense of camaraderie among the ChemEs at Cornell. They seem to have quite a few social events, parties, and so on. The ECEs were more serious. </p>
<p>The problem with the tech schools like MIT and Caltech is the atmosphere and campus climate. I preferred a more well balanced college experience, with a more typical balance of majors. I thought the state schools were too large scale. I wanted a more personal touch and the Ivy culture.</p>
<p>Stanford is too focused on graduate students. They are about 65% graduate students at Stanford. </p>
<p>Cornell and Princeton are about 65-70% undergraduates. Cornell's ChemE program is four times the size of Princeton. Cornell graduates about 80 in ChemE each year and Princeton about 20. There is a broader course selection at Cornell and it is relatively easy to get the courses you want when you want them. Although the Cornell program is large, there are lots of faculty and they are very accessible, in their offices lots of hours each day. Faculty teach all the courses at Cornell and TAs correct problem sets, give advice about projects, and hold review sessions.</p>
<p>Columbia and Penn also have excellent ChemE programs, if you prefer the city environment.</p>
<p>Stanford's ChemE program graduates about 15 bachelors each year. The undergraduate program is not very big.</p>
<p>I also have heard good things about the ChemE programs at Rice, Northwestern, and Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>First of all-- the Ivy's are no different than anywhere else with a strong program. They're as different from one another as any other top school.</p>
<p>Second-- what do you really know about Chem E? It's one of those fields I find people always have some idea that they may want to do it but really don't know at all what it's about. They just like the idea of being an engineer and liked high school chemistry.</p>
<p>Third-- an engineering education is one thing. It's something that is sometimes separate from the other kind of college education. You need to decide if you need or want both kinds and how important the balance of the strength of each is.</p>
<p>Most any engineer's undergraduate education will only serve to get them in the door for their first job, beyond that, it's their skills on the job which will make them sink or swim. Most undergraduates from a decent program who do fairly well will have a job in engineering coming out.</p>
<p>So you need to decide... is this what you want? At what cost the more general kind of education if any? Would you prefer to work in industry or remain in academia? Different engineering departments have different strengths for that kind of prep.</p>
<p>There's a lot more that goes into this than the top ranked school in a sports division.</p>
<p>^^ Oh I know,
I want to do Chem.Eng and then go on to graduate work. Ultimately I want to help find alternate fuel sources, things along that nature.</p>
<p>"First of all-- the Ivy's are no different than anywhere else with a strong program. They're as different from one another as any other top school."</p>
<p>I can agree with a slight rephrase of this: the fact that these particular schools happen to play football against each other ought not be a sole defining factor in this matriculation decision.</p>
<p>There are a number of schools with excellent programs in Chem E. Including substantial breadth and depth of course offerings relating specifically to this field, substantial # professors/ related research areas, strong filed-specific recruitment, etc. You will probably find that not all Ivies are, in fact, strong programs by this metric. And other colleges do have top programs, but do not play football in the Ivy conference.</p>
<p>Once the "good" programs are identified, various other features of each school come into play, and where they play football is probably the least of it.</p>
<p>Since you have an actual goal in mind, you might look into some target programs and see if there are people there actually ding research in related areas. This might influence opportunities for you to pursue your interests there. Recognizing that those interests might change.</p>
<p>Synergies may also be relevant. For example at Cornell I did an independent study course in solar energy in the college of Agriculture while enrolled in the College of engineeering.</p>
<p>One thing that the Ivy league schools offer is the opportunity to study courses outside of engineering in the company of students who are highly motivated and capable in these other fields. But the ivies are not unique in this regard. Nor will every engineering student find this to be an advantage personally.</p>
<p>Another thing the ivies offer, that's different from some other engineering schools, is a fully coeducational campus/ living/social experience. But again, that's not unique to ivies.</p>
<p>If you're moving on to graduate work, a lot of the typical engineering ranking/perspectives may not be all that helpful.</p>
<p>For instance, many on this forum will knock Brown's engineering program, but over 50% of Brown engineers go to graduate school within 3 years of graduation. That's very high for engineering.</p>
<p>It may be more important for you to be somewhere that has the right mix of professors doing research in an area you're into (and look at chemistry departments as well as the chemical engineers) and higher chances of you actually accessing time in those labs, and far less important to go somewhere that has a well-structured internship/co-op setup.</p>
<p>
[quote]
For instance, many on this forum will knock Brown's engineering program, but over 50% of Brown engineers go to graduate school within 3 years of graduation. That's very high for engineering.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Graduate school in what? Business or law? Most Brown engineers I know wish they attended Cornell or Princeton.</p>
<p>Disregard.</p>
<p>Cayuga, OP was asking for Ivy's outside of Cornell.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Graduate school in what? Business or law? Most Brown engineers I know wish they attended Cornell or Princeton.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, as a Brown student who's a physical science concentrator and has many friends who are engineers, most of the Brown engineers I know are thrilled with their education here and wouldn't go other places.</p>
<p>My point is not that Brown = good, but that a lot of things can factor in outside of a rankings based assessment of these things.</p>
<p>Sure, Cornell's SAC race car team is more successful, but also has over 80 students and you don't work on the car at all freshman year. Brown's team is 15, everyone gets to drive, and even freshman are in charge of design projects and construction. So you place lower at the competition, but get far more of a hands on experience. </p>
<p>We have quite a few people hired by some pretty serious automotive people from that team despite not being the wonderful Cornell.</p>
<p>Not everyone is looking at the same things when looking at schools, and separate from the fact that the OP shouldn't care if it's Ivy or not, the OP should look at many factors when deciding on where they'll be happy.</p>
<p>Brown's an excellent school for the physical sciences and applied math. I just know of a couple of Brown alums who were less than blown away by the amount of resources and opportunities available to students vis-a-vis other engineering schools like MIT, CMU, Cornell, etc. Admittedly, it's not nearly as bad as say, Dartmouth or Yale.</p>