<p>My D applied early to the following colleges in Engineering. While she is still waitng for some schools to respond, we are relieved that the following have already responded and accepted her in the college of engineering. We have never visited any. So I need your advice on the process of elimination/selection, what to look for, etc. I would like to eliminate two via collective wisdom/advice received through CC community, preferably visit the remaining two, and pick one based on the actual visit. Which ones you suggest to keep for visit. </p>
<p>Colleges are: Georgia Tech, Purdue, University of Michigan, University of Illionois (UIUC). </p>
<p>Some (conflicting) factors for her: (1) she prefers not to go to tech only school; she hates cold (we are from California); (2) wants to go to a college that has a broad humanities program available; (3) prefers a large school over small; prefers college town envionrment; (4) prefers urban setting over rural. </p>
<p>Her intended major is Electrical/Computer Eng. But she is not sure about the major, may switch to other engineering majors, or possibly out of engineering to Bio/Economics, etc. if she finds engineering is not what she likes. At this point, she thinks she will go for graduate studies in business after a few years of working. </p>
<p>As for me, I do care about college prestige, ranking, job prospects after graduation. Will prefer for her to return to California. She does not have scholarship from any. But I am not factoring in the cost differences between these schools at this time. </p>
<p>Please help select two of four above for a campus visit. (Oh, if this is not the right forum, pl let me know)</p>
<p>All 4 schools will provide a superior engineering education. However, aside from GT, weather may be an issue. Ill and Mich will offer the the broadest variety of opportunities outside of engineering. Geographically, PU and ILL are within 2 hrs of one another while MI is another 4 or 5 (driving). GT on the other hand is 9-10 hrs south.</p>
<p>I would suggest using the CC College Search Forum to find the 4 schools your D is interested in. You can view threads associated with each university to get a feel for each school. We visited GT, UMich, and UI this summer and loved them all. I don’t think you can go wrong with any of these schools.</p>
<p>3 of the 4 schools on her list are bitterly cold and within about a 200 mile radius of each other. GT is pretty tolerable cold-wise. As a Floridian, I haven’t been too miserable this winter. Atlanta is definitely not a college town (though the campus is very college-y as opposed to many urban campuses), however.</p>
<p>Since I don’t attend the other 3 schools, I’ll just talk more about GT. Out of the 4 uni’s, Tech probably has the weakest humanities course offerings, but there is no shortage of arts/humanities-minded people. ECE in fact has a website dedicated to art submitted by its students/faculty. If your daughter ends up not liking ECE, she might like BME (which has become hugely popular in the last few years) which is quite popular with girls. If your daughter wants to switch out of engineering, the most popular track is management. I’m not too sure about the econ or bio departments, but I have a feeling they’re about the same rank as those departments at the other 3 schools (except maybe Michigan).</p>
<p>I don’t really have an answer for you on which universities to not visit. All but GT have undesirable weather, GT has the weakest humanities, Purdue and Illinois are in small towns, etc. In my mind, they all have pretty similar nation-wide name recognition so I don’t see going to a particular school as having much effect on employment opportunities, so it’s pretty much all down to quality of life factors.</p>
<p>Purdue is a top-tier school for engineering but i’m not too sure how broad its humanities program is. As for the weather in Indiana the winters are long and cold but early fall and late spring are pleasant. West Lafayette is pretty nice and definitely a college town but it’s in the middle of nowhere. The closest big city is Indianapolis which is maybe an hour away or Chicago which is at least 2 hours away.</p>
<p>Michigan is a great school, especially for someone who may not be sure about their decision to study engineering. Each department at the university is ranked highly, and the city of Ann Arbor is probably the best college town you could ask for. Being a large research university allows endless research opportunities, even for undergraduates. The professional schools: nursing, medical, business, and law are highly prestigious, perhaps even more so than the undergraduate program. The only negative is the cold, which although is pretty bad this winter, isn’t usually that bad.</p>
<p>Not only is Ann Arbor great for engineering - all the departments are ranked highly, and mechanical is ranked 2, but it also has a great alumni network that will help your daughter get a job once she graduates. The Go Blue spirit is amazing throughout the entire state of Michigan, and Ann Arbor was recently named the #1 college sports town in the nation.</p>
<p>Although she hates the cold, Ann Arbor sounds like a great place for your daughter. Visit it, and you may fall in love with it, the campus is amazing! It is known as the school who studies hard and parties hard, and even though it is known to be incredibly academically challenging, you can always find parties with its well established Greek life and great social atmosphere.</p>
