<p>I wanted Lake Jr. to apply to Ohio U and take a shot at the Engineering scholarships that are available to out-of-staters, but he had no interest. Probably too rural for him.</p>
<p>Regarding the rest of the publics, Akron and Cincinnati have good reputations in ChE and Materials Engineering. The Goodyear Polymer Research Center is located on the campus at Akron. The Bridgestone Americas Research Center is in downtown Akron.</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>I’ll do my best to answer this. We’ve had the advantage of her being a Purdue student for over a year our experience with Toledo was merely as part of the search. I would say they are quite different in feel and the way they organize their programs. I’ll be talking about Purdue more than UT.</p>
<p>Similarities: They are both ABET accredited, both had very well laid out presentations and engineering seemed to be a very important part of both universities. Both have well organized engineering programs and those programs are the strong points of their respective schools. </p>
<p>Differences: Campus feel, Purdue feels like a large college town. The closest I could equate it to instate Ohio would be Miami U/Oxford but W. Lafayette is much larger. Neither would be nearly the town it is without the university. UT does not feel like an urban campus rather more of a suburban campus even though it is within the city of Toledo. </p>
<p>Campus itself. Other than the obvious difference in size Purdue is one of the cleanest universities we visited. It has old buildings, however, I felt that things were well taken care of. U of Toledo has new building too but seems run down in some areas. It is a very nice campus however. The buildings are rather Gothic in architecture but even the newer parts look like they could use attention. I believe that Toledo has many more students who commute to school than Purdue would have and therefore while it may be a campus of nearly 16000 undergraduates it will feel like a good deal less than that when the commuters leave. Toledos engineering campus is close to (walk-able) but separate from the main campus. Purdue Engineering is the main campus.</p>
<p>Students. U of Toledo has very good programs in Engineering, Pharmacy and Nursing. I’m sure some of their other programs are good too. However, it is a rolling admissions school with overall pretty low standards for acceptance. The aforementioned programs are more rigorous and thus have lower acceptance rates. Purdue actually has some of the same issues. It’s Engineering program is very highly regarded, 9th in the country I believe, and attracts a lot of foreign students (I think it’s like 3rd in the country). It typically deemed to be an engineering school easier to get in than out. Most of the rest of it’s programs are not considered to be at the same level as it’s engineering program, however, it is one of two state flagships Indiana has so overall its going to be more selective than Toledo. </p>
<p>Engineering Programs. At Purdue you cannot declare a major. You are accepted into their First Year Engineering program and sometime during the 2nd semester you choose the top three programs you would like to be in. Some like ChemE have a limited number of slots and require a specific GPA your freshman year, it was 3.2 last year my D declared. At Toledo if I remember right you are accepted into your major. Toledo requires that you do a coop. It’s been two years since we visited but I believe you did 3 sessions. I don’t remember which companies recruit there but Toledo has over 2000 engineering students. At Purdue coops are optional. They have an exceptional Office of Professional Practice and as a top school there are a large number of companies that recruit there. There are typically around 500 students I think that coop out of over 6000 engineering students. Both Purdue and Toledo have Honors programs. Purdue is known for having no grade inflation. Some courses can be very difficult and while the GPA to keep a scholarship is only 3.0 the average engineering student carries a 2.8. I believe a 3.0 is required to keep the U of Toledo scholarships as well. I can’t speak to the difficulty of the grading. </p>
<p>Ok. I feel like you asked me what time it was and told you how to build a watch. I’ll finish with this. A little less than a year and a half ago our D had received all of her acceptances and rejections, she received her financial aid package from CWRU and surprisingly to us it would have been affordable, if only barely. She was going to visit CWRU for an accepted student visit and had not yet received the FA package from Toledo or Purdue. Surprisingly D was leaning towards just attending Toledo primarily because she wanted to coop and knew that they would support her in that. When Purdue’s FA came in and it made Purdue affordable it was a no brainer. If it had not been affordable she would be in a different place right now. Very likely Toledo. Again good luck.</p>
<p>scholarme, I sent you a message :)</p>
<p>My opinion, first Ohio State,then Cincinnati and then a tie between Toledo and Akron. Cincinnati has had a reputation for engineering since I was in school 40 years ago. Miami’s reputation is business, and that is where they focus. Akron and Toledo are trying. The rest offer engineering as a side job. Cinci, Toledo and Akron are pretty much commuter or suitcase schools.</p>
