Hi everyone! I’m in the middle of trying to make my college decision and any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated!
So I’m going into Chemical Engineering and my top three choices are Purdue University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and Georgia Institute of Technology.
I heard the Rose-Hulman is the #1 undergraduate chemical engineering program in the nation, but I’m concerned about the small size. However, they do have a lot of possibility for institutional aid and they have a strong career services center.
Purdue’s campus seems lively and socially active, and I really like it there! But their engineering retention rate is so low, with nearly 50% of students kicked out the first year. Does anyone know anything about this?
Lastly, Georgia Tech. Definitely more prestigious than the other two, but I have heard that their campus life basically sucks and you suffer from a deflated GPA.
Really? We looked at GT, and heard the exact opposite. I mean, c’mon…you’d be in Midtown Atlanta. There will be a ton of things to do, especially compared with Lafayette or Terre Haute.
You haven’t mentioned cost, that has to factor in to some degree.
I will assume from your nickname that you are female. How does the nearly-four-to-one male/female ratio at Rose-Hulman sound to you–appealing, or frightening?
Concerning Purdue, 50% turnover seems high to me. My D is a Chem E there and loves the school. I suspect that if you were successful in being accepted to RHIT and Georgia Tech, you will be successful at Purdue. They don’t “kick you out” most students who leave engineering decide that engineering is more work than they bargained for. Depending on what you come to school with AP/IB wise you’ll probably be taking Physics, Calculus, Chemistry and First Year Engineering your first semester. That’s a more rigorous course load than many students had in HS. RH or GT wouldn’t be any easier. Chem E does require a higher GPA than some to be accepted into their program, it was a 3.2 when D was a freshman in 2013.
You have good choices regardless of which school you choose. Our D is doing a 5 term co-op, volunteers as a tutor for the SWE and is doing research on catalysts for fuels. The key regardless of where you attend is stepping out and taking advantage of the resources available. She went to a career fair her first semester freshman year and began introducing herself to employers. She ended up interviewing with 5 companies the second semester and had 4 job offers for co-op positions. Her sophomore year she began contacting professors about research opportunities. Purdue provided the list. She ended up with around 3 choices. She had the advantage of coming to school with around 42 credit hours in AP credits. It won’t shorten her graduation time but allowed her to have time available to do research and also continue to play in the Purdue orchestras. Good luck in your decision.
Isn’t the Purdue first year engineering process basically a “weed out” process, where students who do not earn a high enough college GPA (3.2 for some majors) are prevented from majoring in engineering?
While RHIT has a 80/20 split of male/female, GT is at 70/30. Not much different.
I think it would come down to choice between an urban campus at GT or a suburban campus at RHIT. I would pick either of these over Purdue (ignoring cost of attendance).
^ no nothing about any of the schools but I would assume GT is much larger so even if a similar percentage, it is a similar percentage of a larger number, so significantly more women at GT to choose from as friends.
@ucbalumnus Purdue is less selective than say a Georgia Tech, however, they teach the same physics, calculus etc. that they do. The FYE courses are a lot of work but not necessarily considered “hard”. 1st semester reviews the varying types of engineering, the second gets into programming and working with other students on projects. It’s time consuming and generally considered the more difficult of the FYE courses. I think what gets many of the kids at Purdue is that some haven’t been challenged as much in HS as they will be in Purdue engineering.
My D came from a good suburban HS with a strong AP program especially in the sciences. She has seen two types of kids who struggle in FYE. Those whose HS really didn’t prepare them and those who just expected it to be easier. It’s been mentioned on other threads that Purdue engineering students seem to be kind of bifurcated. Those who come in prepared do well and tend to have GPA’s of 3.5 or better and those who don’t and tend to have GPA’s under 3.0. Purdue does not make the courses harder in order to weed people out. The courses are the courses and you’ll learn calculus etc. just as well at Purdue as at RH or GT. Purdue has plenty of opportunities for review or tutoring. What Purdue does do is give the kid who wants to work hard an opportunity to get an excellent engineering degree where other more selective schools would not. If you are from the state of Indiana Purdue is a bargain.
I think if the OP liked Purdue when she visited then she should strongly consider it. On the Whole Purdue students are very friendly, the campus clean and the community safe. I will agree that GT is far more urban and RH is nearly rural. They all have very different atmospheres.
