<p>Hello all!</p>
<p>I am a senior who was recently admitted to Notre Dame's class of 2017. I could not be more excited about my acceptance, because from everything I've learned about the school, it seems like it would be a great place for me personally. However, I do want to major in engineering in college (probably computer or electrical engineering), and I've also been accepted to schools almost universally considered "better" for engineering (based on USNWR rankings and the like). These schools include Georgia Tech and the University of Maryland at College Park. </p>
<p>Is anyone familiar enough with the engineering school at ND to provide an argument to choose ND engineering over the schools I've listed above?</p>
<p>It’s very worth it. Someone else posed a similar question not too long ago, and the bottom line is, companies seek ND engineers. PowAlto, have you been invited to an Engineering Open House at all?</p>
<p>I am also interested in this topic. I am currently a senior deciding between UVA, Notre Dame, Bucknell, and U. Del. Engineering and I am having trouble deciding.</p>
<p>Lonestar, I have not yet seen an invitation to an engineering open house. I am currently planning to visit the campus this month however and attend the regular admitted students open house, if that helps</p>
<p>I can’t tell you what to do with your lives, but I can tell you that I think it’s been worth it for me.</p>
<p>I am a freshman engineer at Notre Dame, and I love it. The classes are challenging, yet manageable, the professors are great, and I am very close to all the other engineers. I recently went to an event for freshman engineers, and the professors told us that last year’s graduating class sent 25% of the students to graduate school, 75% of the students to employment, and 0% of the students to unemployment. I was in the exact same position as you were last year, but I decided that rankings on a list weren’t worth sacrificing the Notre Dame experience.</p>
<p>Do you know how those rankings are assembled? They poll professors across the country. This sounds legit, right? Except, professors don’t attend classes at every university in the country. Instead, they are experts on research. Huge research programs are great for graduate students because it means that the resources are available. For undergrads, it often means competition and neglect. </p>
<p>At Notre Dame, the resources are absolutely there for undergrads but lacking for graduates to a degree, since tenure for professors takes undergraduate teaching strongly into account. Do you want a highly ranked engineering program where you see your professors sparingly and in class only from a large lecture hall? Or do you want the attention of a liberal arts college with the resources of a university? </p>
<p>Full disclosure: Graduate of Notre Dame now at top 5 graduate engineering program.</p>
<p>Son is still choosing between Madison and ND. Madison is ranked 13 in engineering, ND is 43. Madison has coop and intern program also that I don’t see at ND. He wants computer engineering, maybe math also, and eventually MBA. PuschCasusBelli, what do you say re ND v. Madison for engineering analysis.</p>
<p>TC,
I’m not going to come on here and bash UW. Wisconsin is a great school. But it’s a lot like all the other schools in the Big Ten. It’s got a lot of opportunities, a lot of enormous classes, a lot anonymity, many well-known professors, a ton of graduate students. The professors and graduate students probably won’t ever learn your son’s name, let alone get to know him. Most engineers I’ve known from Big Ten schools aren’t able to find spots in all the classes they need in order to graduate in 4 years and often wind up staying 5. On the other hand, they get to do things like Ohio State’s Buckeye Bullet project. Does your son want all his friends to be from his major? Madison could be a good choice. ND forces you to interact with people from all different majors. Does he want to do undergrad research? Madison might have a more well-known professor to work with, while ND would have more responsibility in the lab for the undergrad experience. ND’s math and undergrad business programs both rank very highly and the school’s name would carry a lot more weight with graduate schools in these areas (Though the opposite is true for engineering graduate school- Wisconsin’s profs publish more and thus have more of a name in the academy). Don’t put any weight on specific programs for coops and internships—ND provides plenty of great tools to do these at fantastic companies without university requirement. My classmates and I were never hurting for opportunities. Because you do get to know the faculty so well (I went to visit the dean of my college, who remembered both me and my fiancee, a few weeks ago), you get opportunities for connection that are different from what you attain from formalized programs. </p>
<p>Finally, I’d like to put in a good word for ND’s alumni network. I can speak from personal experience that it’s unlike any other in the world and has been very helpful in my life so far. </p>