<p>My son picked Ohio State, some of the reasons: Top 25 of federal research $ (more than Case), Cinci is #43, Toledo #146 <a href=“http://mup.asu.edu/research2011.pdf”>http://mup.asu.edu/research2011.pdf</a>, translates to some of the newest and best equipment and facilities plus some undergraduate research options. Large school means more major class availability. When you’re in a small program the university will only offer a particular course once a year. If you get out of sequence because of internships, illness… chances are you will be a year behind. If the program is large chances are they offer it multiple times per year. Many employers do hire locally, but the larger national and international companies will go on college visits for hiring interns and permanent employees. Why would a company go to a small pool of candidates when for the same cost they can have a much larger pool. This year’s fair <a href=“https://expo.engineering.osu.edu/about-expo/registered-companies”>https://expo.engineering.osu.edu/about-expo/registered-companies</a> School had 100+ companies. There is a career center just for engineering students. OSU has a 93% retention rate, highest public in Ohio. I have to believe they are doing some right if they can keep that many Freshmen. Higher selectivity ACT around 28, 95% in the upper 25% of high school. Whatever the students need there seems to be a resource available. A wealth of electives and minors.</p>
<p>Downside: it is large, but many of the departments are smaller, my son’s bioengineering class is only 80 students. As they’re fond of saying say you can make a school seem smaller, but you can’t make a small school bigger. Scheduling can be a hassle, but if you’re in honors you schedule early. Freshman year you are in pre-engineering then must qualify for the engineering discipline based on GPA. Every department sets different GPA standards. Scholarships are so-so. Compared to other Ohio publics they offer less. However, tuition is lower than many including Cincinnati and Miami. Engineering is highly competitive as are many of the majors.</p>
<p>scholarme,
First, visit, you will fall in love with campus, nothing else is compared to it at least in OH.
Second, “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” - Miami has a campus in Lux (at least they had it when D. was there). D. went to organized trip to NZ - that was her dream and that was covered by ADDITIOANL scholarship (Merit, for returning students)</p>
<p>OP, “Case is private. It’s not that we aren’t considering it. It’s that we’re looking at the cheaper options closer at thispoint.” - It was a much much cheaper for my D. than ALL others but Miami and Toledo (because of Merits). Toledo was a special case for my D., I am not sure about others IS would be getting as much in Toledo as she did. But as I have mentioned, Kent, Cinci, OSU, MSU offerred her such a small amount that we jsut shrugged and said, forget it. Miami and Case simply have much more resources. And, of course, Miami is more diverse, but D. was NOT looking for racial or socioeconomical diversity, she was coming from very small private HS (great number of kids with MD and lawyers parents), she wanted to meet people who are NOT very intense and have very wide range of interests. She did not want to be surrounded strictly by pre-meds in Honors, she does not enjoy discussing academics all day long. I am not trying to convince anybody, kid has to feel at home, so it is ultemate student desicion. But D. found very diverse (interests, intellectual ability,…etc.) friends and experiences that enabled her to grow personally which is extremely important for Med. School. She said that if she choose Case (which is great for both engineering and pre-med), she would be among the same type of crowd as she was in her tiny private very intense and rigorous HS.</p>
<p>My DS also wants to follow the athletic teams where he goes to school. Anyone able to add that aspect to their evaluation of these schools? (Difficulty of getting tickets, do kids support the teams, fun traditions, etc)</p>
<p>@Cheeringsection
UC: I would say is a basketball/ football school. Football tix are easy to get, basketball it depends on who they are playing.
Miami: hockey is huge there. I am not sure how easily you can get tix because my son is so not into any sports.
O State of course we all know football rules there. </p>
<p>Toured all of these schools except Akron. We were not thrilled with the engineering departments at OU or Miami. Great schools for the right person and right major, it just wasn’t right for us. Thought that the school of engineering was weak, Miami is trying to increase their engineering school with a new building but we felt it wasn’t there yet. That was a few years ago. I know OP is not interested but it sounds like a few other posters are. </p>
<p>Agree with everything lvvcsf said re: well everything that was said. Not much to add :)</p>
<p>A couple of other schools that we looked at and liked. Bradley in Peoria, nice school. Evansville University. We were really surprised by this school, really liked it. Both schools offered merit which brought it down close to instate costs. </p>
<p>A real outlier which I am positive is too far away (for everyone). Michigan Tech. Great school, great reputation (very well respected in engineering circles), offers merit that might make it affordable. I know, I know, at the end of the world ;)</p>
<p>Akron is definitely a commuter school. I can’t speak as to the specifics of the engineering department, but the school is mid-smack in the downtown area of Akron. It is a commuter school in the middle of an urban area. They just recently built new dorms and there is a minor league baseball park near the campus. We know one of the humanities professors there, and he said pretty much the same thing – it is very much a commuter school. That said, it is very strong in engineering. One of DD’s friends is going there for chemical engineering, another is going there for polymer engineering (is there such a thing?).</p>
<p>Just wanted to pop in and say a word about UC. Daughter has a good friend in the Engineering program (not chem, mechanical I think) and he is doing incredibly well. The co-op program is fantastic, and has pretty much allowed him to come out of school with no loans or debt with only a very small contribution from his parents. He has not one but I believe two offers for jobs when he graduates. </p>