<p>I would eliminate Purdue, and I am not familiar with UIUC. Purdue has a great engineering program, but as the other post said, its other programs are not nearly as respected. I would also check out Georgia Tech, I have a friend who goes there for engineering (chose it over UMich) and loves it. It is a tech-only school (all the humanities classes relate to technology) but it has great weather and is extremely prestigious for engineering.</p>
<p>Judging from #1 and #2 and her not being absolutely sure she wants to do engineering I’d be wary of going to GT. It’s a brutal atmosphere down there.</p>
<p>While Michigan would probably be the best school choice academics-wise should your daughter want to get out of engineering, she would probably hate the weather if she really does hate the cold. As for the second choice, GT has a very college-y campus (terrible word, but I hope you get the point), and the weather is the most bearable, but it is a tech school so the humanities will not be as good as they are at Michigan.</p>
<p>I agree that other than for the weather, Michigan is the closest to what she seems to be looking for.</p>
<p>I know kids want to leave the state, but I’m really wondering why your DD would want to pay out of state costs at these schools when the UCs have such good engineering programs and are better known to CA employers than the schools she’s looking at if she’s planning to return. Can’t she just attend a UC on the other side of the state, it will feel different:)</p>
<p>And I’m a well known UC basher on this forum!</p>
<p>while UIUC is a great school for engineering, from my friends’ experiences it is hard to switch your major after enrolling and even more difficult to switch schools. One thing I didn’t like about the school is you are enrolled in the major you come in with and you have to apply to another major if you want to switch. A friend of mine is now a year behind because he switched his major.</p>
<p>3 of these could all theoretically be visited during a mini-road trip (fly to Chicago, rent a car for a few days).
Note that even Atlanta can have a couple of snow days a year (might be during break).
College town and urban environment are kind of mutually exclusive since college towns tend to be small. Atlanta has several colleges nearby, so there are plenty of students around. West Lafayette is relatively small but the area around the Purdue campus definitely fits the college town motif. It is a large school so it should have plenty of quality beyond the engineering courses. It is renown for its vet school for example. Atlanta has a metro train to the airport so GT would be convenient for trips home (or a student alone visit), but West Lafayette not convenient to a big city airport.<br>
I don’t know too much about the others, but I am sure their weather is worse than Purdue’s. The one I would check out is UIUC.
For warm weather and large schools I would have suggested Texas if California or Arizona are ruled out.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your insights in college selection. These responses exceed my expectations. I also got some very useful PM’s giving additional information.</p>
<p>chuy>>Judging from #1 and #2 and her not being absolutely sure she wants to do engineering I’d be wary of going to GT. It’s a brutal atmosphere down there.</p>
<p>Thanks, chuy for your message. Could you clarify what you mean by brutal atmosphere down there.</p>
<p>hmom5>>but I’m really wondering why your DD would want to pay out of state costs at these schools when the UCs have such good engineering programs and are better known to CA employers </p>
<p>seesys>>If she got into those schools, then she probably got into UCB/SD/LA/I.</p>
<p>Thanks, hmom5 and seesys. Well, she is not worrying about the OOS costs (her dad is paying ). I think going out of state will be a good experience for her for her studies, given my hope that she will settle back in California. Secondly, I am not taking UCs (certainly top UCs) for granted yet. She has gotten admission in these above schools (GT/Purdue/UIUC/UM), so we are giving serious consideration to those. UC decisions will not be out until mid-Mar/end of March. hmom5, I will look up your posts on UC bashing. </p>
<p>All, a few other factors: she does care about diversity (not just race/ethnicity/etc but also OOS population). You don’t want to feel outsider. How do you compare these schools on that dimension. Also, could you comment on social life if you are not part of the greek system.</p>
<p>If you make a visit to UM, make sure you get a chance to visit Martha Cook Building, it’s a wonderful all female, historic dormitory (not part of the regular housing lottery) located in central campus next to the law quad an Mich Union. What she would gain from a BLUE experience would definitely surpass any snow she might encounter!</p>
). I think going out of state will be a good experience for her for her studies, given my hope that she will settle back in California. Secondly, I am not taking UCs (certainly top UCs) for granted yet. She has gotten admission in these above schools (GT/Purdue/UIUC/UM), so we are giving serious consideration to those. UC decisions will not be out until mid-Mar/end of March. hmom5, I will look up your posts on UC bashing. </p>