Thank you for your feedback. You cite the exact reasons my daughter is so interested in Case Western. That’s definitely the structure and atmosphere she’d love. She just wasn’t sure about the location being in Ohio.
That was the sense I got reading up on CMU and, in addition to CTDad’s note that it’s hard to switch between majors, I think an intensely stressful environment was what struck me about the school. Like you said, it sounds like they’re now trying to encourage more healthy collaboration, but I’m not hearing (yet) that it’s actually playing out with the students? It does otherwise sound like a great school.
They can enroll at the other schools, but the terms don’t align. WPI has very unique 7-week terms.
If aerospace has to be an option, there are only 53 ABET accredited AE programs in the nation. Fortunately, 9 of them are in CA, all CA publics, except USC.
If she wants to work in the industry, she does not have to be an AE. There are MANY types of engineers, physicists and computer scientists that work in the aerospace industry, in both the public and private sector.
IMO, the tech schools like WPI are going to have more students who are not political, not activists. LGBT+ students will be there, but maybe not as loud a group. At my daughter’s school there weren’t the liberal journalism majors (communications majors had to write the online articles), no poli sci majors, etc. Plenty of racial diversity, international students, economic diversity, and kids from around the county, but no one would confuse it as “Reed with engineering” or “UF, just smaller”. Mostly engineers/STEM majors, some cool and some nerdy, some sporty and some taking the trolley to class because walking is too much exercise. No one fighting the administration at every turn, no one inviting controversial speakers to campus.
I would not suggest a tech school for someone who wants to major (or switch to) a non-STEM major. There are some really fun classes to take in music or art, but just not enough of them to craft a major. If she does stick to engineering, there usually are only a few true electives to fit into your schedule anyway; I think my daughter had about 15 credits of non-engineering courses to take, and that was out of 131 total credits (she came in with no AP or DE, so others may have had more room for electives).
I think bigger schools will fit the OP’s daughter better for all the things she wants. Maybe UMass with its consortium so the student can pick which characteristics she likes from each school?
Thank you, it does sound like Rice could be an ideal school for her, but unfortunately she/we’re really not comfortable with her going to school in Texas at this time. Thanks for your feedback I hope it helps other students reading these threads who are looking for similar schools!
Thank you, I’ll share the info, but she may want to stay in her college town to work/study over summers, so weather might still rule out the state. We have a stereotype of Arizona being all hot desert all the time, but imagine that’s probably not entirely true (just like we’re not all beaches in California ). Thank you!
Yeah, she needs to decide if CS, Engineering, etc are must-haves for major options. And from those she decides to keep as possibilities, we realize applying to those majors may cut her out of some UC’s/Cal Poly entirely. If “Engineering Undecided” wasn’t the hardest major to get into at the UC’s, she’d want to start there.
Sounds like they were all great options for him!
True, I don’t think we’ll let her go somewhere without ensuring she really has found a good fit. I’m not articulating her MIT interest well, but I know it is genuine and based on what she so far has learned about the school and its people. I just see her so lit up when she talks about it that I call it starry eyed. Which is apt I think because it’s such a reach.
Yes, that is my big concern about any of the technical schools, including Cal Poly. Which is why it’s so helpful hearing others’ experiences/knowledge about these schools since it’s helping us figure out which are not so STEM-only and could still be a good fit for her.
Again, thanks for all your help!
He does sound similar to my D and your description is making Univ of Rochester sound so appealing (and consistent with what others here are saying). Was he able to start as Undecided there? She’s happy to be around international students, but was hoping for diversity in the domestic student population too, so that would be something she would need to look into more.
She doesn’t mind urban so Case Western could still be good for her, except the concern about it’s being in Ohio. Definitely having her figure out (as much as she is able), if Aerospace (or engineering in general), Comp Sci etc need to stay as major options since that would definitely cut some of the list.
We’ll look into the other schools your son was considering too – thank you!
I don’t know that there would be much reason for her to stay in her college town to work/study over summers. She can find work anywhere in the US, and ASU has a very good online offering is she wants to take classes over the summer.
I think WPI may be a good fit by itself because it is as much of a STEAM school as it is a STEM school. Just taking input from your original post. Unless I missed something you said you were looking for a school in an area that is Progressive and Liberal which WPI and I didn’t see anything about political activism. The majority of the students are coming from the Northeast which is one of the more liberal areas of the country. Based on the academics and location she could find some like-minded nerds. However if she decides she wants to study dance or ancient culture it probably wouldn’t fit the bill.
Also, you get the support of a small to mid-size school with relatively small classes sizes. WPI seems to emphasize project-based learning which supports more of a collaborative environment. It is also a top technical school including offering Aerospace Engineering.
Worcester itself has a ton of colleges and a lot of students per square mile. The town itself may be a little bit rough around the edges but is experiencing a bit of a birth.
I’m not sure how the cross-registration works in the consortium of other schools.
They do seem like they’d be such hugely different experiences but, yes, they’re still on her top 3, perhaps because she does have very diverse interests (I did mention she’s undecided? ). If she doesn’t need to keep engineering as a major option, I agree with blossom that the other STEM options at UChicago could be enough for her (plus they now have molecular engineering!).
I think they equally appeal to her because of what they have in common – very rigorous academics / intellectual environment, strength across many disciplines (though MIT is of course more tech, the non-tech core blossom describes is very appealing), nerdy/quirky students who we thought are less cutthroat/competitive, at least relative to other highly selective schools.
