@RMNiMiTz wrote:
"Pardon me for not understanding, but whats the point of spending more money at a LAC for a degree like engineering that can be had for much cheaper elsewhere?
You say you don’t feel like you missed out of anything at your state flagship, so why are you making the opposite choice for your children?"
Good questions. First, it wasn’t my state’s flagship so we paid out of state tuition. Back then it was still less than privates but money wasn’t the reason I chose the public one, it just looked more appealing at the time.
So yes, the engineering education was excellent but the ride was a lot rougher than I thought it would be. The weed out years were not nice ones , we started school with the hopefully dead by now dean’s speech: “look at your left… Look at your right… Look behind you… two will not be here in four years…”. I thought that was meant to scare you but sadly that’s how things turned out in the end.
The biggest problem was that you needed to be very disciplined and on your toes as your brand new family, meaning other kids (with other majors living in close quarters) were doing the exact opposite. While engineering’s workload was tough I could say the opposite of other departments. I used to joke (but it wasn’t a joke really…) that it was harder to get a B on one week’s lab portion of an engineering class than an A on a whole semester of say Philosophy 101. And I liked Philosophy 101, it was a requirement and I remember there were three other engineering students on that class and oddly enough they were head and shoulders above most others even those whose academic strengths were supposedly more aligned with that path.
Things have changed I am sure. I now hear about honors dorms, substance free dorms, questionnaires where they match you with compatible roomates and who knows what else… but I would still prefer no limits in an environment with less extreme disparities…
As to my children. I am doing my best not to make any choice for them one way or the other. I just want to have them look at all options and chose for themselves but can’t help to take a personal trip to memory lane every now and then…