<p>Hello. I'm a sophomore at the University of Miami. I am majoring in environmental engineering and contemplating transferring to the University of Minnesota. I have never visited their campus and am pulling my hair out over the decision, which needs to be made by May 1. I feel a bit disconnected with the types of personalities at the U and am looking for a more genuine atmosphere. I'm a member of the marching band here. I play tuba.</p>
<p>I also find my engineering program to be a bit disconnected from the rest of the school. I notice other programs have a vision that I just don't see. The program isn't bad; it's just not great. I'm one of the superior students in all of my engineering classes.</p>
<p>I also don't know about Minnesota. It's a big school as far as I hear. I've thought about the weather, but at the end of the day, I just want to be happy with my program and what is around me, and snow really isn't going to bother me that much.</p>
<p>Any thoughts? Insight into either Miami's or Minnesota's engineering programs? Anything on the atmosphere of Minnesota as a college experience and a civil engineering program?
blarger is online now</p>
<p>Earlier in my career we lived in Minnesota for 7 winters; it’s hard to imagine two more different environments. Unless you have lived there you have no sense of the weather. The issue is not snow, it’s snowier in Boston and Chicago than Minneapolis, the issue is the cold. You will have at least 1 week and up to 3 weeks where nighttime lows will be -30 F or colder. There will be days when the high temperatures will not even reach 0 F. In the seven years we lived there my kids never had a snow day, but school was cancelled twice because wind chills reached -60 F; in short, unless you’ve lived it, you don’t know cold like Minnesota cold.</p>
<p>As for the schools, Minnesota is massive, 32,000+ undergrads vs. Miami’s 10,000+. There is something to the concept of “Minnesota Nice”, people are generally friendly but much of the campus population is in-state. Also there is little ethnic diversity, (UMinnesota: 77% White, 9% Asian, 5% Black vs. Miami: 45% White, 23% Hispanic/Latino, 8% Black, 5% Asian).</p>
<p>I can’t speak to the quality of either engineering school, but understand that engineering programs, because of the traditionally rigid nature of their degree tracks tend to feel disconnected from “main” campus - you simply aren’t going to have a Psych major auditing a Fluid Dynamics class. That disconnect increases as you get into upper level classes; I would suspect should you transfer, most, if not all your new friends will be engineers; they simply will be the people you will be interacting with most frequently. </p>
<p>I have no clue what you mean by “the vision” of the school. You have chosen a very specific academic track, your “vision” is the classes you take in order to qualify you to work as an engineer. Your “vision” is what you make it to be. What “vision” do you expect to find/see at another school? </p>
<p>It sounds as though you have decided that Miami is not for you, which is fine, every school is not perfect for everyone. But I’d be concerned about transferring to a school sight unseen especially based on the somewhat vague complaints you have about Miami. The grass may be greener at Minnesota, of course you’re going to have to wait for the snow to melt to see it.</p>
<p>For the engineering thing, I think what vince said is true. I have a group of friends that are all engineers and the only reason I’m friends with them is because my good friend from the Comm school was roommates with one of them when she transfered here so they became good friends. When we hang out with them, we’re always the only 2 comm students hanging out with all engineering students. Which obviously isn’t a bad thing, it’s just that the thing about engineering friends being disconnected from the rest of the school is pretty much true.</p>
<p>If you want to transfer, aren’t there any other schools that are strong in environmental engineering beside Minnesota? Could you maybe look into some other options that may be more appealing? My son transferred out of UM to find a more genuine environment and he is glad he did.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten into Northwestern and Michigan. That’s less cold, but there is still the snow. Why did your son want to transfer out of UM and where did he go?</p>