I’m also a Chicago alum from back in the days when fun was still dying and D’s aunt is an MIT alum also from long ago. So D’s views are partially formed from our memories which we realize won’t be as accurate today, but we do think she would thrive in both schools (IMO she might have to first sink at MIT before swimming). But these are such reaches the whole discussion may be moot and, if she does win the lottery and gets admitted to either, she would dive deeper to confirm fit. For now, she’s eager to apply and give it a try.
Thank you both for the interesting discussion!
ETA: I do appreciate hearing anecdotal advice. We can only gauge so much of a school’s environment from lists and surveys. The nice thing about this forum compared to say Niche reviews, is there can be debate when an opinion doesn’t sync with what others experience – kinda like a wiki for our school search. So we really do appreciate hearing everyone’s perspectives, even if they don’t always align with each other. Thank you!
Check out the iSchool (informatics) at University of Washington. She could design that major to be more STEMMY or less STEMMY, depending on what direction she chooses.
Also, if she applies and gets into UW’s Interdisciplinary Honors program, she can get more of the smaller school exploratory liberal arts experience despite UW’s size.
This is exactly what I’ve asked D to do – in addition to looking at majors offered, diving in and reading course descriptions to see what classes would actually be like, especially as she decides if she really is interested in some of the less common and/or competitive majors like Engineering, Comp Sci etc.
Kids now have so much info/resources available to them (of course it can become overload). But I agree it’s such an important exercise. Not sure it will still tell her what engineers do, but at least she’ll get an idea if she actually wants to take the classes she’d need to be an engineer.
That totally makes sense. Unless the school is more hands on like SLO, I imagine most students won’t really know what their planned careers (any career) really look like while they’re still in preliminary courses.
Wow, I had no idea this has been happening. Sigh, I’m so sad but glad to get this info now. Interesting you’d already gotten the vibe on your trip. That’s something so hard to describe to others but I know what you mean. Thank you so much for sharing.
Yes, I encouraged her to keep Scripps on the list since my take was that since the classes, dining halls, extracurriculars etc were co-ed with the other 5Cs, the experience would be closer to a women’s dorm at a co-ed college than a typical women’s college (of course I could be wrong about that). And I’d heard merit was good (that’s amazing what your D got!). I will share your D’s experience with her and maybe she will reconsider. I think the only reason she shouldn’t apply to Scripps (or Pomona) is if there’s a major at HMC that she really wants that she wouldn’t be able to get without being an HMC student.
Don’t know if she’s looked at Cognitive Science specifically, but I know she was very impressed with UCSD’s offerings and that dept sounds like a great fit for her. She still needs to decide if Engineering must be an option to her, but at least at UCSD if she could get into Engineering, I think she could later switch out to CogSci or other STEM majors.
SJSU and CSULB are on her CSU list. I don’t think she’s considered Industrial Design or HCDE – or even know what they mean (nor do I!). I’ll have her look into those programs and Western Washington Univ as well as UW and Utah. Thank you!
My D really lucked out with the Scripps merit - they gave more awards than normal that year, for reasons too complicated and off-topic to venture into on this thread. I think that in practical terms, the experience of single-gender housing at a mid-sized co-ed university comes close to what Scripps students experience; it does go a bit beyond that in the sense of the identity and ethos of the school as its own entity - I just haven’t felt as if it crosses the line to being exclusionary in the way that your daughter fears.
The other thing with UCSD is that there’s no harm in applying to engineering, because (unlike UCLA, for example) you can still be admitted to the university even if you don’t get a spot in your desired engineering major, and then you can decide whether to enter undeclared and go into a non-impacted major like CogSci (CogSci always seems to be on the verge of becoming impacted, but so far they’ve just grown the department and hired more faculty) or attempt the uphill battle of getting into an impacted major. Residential College wise, the most popular one is Muir because the requirements are the least demanding. Your d might like Sixth because of the arts+tech theme, although some say it all sounds cooler than it truly turns out to be. Many aspiring engineers request Warren because it’s most compatible with those curricula and physically close to the engineering school as well. My daughters both liked Marshall and would have been in that College if they’d attended.
With UCLA, my younger daughter made the mistake of choosing an engineering major as her first choice and an L&S major as a second choice. The app lets you do this, but don’t be fooled - you won’t really be considered for an alternate major in a different college. This resulted in my d’s not getting in at all, although I think it’s very unlikely she would’ve attended there anyway so no great loss in her case, but a word to the wise.
Pomona has a very good CogSci department that’s worth a look. It’s a joint department with Linguistics, so it has very rich offerings in that arena if that’s of any interest; but a CS or neuroscience emphasis is also an option.
Good luck! It’s very tricky figuring out how to keep all the right options open long enough to have the experiences necessary to make decisions!
But note that the heavy core / general education requirements at both MIT and Chicago may actually limit the amount of schedule space available for academic exploration in the first year or two, although a required general education course could unexpectedly lead to interest in a subject not previously known to be of interest.
Be aware that SJSU admission selectivity is highly variable based on major. (CS was the most selective major for fall 2021 frosh entrants, which is not surprising.) Difficulty of changing major should be expected to correlate to the major’s admission selectivity.
). Thank you!