An aside. A joke we heard at Rose Hulman. “If your a guy dating can be rough. If your a girl, the odds are good, but the goods are odd.” I don’t know the truth of the matter but there it is:)
If the OP is seriously considering Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, I would highly recommend that she visit the school. Terre Haute is really a depressing town, with very little to do and not much diversity. Indiana State University is also located in Terre Haute, so R-H students can probably extend their dating pool beyond their walls.
If money is not any issue, I would recommend GT or Purdue. Rose-Hulman is a good engineering school, but I’m not sure it has good name recognition outside of the Indiana/Midwest.
@Jamrock411 It has interesting name recognition in the North East. Most people with high school students interested in STEM have gotten a solicitation from their summer program and some kids I know have gone. I had first heard of it through the brochure. I am not in engineering at all but I do follow colleges because I have kids applying, although not to RHIT as my kids did not apply to any pure tech schools.
I’m from Terre Haute and attended Purdue(BSEE 87) and was accepted to Georgia Tech as well. Purdue has an amazing global reputation and graduates more female engineers than any other school so you would always benefit from that network. I don’t find TH depressing but I did find midtown Atlanta too urban. Purdue does weed out its students, but I like a challenge. I distinctly remember day one in a huge lecture hall, prob in the Me Building, the lector told us to look to the left, look to the right, only one of you will be here next year. I live in Chicago now and have a son interested in Enginerring. I’m pushing Purdue hard even though UIUC would be less money. Boiler Up!
My DD goes to Georgia Tech and loves it. Other women from our town that have gone to Georgia Tech or are current students love it too. It is a nice mix of engineering and a traditional college campus. It is not dead socially at all. My DD does a mix of social activities from sorority to intramural to backpacking etc. Football Saturdays are a blast. Plus there are a lot of traditions at Georgia Tech that make the campus fun like Freshman Pie Race, THWG week and Pi Mile to name a few. My DD was shy in high school but has really blossomed at GT and has a very active social life with a variety of activities. Atlanta has a lot to offer such as Music Midtown Festival, SCAD TVFest (My DD was three rows from Mindy Kaling) and Oddball Comedy Festival (my DD saw Aziz Ansari and Amy Schumer). There has been a lot of revitalization of Midtown Atlanta where GT is located so the area is nice especially around Tech Square. If you haven’t visited Georgia Tech then I recommend you do so- the campus has a lot of green open spaces and you have to remember the Olympics were held at Tech and student apartments were the athlete housing during the Olympics.
My DD has gotten great grades and has a high gpa, higher than she got in high school. Grade deflation at Tech can be exaggerated at times- Students who put the time into their classes, go to review sessions and office hours usually do very well. Georgia Tech actually graduates the most female engineers in the U.S according to the American Society of Engineering Education. https://www.asee.org/papers-and-publications/publications/14_11-47.pdf My DD has found incredible support from the Society of Women Engineers and the Women in Engineering programs. Tech has opened many doors for her from research to tons of job offers and she is only a second year. In fact she says her biggest problem at Tech is learning to say “no”, there are so many opportunities offered that you really do have to pick and choose because all are interesting.
Finally consider the difficulty in traveling to a college. Getting to Atlanta is pretty easy and with Marta you can be in campus in 20 minutes from the airport station.
Good luck in making your decision. You really can’t go wrong with any of your choice for an engineering education.
In another thread you were asking about how to raise money to pay for college. The best aid comes from the colleges. How much can your parents pay? Do you have any affordable options (colleges you can pay for without taking more than the federal student loans)?
You’re a HI resident with a 33 ACT and 4.0 unweighted GPA, right? Did you apply to any colleges that offer guaranteed merit for your stats?
Have you visited any of these schools? I truly cannot imagine more different schools than GaTech and Rose. We visited both. Rose has small classes, GT large–really large. Rose is in a small Midwestern rust-belt town; GT is in the middle of Atlanta. Simply polar opposites in many ways. Do you have any chance of flying out to visit one or all 3 of your choices? That might be prudent.
By the way, disagree about “regional” reputation of Rose. They have national recruiters all over their students.
@ucbalumnus, Since finances seem to be an issue for this student, are there options for chemical engineering at colleges other than those on her current list that would give her aid for a 33 ACT and 4.0 UW GPA? The Univ of HI does have bioengineering and chemistry majors. Is it possible to make a chem eng major by combining courses or would she need to look for merit on the mainland?
I also have merit from Rose-Hulman