<p>Carlson, yup there is polymer engineering. Off shoot of chemical/material science. Akron is known for having a great program in it. S thought about it but went into material science. He investigated it and found that chem eng was a better foundation if that was what he wanted but he really liked mat sci and decided to stay. Probably way more than you wanted to know ;)</p>
<p>For the OP, about OSU, in case the kid is looking for merit. One thing we found out from OSU is that they are strict about the ranking that corresponds to merit levels. So like the top merit awards go to top 3% - there is no fudging on that (we asked bec my D is in the 4% being number 3 in a class of 75).</p>
<p>^As I have mentioned D. got close to nothing at OSU. She graduated #1 from very well known in OH rigorous private HS. Later, she ended up graduating #1 pre-med from Miami (Summa Cum Laude, PBK), OSU lost a pretty good student. However, D. did not consider OSU for a different reason, she did not like it too much, which is actually a norm, kids who love OSU, usually do not like Miami and the other way around.</p>
<p>…yes, and #1 did not make top 3% either, I believe that D. was top 3.3%, so that may be a reason for a small Merit award, who knows, others did not give her much either which may be the same reason. </p>
<p>My son is freshman at UT in the ME program. We live about an hour away and initially UT wasn’t even on our list since it was in our “back yard.” However, after visiting/researching UT’s program, it was hard to say no to. Solid program, one of the eight schools in the country with mandatory coops (and three coops at that with options for placement across the country and abroad). The coops are paid and pretty darn well at that. We visited several other programs/schools, and UT was by far the best program in our experience. I would encourage you to visit the program, talk with Dr Pawlecki, and see what you think. I did ask two engineering recruiters if UT grads are considered in demand. They said employers love them because the come out with a 3 semesters of experience and are ready to hit the ground running and don’t require “babysitting.” Just my humble opinion</p>
<p>@casey1: Presumably you mean Toledo? Lot’s of UT’s in this country.</p>
<p>^Not many other UT in OH.
Coops are great, my own S. was in coop for Graphic Design at Cinci and they get jobs right away, actually choices. He had only one summer off, then they had one quarter at school, another at work. Since the “work” ones are paid, it makes it easier for family to pay (S. did not have any scholarships). However, keep in mind that there are other coop programs at other places, you just have to compare them. Cinci probably is coop and I believe OSU. Also, another point is that coops are 5 year programs unless they are accelerated.</p>
<p>For ChemE, you may want to consider UMinn too. If you are NMF, the cost may be lower than in state elsewhere.</p>
<p>For any engineering major, UG really does not matter. Most engineering firms hire locally anyway. My H. is an engineer, I have tons of engineers friends, we ahve lots of engineering firms in our hometown. And since one needs to be a top student to be able to survine in engineering, kid will be surrounded with the very top caliber kids anywhere (if they want to stick to this crowd, my D. did not care to have only pre-med friends, she wanted wide social environment, so she added Music minor, was in sorority,…etc… She did not want to talk science / academics / research / medical school all day long)</p>
<p>“For any engineering major, UG really does not matter”</p>
<p>That’s not necessarily true. When hiring locally it is true there is reasonable access to the employer making it easier to interview and your competition is pretty limited to a single local university, but typically the companies are smaller. What happens when there aren’t many jobs locally for your major or you want a job with a national / international exposure ? For example if you are a biomedical engineer at Miami University, how many local choices do you have for a job ? How many national companies come on campus ? So now you go to Cincinnati for interviews, but you are competing with Cincinnati and OSU grads, what’s your differentiator ? If you go to a school with a reputation for engineering most companies will come to the campus and interview. There will be a much wider representation of businesses to choose from. The student is limiting himself to local companies, but his competition is much greater.</p>
<p>If you are interviewing at that international company and their candidate choices are Miami university, Case, Cincinnati, or Ohio State and all candidates are otherwise fairly equal who do you think they’ll choose ? Case has an international reputation for their biomedical program, Ohio State is ranked very close to Case with many of their engineering programs and even better in some. Cincinnati is probably 3rd in the state for biomedical engineering. Miami has a biomedical program that is being run by the paper engineering department because the market for paper engineering is so limited. Miami rather than showing a commitment to bioengineering and making it independent, lets the paper group administer it. How well do you think the paper engineering group will represent the biomedical engineers ? Goes to show the level of commitment Miami has to engineering in general. I’m not sure who you would hire, but I would go with one of the engineers that went to a school that I know for its engineering program, and unless I am local, I probably have no clue that Miami has engineering. Even if I am local, if a person from Case or Miami wants to work for me, I’ll take the Case graduate.</p>