<p>We are looking more closely at Ohio's public engineering schools, particularly chem eng. I have some questions that I'm hoping some you have info about, either through tours, your own kids, or whatever. I have a daughter, and though it shouldn't matter, this IS a factor with safety. So, consider that. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>University of Akron: Sounds good on paper. What's the reality of the city and life on campus? I'm reading it has been primarily a commuter campus in the past. Is this different now? </p></li>
<li><p>U of Toledo: Is this even worth a look? I see their band (something daughter would be interested in) offers $1000 for participating! But, I've not heard anything real good about UT. Anyone know?</p></li>
<li><p>U of Cincy: This one sounds like it's worth a look, but, campus safety and compact urban setting are a little worrying to us. </p></li>
<li><p>Ohio U: Seems good on paper, might be affordable with some merit. VERY recent stories I heard from a parent about partying or just say, hanging out and getting drunk/high are troubling, though she feels if a student is serious they will get a great education there. Middle of no where, though beautiful. </p></li>
<li><p>OSU: touring next week. will have more info then. But, size is scary. Brand new chem eng building opening next year. A little too close to home probably for daughter's liking, unless something wonderful convinced her to stay. Off campus housing in lousy neighborhoods for the most part. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>I'd love to hear personal experiences. Thanks!</p>
<p>First, why are you not considering Miami?
Second, my D. was not in engineering, however, some kids from Cinci are acrtually applying in Toledo and when we has asked for the reason, they said, that the Toledo is cercified (whatever that means for engineering, you got to investigate). Toledo is at better location and smaller. My S. has graduated from Cinci (grahic design, but Cinci is famous for this one - DAAP college). D. did not like Cinci’s location and although had a guaranteed spot at Cinci Med. Col, has applied to other Med. Schools.<br>
D. (pre-med) has graduated from Miami Honors (hence my promotion) and absolutely loved it and would not chance anything. Had several (additional to Cinci) Med. Schools acceptances. Loved everything about it and was there on full tuition Merit (Toledo UG offerred the same). Sorry not familiar much with engineering program but one of D’s buddies has actually graduated from Miami with engineering (not sure which).
Another note, since I was in engineering and my H. stil is working for an engineering firm, it absolutely does not matter where you go for engineering, most engineering firms hire locally (BTW, Toledo has lots of them, do not know about other places). So, I would advice to check out all UGs under consideration and choose the one that fits with personality and wide range of current and potential personal interests (coonected and not to a future major). D, has found everything that she was looking for at Miami, including her life long dream of organized trip to NZ, everything there happened above and beyond our expectations.</p>
<p>I can comment a bit on University of Toledo. </p>
<p>Their engineering program seems to be well regarded in the community and for years I have read remarkable stories of students/projects, etc. to come out of that school. I have had student volunteers from the biomed engineering program that seem very bright, responsible and happy with their experience. The head of the engineering department was recently named interim president of the university and was a sigh of relief from staff at the university - a sign that he too is well respected.
Regarding safety: UT is not located downtown but is sort of city center. Two edges of campus are very nice. An upper middle class “village” borders the west side of campus and is beautiful. The north side of campus holds an established very nice neighborhood of brick tudors, families, etc. The other two sides of campus can be a little less desirable. Not awful, but a contrast to what the first two sides hold.<br>
The campus itself is really quite pretty with stone buildings - a mix of new and old. Newer strip of restaurants/B and N bookstore and some new dorms built recently. </p>
<p>On virtually every college campus in America, your D is much more likely to be a victim of a crime perpetrated by a fellow student (theft of laptop, wallet left unattended in her backpack in the library or in the campus coffee shop, assault at a party, bike stolen from her dorm room) then crime perpetrated by a “stranger”, i.e. the resident of one of those neighborhoods you are trying to avoid.</p>
<p>Check out the statistics on any college you are considering- and you will quickly see that it is much more dangerous for your D to attend a bucolic, “safe” campus and walk around in a bubble (not locking her door, getting into a car with a classmate who is too drunk to drive) than it is for her to be at a well policed urban campus where she is taught from day 1 to exercise some street smarts, take public transportation if her “designated driver” is inebriated, and to lock her door, not allow non-residents to walk in to her dorm without showing ID or getting buzzed in by security, etc.</p>
<p>My kids all attended colleges in allegedly dangerous cities and I was singularly impressed with how well organized the colleges were in providing security escorts, free late night transportation, and maintaining orderly and safe living spaces. Many of my nieces and nephews attended (or are attending) colleges in “nice” areas and you wouldn’t believe the crime rate. Kids walk around in a fog of false security in some of these “nice areas” and then are shocked when bad things happen.</p>
<p>Our D is a ChemE and was instate for Ohio. We visited, U of Cincinnati, Ohio State, Ohio U. and U of Toledo. We had an agreement that she would need to choose one for her instate safety. Reader digest version, she chose U of Toledo. We made her also apply to Ohio U because at the time they had an automatic full tuition scholarship. Our observations.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>U of Cincinnati. She didn’t like UCs campus. I personally did but it was quickly rejected. My observation. UC probably has the best Engineering department outside of OSU and CWRU in Ohio. The mandatory co-op can be a plus or a minus depending on ones attitude. If you like it also consider U of Toledo. She did not apply</p></li>
<li><p>Ohio University. She absolutely did not want to attend OU. I think mostly because of it’s reputation as a party school. My observation. It is a beautiful university, however, I was not impressed with the ChemE chair. Nice person but he did not come across as professional. We made her apply. </p></li>
