PSU vs. RPI vs. Del Honors vs. Case Western

College Search & Selection
1

<p>After getting waitlisted at my top choices, Cornell and Carnegie Mellon, I'm moving on with the other schools that accepted me. I will be majoring in chemical enginnering. As of now I see the pros and cons of each school as follows.</p>

<p>Penn State:</p>

<p>Pros: Good engineering and chemical engineering
Big Ten sports
A lot of good friends going there
In state so decently cheap</p>

<p>Cons: Large and impersonal
Hard to study at a party school
Everyone and his/her mom from my area seems to be going there</p>

<p>RPI:</p>

<p>Pros: Prestigious in engineering
DI hockey (I'm a big hockey fan)
Nice facilities
Small size</p>

<p>Cons: Not a very social school
Bad male to female ratio
Got 20k in scholarships but it's still an expensive school
Not as strong outside of engineering if I transfer out</p>

<p>Delaware: </p>

<p>Pros: Outstanding chemical engineering program
Honors college
A little more than PSU after scholarships
Good size</p>

<p>Cons: Weakest school academically of the 3
Other programs are not as highly regarded if I transfer out of chemical engineering</p>

<p>Case Western:</p>

<p>Pros: Got very good aid so it'll be cheaper than RPI but still more than PSU and Delaware
More personal attention
Good in engineering</p>

<p>Cons: Worst in chemical engineering of the 4
Social life is not too good</p>

<p>I will be visiting all of them soon, so hopefully that will really make my decision easier. I am currently leaning toward PSU, Delaware, or RPI but have not ruled out Case Western. Money is not an overly important issue but I would like to help out my parents by going somewhere that is not too expensive. I am appreciative of any help that you can provide.</p>

2

<p>I was a UDEL HONORS (NEUROSCIENCE)
FUN SCHOOL. CHEM E is the schools forte. My dad did his Masters MECH E at Case and I think Taught There as well. RPI has a great rep. You really can’t go wrong.
I would visit each and see if you can see yourself living there.
my 2 cents</p>

3

<p>Do you recommend UDel’s Honors? Is it harder to get good grades in the honors’ courses?
What do you know about their Biology program?<br>
Thanks for your reply.</p>

4

<p>Generally I recommend UDel’s Honors program. It’s nothing amazing but overall it’s pretty nice with some good perks. As for getting good grades in the honors courses, it really depends on the course. I assume your son or daughter will be taking BISC207 Honors as that is your son or daughter’s major. I have a friend who is a fellow ChemE who took the course and said it was an extremely easy A. Other honors courses most notably, CHEM111/112 which is general chemistry for ChemEs, Biochem, and chem majors, are notoriously harder as honors. I don’t know much about the Biology program, but assume it’s pretty good considering Delaware is pretty solid in most areas of science and engineering. Most of the biology majors I know are pretty smart so if that at all correlates with the strength of the program than that’s a good sign.</p>

<p>Hopefully that helps and if you have any other questions feel free to ask.</p>