<p>Which would you choose and why for undergraduate engineering (by the way, in-state for UMich)?</p>
<p>University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
1) In-State Cost
2) #7 Engineering Rank
3) Top 30 Undergraduate Rank
4) Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP)</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins University
1) Baseball Scholarship (Still more expensive than UMich)
2) #14 Engineering Rank
3) Top 20 Undergraduate Rank</p>
<p>Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
1) Baseball Scholarship (Cost similar to UMich)
2) #1 Engineering School amongst schools without a doctorate</p>
<p>Depends on the environment you learn best in. Father and Grandfather were both Rose grads. My company recruits there heavily. VERY personal environment and their size and structure is such that if you want to participate in ECs (like baseball), it is very easy to do so. I have a strong bias for Rose.</p>
<p>Environment and fit independent, which gives me the greatest opportunity for post-graduate (work/graduate school) if I performed similarly in each school. and yes I want to do engineering, most likely ME or EE.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Are you certain that engineering is your path? If you want to shift to something radically different, say the study of Etruscan Pottery or Interpretive Dance, then Rose-Hulman may not be the best choice.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are planning on going straight onto grad school then the less money you spend as an undergrad the better. This hurts JHU.</p></li>
<li><p>How important is baseball? Apparently it’s not available to you at Michigan but remember that it is a time consuming activity that may make it difficult to keep up with your engineering work. Advantage Michigan.</p></li>
<li><p>Finally, what size environment do you want to be in, Rose-Hulman has 2,000 students, JHU 20,000 and Michigan 40,000. The places couldn’t be more different.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I can think of no substantial quantifiable difference that gives an advantage to one over the others; all will do a great job at getting you ready for grad school or the workplace. The best place is the one that provides the best opportunities for you to perform at your peak level.</p>
<p>Regarding baseball at Rose…there is not much happening in TH, Indiana, and truthfully, the university wants their engineers doing non engineering things to “round them out”. Because of the highly academic nature of Rose, they have heard in the past that their kids are very nerdy. They have put a lot of attention on graduating a more balanced student…hence they will encourage you to branch outside of academics and they make it doable.</p>
<p>Now as to the question of whether you are SURE about engineering…that is a very legitimate point…something you should consider before you go to an (almost entirely) engineering school.</p>
<p>Additionally, there is no grade inflation at Rose. Lots of very smart guys graduate with sub 3.0 gpas. Not the best for grad school. Many people know how tough Rose is, and cut the kids slack…but outside of engineering insiders and people in the midwest, the merits of a 3.4 gpa at Rose may be lost on a lot of grad admissions people.</p>
<p>To say that JHU has 20,000 students is terribly misleading. Hopkins has @4500 undergraduates–and those undergraduates share a campus (Homewood) with @1500 graduate students. The other students that make up that 20,000 number are mostly part time graduate students on other campuses–and as an undergraduate you will never see them and never be affected by them. Michigan is simply a much much larger school.</p>
<p>Also, Hopkins baseball is great. It is Div III–so you are not a professional athlete but a true scholar-athlete. But it is one of the better D III baseball teams so you can get a lot of satisfaction from it. Also, because the baseball field is adjacent to the Freshman Quad–it actually attracts a good amount of spectators. </p>
<p>Michigan is a great school–but because it is a very large public institution with most undergraduates from Michigan–the average undergraduate at Michigan is not comparable to the average student at Hopkins. Hopkins has a decidedly more intellectual atmosphere than Michigan. On the other hand, as a Big 10 school, Michigan has much more of a “rah-rah” school spirit–if that is important to you. Hopkins is “rah-rah” only when it comes to men’s lacrosse–which is a great sport but not comparable to BCC football.</p>
<p>I’m biased, but I would choose Hopkins in a heartbeat. </p>
<p>Now for my skepticism. You claim to have a baseball scholarship offer at Hopkins. Hopkins is Div. I only in lacrosse, so I don’t see how that is possible. To my knowledge, there are no baseball scholarships at Hopkins.</p>
<p>bonanza, I am not sure I agree with much of what you say. One can easily argue that since the CoE at Michigan has its own campus (North Campus), you will primarily only see the 7,500 undergraduate and graduate Engineering students and not notice the remaining 33,000 students who study in the other campuses (Central Campus and Medical/Hill).</p>
<p>Furthermore, I doubt you will find a more intellectual campus or town than Michigan/Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>This said, Johns Hopkins and Michigan have very different feels,so I would recommend going for fit.</p>
<p>“I’m biased, but I would choose Hopkins in a heartbeat.”</p>
<p>I’m biased too. I’d choose Ann Arbor over Baltimore in a heatbeat. Especially since JHU would cost more than a comparable institution of higher learning. Make no mistake about that, Michigan and JHU are peers. </p>
<p>“Hopkins has a decidedly more intellectual atmosphere than Michigan.”</p>
<p>This is nonsense. How can you possibly prove that? Have you ever even been to Michigan or Ann Arbor? Furthermore, with the exception of biomedical, Michigan has a stronger program in engineering.</p>
<p>Aditionally, there is no grade inflation at Rose. Lots of very smart guys graduate with sub 3.0 gpas. Not the best for grad school. Many people know how tough Rose is, and cut the kids slack…but outside of engineering insiders and people in the midwest, the merits of a 3.4 gpa at Rose may be lost on a lot of grad admissions people. </p>
<p>I’m certain that the same conditions exist at Michigan and JHU.</p>
<p>I mean honestly, you’re probably going to get the same education at all of the schools. The difference in ranks isn’t that big of a deal and wouldn’t impact my decision. I would look at other things if I were you:
CoA
Baseball
School Spirit
Location
Other majors offered, etc.</p>
<p>But I know you just want to know which one will give you better grad opportunities…honestly they are all probably the same. Although I would definitely choose between Michigan and JHU if I were you.</p>
<p>It’s funny how DIII scolarships work with athletes. Yes, it’s very true that they cannot give “athletic scholarships”, but coaches can mask these scholarships with “merit-aid” and/or other “academic scholarships” to lessen the cost, if that makes sense.</p>
<p>Fair enough–although merit aid (Hodson scholarships for A&S and Westgate scholarships for engineering) are quite hard to come by at Hopkins. If you get one, don’t turn it down–they’re fantastic! I suppose there is always some discretion involved in need based aid–but you still have to qualify for need based aid.</p>
<p>I know some recent baseball players at Hopkins–and they all raved about their experiences and educational opportunities.</p>