Midwest ChemE decision: Rose-Hulman, Butler/IUPUI or Dayton

My son has been accepted with decent merit aid to Rose-Hulman, Butler/IUPUI Dual Degree Program and U Dayton. He thinks he wants Chemical Engineering but could change his mind to Mechanical. Butler offers a Dual Degree where he would get a BS in Chemistry and BS in Mechanical Engineering from IUPUI (ChemE not offered at IUPUI). Does anyone have any feedback on the quality of the program and the quality of life on these campuses?

Rose definitely has the best reputation (not even close to the other 2), Terre Haute is a small, isolated Indiana town. Is Butler/IUPUI a 3+2? If so, in the end is Rose nearly the same price? Dayton was D’s 2nd choice, nice size, great campus and facilities.

Thanks for the input. Butler is a 5 year program. So, yes, cost would be about the same as RH. We are from Chicago and I think the tiny town of Terre Haute and small size is holding him back from choosing RH. We are going on second visits in the next couple weeks. My older son is at Dayton (Pre-Med). He has many engineering friends that seem very happy and successful there.

Yes, it is a 3+2 program (5 years total nominal length), though courses may be taken at both campuses (5 miles apart) during the last two years, and “tuition is paid to Butler University all five years”.
https://www.butler.edu/engineering/overview

We agree 1000% about Terre Haute, we lived there for 2 years.

Butler is very similar to Dayton as far as school spirit/feel but it is much smaller. There are 100s of students at Butler from Chicago. Butler is also about 25%+ Catholic if that is important to you. Butler does require students to live on campus for 3 years.

We are very connected to Butler but I think I would choose Dayton over Butler/IUPUI for engineering. There are very few students who do the 3+2 program at Butler.

Thanks so much for your input promom4!

Dayton also has a great relationship with the Air Force Research Laboratory so there are good internship opportunities.

For your son’s potential academic interests, RHIT represents a top-notch choice even if it were compared on a national basis.