Mech Engineering: Case Western vs. UMD vs. U Rochester

<p>My son has been admitted to Case western, UMD, and U Rochester and will study mechanical engineering. Does anyone have any thoughts on which school is best for both engineering and lifestyle? We are in-state for UMD and Case and Rochester will cost about the same but are much smaller and more manageable schools. My son was also accepted to Northeastern but is less interested in that program.
Any thoughts are appreciated!</p>

<p>well,all of them are great choices and Case will give your son great job opportunities.
the engineer who invented Gmail is Case’s alumni BTW</p>

<p>Are you saying that Case Western and Rochester cost the same as each other or that they cost the same as in-state UMD College Park? If the costs for those universities are similar to UMD did your son receive some merit scholarship? If so, check to see how stringent they are for maintaining the Gpa over the 4 years.</p>

<p>My son went to UMD for a summer program and while the campus is large it was certainly manageable after a few days. The real question is whether your son feels it is too large. My personal view is that too many parents/students devalue their in-state options. The grass always seems greener at that out-of-state university.</p>

<p>On our end, UMD is definitely the cheapest for sure and the school has a great engineering program. Case gave a sizeable scholarship which makes it affordable, and Rochester less so and is the most expensive option. An issue with UMD is that there is a healthy party-school element but he is accepted to the Scholars program with special dorms so maybe there is less of that there. Any thoughts on the engineering programs at these schools?</p>

<p>I have a freshman MechE at UMD, also in the scholars program so feel free to pm me with any specific questions. I happen to also be an alum (but NOT engineer!) so I have first-hand experience on campus.</p>

<p>I cannot recommend UMD highly enough. The engineering program is outstanding and they have a lot of supports in place for engineering students. One of the attractions to UMD’s program is that it is cross-disciplinary, so you get all the foundation, with a broader reach. The engineering design class in their freshman year is unique because they actually design and build a hovercraft to race against other teams of students in all the different sections of the class. The opportunities for research and internships are beyond outstanding.</p>

<p>Being in the scholars program is an extra advantage because those dorms are the absolute closest dorms you can get to the engineering/math/science buildings. In addition to the “theme” of their program, scholars students get professional prep such as writing resumes, interview skills, etc. The whole program makes a big school seem much smaller - like a school within a school. One of the best things is the outside activities where they can visit places they would never have access to otherwise, such as the Army Research Lab, for example.</p>

<p>As for the “healthy party-school” element, there really is no school that does not have that. The great thing at UMD is that there are so many students that it is easy to find like-minded students regarding participation in that aspect.</p>

<p>Were you aware of the engineering preview program? One was yesterday and there is only one more on March 24th - well-worth attending so you can see first-hand what makes the school a stand-out for engineering. [Preview</a> Program Registration and Information | A. James Clark School of Engineering](<a href=“http://www.eng.umd.edu/prospective/preview]Preview”>Preview Program Registration | A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland)</p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

<p>We did not look at UMD for DS, but I’ve read a lot of positive feedback on various CC threads. One of his options was CU Boulder near home. It has a reputation for partiers, but that did not concern me since that can happy anywhere… and there is an engineering dorm where the students can study amongst student with similar heavy workload.</p>

<p>We visited Case in Feb 2010 and liked it. DS ended up elsewhere, but the generous FA brought Case costs into the range of CU - Case was definitely high on our list. For DS, we liked the fact that he could study engineering yet still have many options to continue with his music interests.</p>

<p>GO with UMD its your state school and it will you cheaper. Don’t let him ruin his life with debt. Also, you have to factor in the transportation cost if you got out of state.</p>

<p>All are great choices and would likely fit different kids differently. UMD is a great school, but it is very large and is likely to be the most imposing and least “personal” of the three. There are also safety issues that have been occurring more frequently in College Park (although Case is probably not better) that should be considered. University of Rochester is a wonderful school - and the most liberal arts-minded of the three, but not best known for its engineering. If your son has other interests (e.g. in the humanities or especially music), Rochester would be a great choice. Case is a very good balance of excellent engineering and other humanities. With merit money it may bring you much closer to UMD’s in-state tuition. It is likely to be more personable than UMD. If your son would do better in smaller classes - Case is an excellent option. If he can fend for himself, probably would do well at any of the three.</p>

<p>p.s. to give a sense of the relative size - UMD graduated 200 Mechanical Engineers (BS) in 2011, Case graduated 60 and Rochester 30.</p>

<p>final comment - I have found this ASEE website very helpful in comparing different undergraduate engineering programs. This link takes you to enrollment numbers at UMD. You can look at other schools, as well as resources, etc.</p>

<p>[University</a> of Maryland, College Park - 2012](<a href=“http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/5716/screen/20?school_name=University+of+Maryland%2C+College+Park]University”>http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/5716/screen/20?school_name=University+of+Maryland%2C+College+Park)</p>

<p>Thanks to all of the feedback about these 3 schools. My son would know lots of students at UMD as we are from a local high school magnet program that practically feeds into the Clark school of engineering. He went to the UMD Engineering preview night last week and they had the prospective students do a Chem Eng. project of making lip balm which he thought was very cool and b/c it was hands on. It is definitely the cheapest of the choices. He was also admitted to U Wisconsin which I can’t see investigating as why pay out of state tuition for a large school that is far away. Lastly he was admitted into Northeastern with some decent merit aid; it would cost about $10-12K more than UMD. He did not like it there as it felt like it was only about the job outcome with a vocational bent rather than growing in other ways too. Any thoughts about throwing Northeastern in the mix?</p>

<p>Thanks for sharing your son’s experience. My son was also admitted to Scholars which makes the large school more accessible. Glad to hear about your positive experience as UMD is definitely high on the list!</p>