<li><p>Ohio State. She was considering this, however, in the end she liked the atmosphere at Toledo better. We visited these one right after the other. My impression. It’s our state flagship, however, engineering is just one of the many things that OSU does although I’m sure it does it very well. UC and Toledo seem to put more emphasis on engineering as it’s a larger precentage of their student body than OSU. She did not apply.</p></li>
<li><p>U. of Toledo. This surprised me. She liked the campus. She must like a more Gothic look than red brick. My impression. Toledo had one of the best engineering presentations of any school we visited. They have a separate engineering campus with buildings most from the 60’s and 70’s seemingly. Like UC they are a mandatory co-op program. Some 13% of UTs students study engineering. UT itself is not very academically impressive, however, the average ACT for it’s engineering program is 27. The campus itself is pretty but run down in places. For some majors especially it could be a commuter campus. I would say it’s worth looking into for engineering and a few other majors. She did get offered a music scholarship from UT, she was a violist. She applied</p></li>
</ol>
<p>We never made to Akron because she had already chosen Toledo as her safety school with OU as very begrudging 2nd option, Miami U. was too close for her. In the end she applied to 6 schools. Ohio U., University of Toledo, CWRU, U of Kentucky (she wished she hadn’t after the application went out), Purdue University, Washington University in St. Louis (another school she wouldn’t have applied to if she were having a do over) and Northwestern. </p>
<p>In the end Purdue came through with the scholarship and need based scholarship money to make it actually the most affordable to her and it was tied for her first choice with NU. She was accepted to UK, OU, U of Toledo, CWRU and Purdue. She was waitlisted at WashU and not accepted to Northwestern. Good luck to your daughter. </p>
<p>@LanaHere How generous though? Are we talking half tuition only? If so, still expensive compared to state schools. It’s on the list, but given the costs, and other schools she likes better at same cost, not sure how to pursue. Her stats are probably not high enough compared to typical stats at Case. </p>
<p>@lvvcsf Wow, thank you for your response. Your list is very similar to ours, minus Northwestern. </p>
<p>@MiamiDAP I don’t want this to be taken the wrong way, but for her, Miami is not diverse enough in terms of race, perspectives, just about everything. Not even looking at it. Engineering not particularly their strong suit either. </p>
<p>If I am looking at Ohio publics, I would try Case, O State, or Univ of Cinti. While Miami is a great school, I would not choose it over the aforemention for engineering. Yes, Ohio Univ is a party school, but it depends on your child. Even if O University wasnt a party school, I still would rank it lower than the others. Ohio State will have large freshman classes in engineering. UC in my opinion has one of the best engineering programs in the state, at least for public schools, because Univ of Dayton has a really good program if you are looking private. ,Yes there is some crime around UC, but probably no more than O State or Case. Your child has to be diligent and aware of her surroundings, and follow the normal safety protocols. I will say Univ of Cincinnati has really transformed the area around the campus since the 80s-90s, </p>
<p>The crimes that you hear at CWRU is like a student getting her cell phone snatched while walking by herself. More like theft and not violent crime.</p>
<p>Look at the ABET website for accredited programs. Besides the ones mentioned by the OP, I second the suggestion that she certainly should consider Miami U. if it has her area of interest. The campus is beautiful, safe, not too big. It is small town/rural though, which some people don’t like. I haven’t researched the programs there lately, but visited with a relative a few years back–I had a sense that it would be “female friendly.” A few other accredited public engineering schools in Ohio are Youngstown State, Cleveland State and Wright State. Of those three, she might look at a Wright State, which imo has a better reputation, suburban campus–but all three are commuter schools–so not top choices. Outside of Ohio,( besides Ohio State), Cincinnati is the one that is really known/has a good reputation for engineering, and Cincy has excellent co-op programs. (Several of my relatives have gone/go there for engineering. Unfortunately one of them was robbed and beaten up on the street there in broad daylight outside of a bookstore–not by other students, btw.) I have relatives who graduated from OU recently, too. (They did enjoy the party atmosphere–perhaps a bit too much.) OU is beautiful, but far out rural. At least Miami is close to Cincy and Dayton. </p>
<p>@lvvcsf Question: so, how did you feel about comparing Toledo to Purdue? DD loves Purdue, but cost is definitely an issue with them being oos. Seems like a big difference in my mind, but how was it in reality?</p>
<p>Sorry–as I was composing my post, the OP’s veto of Miami was posted. In that case, just by quality of programs, more national reputation, etc. I would pick Cincinnati. Not crazy about the campus, but ,as someone mentioned above, it has improved recently. I like it better than OSU. </p>
<p>OOpsy, forgot the BEST engineering UG in OH - Case. That one is also very well known for the Merit wards and awarded my D. $27K / year for 4 years. I am surprised that it is not on your list. it is unfortunate that you veto’ed Miami, this was the biggest Merit award in my D’s pocket, while Kent, Cinci and OSU and one OOS - MSU all offerred negligible amounts that were not considered at all in her decision making. But if Miami does not fit personally, than there is no point to apply. The personal fit is the most important. </p>
<p>@MiamiDAP can I ask you about Miami in a message? (Don’t want to hijack the thread).
I want my kid to consider it (for engineering bec of merit!) but she read the Insider’s Guide to Colleges review of it that painted it as very “preppy” and kinda snooty sounding. She’s very interested in getting to study abroad and if I can tell her something good about that she’d probably be more enthusiastic about the school. </p>
<p>@MiamiDAP Case is private. It’s not that we aren’t considering it. It’s that we’re looking at the cheaper options closer at this point. The amount of merit you quote is impressive! </p>
<p>@scholarme Miami is preppy, but it is a great school. My son has done very well there, and he is SO NOT PREPPY. Everyone can find his/her niche there. </p>