Purdue vs Carnegie Mellon vs UChicago vs Vanderbilt vs Cornell?? Which is good for Engineering?

College Search & Selection
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Hey everyone!

I recently got my decisions back and I got into Purdue’s Honors College and College of Engineering. I also got waitlisted at Carnegie Mellon, Vanderbilt, UChicago and Cornell CALS. My future plans are to get a masters and later on pursue an MBA.

So I am interested in either aerospace or industrial engineering, but I am open to other fields as well. Purdue by far has the most engineering majors and is much better overall than the other schools. I also got in the Honors college.

  • Is the Honors College fantastic for jobs and grad school?
  • Are research opportunities better for undergrads at Purdue? I heard the other colleges have weed out courses and the professors sometimes do not care about undergrads?

My second top choice is Carnegie Mellon. It doesn’t have an aerospace or industrial engineering major, but I will probably major in mechanical. CMU is famous for the computer engineering programs, so I might do that BUT I personally do not like computers.

  • Most CMU grads go into the software/tech industry. Is this the case? My dream is to work either in aerospace/defense industry or consulting/financial services.
  • CMU has a lot of prestige. But Purdue is also prestigious in terms of engineering. How should I look at prestige. Will it effect my chances for grad school? Is it better being a small fish in a big pond or big fish in small pond in terms of grad school?

For Vandy, I applied to College of Arts and Science at the time. I got waitlisted and if I go, I would wanto transfer to College of Engineering.
-How easy is it to transfer to Engineering in Vandy?

  • Vandy’s engineering program is no where near CMU let alone Purdue. But Vandy itself has its own prestige. In terms of jobs and grad school, is Vandy worth it?
  • Ive heard Vandy’s professors aren’t receptive of undergrad research opportunities. At Purdue, Ive heard that professors often strongly encourage students to come to their labs and all.

For Cornell, same story. I applied to CALS (because for a period of time I wanted to be a vet). However I want to transfer to college of engineering at Cornell. How easy is it? Cornell engineering is also pretty famous. However should I risk the Honors College at Purdue for Cornell transfer that may or may not work?

Lastly, UChicago is like the most prestigious. However it has no engineering departments whatsoever. I could major in physics?? Is it worth to go to UChicago? Also, is UChicago grad school even good?

General Qestions:

  • In terms of grad school and an MBA later on, which college do you think would help out in the long run (assuming I get off the waitlists)?
    -Which college has better grading policies? At Purdue Honors College, they make sure you have a gpa above 3.5 and help you if needed, which is beneficial for grad school apps.

Sorry for the long questions list, but i really appreciate getting any help (especially now because I physically cant visit schools lol)

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So, the only acceptance you have in hand is at Purdue? If so, that’s what you need to focus on!

My D is finishing up her second year at Purdue. She’s a chem e in the honors college. It’s been an amazing experience so far! Big, big focus on career readiness at Purdue.

She got her job last summer after freshman year through honors college and starts the co-op she landed in January of her freshman year in a few weeks. Research is basically guaranteed for honors students because of the honors project requirement for graduation. She’s also had all kinds of leadership opportunities and got to study abroad doing an honors “maymester” in Italy.

My D has very close relationships with her profs. Courses are tough, but that’s the case everywhere in engineering. We were told by the associate honors engineering dean that the average honors first year engineering GPA is a 3.6. (At least it was two years ago when my D was entering her first year).

If aero is on your radar, Purdue is the cradle of astronauts.

In terms of your other schools if you come off the wait list…

Cornell is my alma mater. Strong academics. Very different vibe than Purdue. Students don’t declare a major until second semester sophomore year. It may not be that easy to transfer into engineering. Would be something you would need to discuss before committing if they offer you a slot. D was told that reserach slots are very competitive at Cornell. The chem e who gave us our tour was feeding rats in a genetics lab to get her foot in the door. The engineers D knows at Purdue are all doing meaningful research.

CMU - My D considered them for a bit but didn’t like that the emphasis and investments by the university seemed to be heavily skewed to CS. She’s a chem e and didn’t feel the love. Also felt the student vibe was not as happy as Purdue.

Chicago didn’t make D’s list at all, even for a visitl because of no ABET chem e program. If you know you want aero or IE, I don’t think that’s the right school.

Can’t speak for Vandy at all.

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momofsenior1
thanks for the advice! im definitely happy with going to purdue. i have a quick question regarding the honors college. How beneficial is it when it comes to internships and jobs?

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There were a number of companies my D’s freshman year that would only talk to honors students. Same holds true for some lab positions at Purdue.

After freshman year though, it’s just another highlight on your resume.

5

thank you!!

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Purdue declaration of engineering major:
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Academics/FirstYear/T2M
https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/InfoFor/CurrentStudents/enrollment-policy

Vanderbilt changing to engineering:
https://registrar.vanderbilt.edu/intra-university-transfers/
https://registrar.vanderbilt.edu/intra-university-transfers/engineering-letter.php

Cornell changing to engineering:
https://www.engineering.cornell.edu/students/undergraduate-students/advising/internal-transfer-engineering

1 Like
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Regarding Chicago, majoring in physics would be a more roundabout way to go into ME/AE work. If you want to go into IE, math and statistics would be the closest. But that may not as optimal as studying the actual engineering major at a college with it.

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Hey, I’m a Purdue IE with a son who is at UChicago.

If you want at great well rounded education that teaches you how to think, you can’t go wrong with UChicago (all things considered and if cost isn’t an issue). However, as an IE, I don’t think you would be prepared much for that career at UChicago. Very, very, very rarely would you need to understand the level of Stats, Math or Physics that you would learn there, and I suspect your career may shift once you were there.

When I entered Purdue 30+ years ago, I wanted to be an engineer. I had no idea what an engineer did, just knew that my parents said that “It was a really good career.” I was the first to go to college in my family, both my parents were factory workers, and they knew 3 types of careers that required a college education. A teacher, a doctor, and an engineer. I knew I really didn’t want to do the first two so I went for the third. I arrived on campus with very little understanding what an engineer did. Freshman engineering helped me figure it out, but really you don’t know what an engineer does until you start working as an engineer. You find out very quickly that little engineering you do in college is “what a real life engineer actually does” or at least that was my experience.

I love my job now, have few regrets, but my life experience and a couple grad school degrees later make me ask questions like “What if?” When I see the breadth of things my son at UChicago is experiencing, I have to tell you I’m a little jealous. The whole Chicago experience is more what I think of when I think of traditional college. You get exposed to a very broad cross section of natural science, math, social sciences, physical sciences, and foriegn language. You read the classics and discuss what they mean with your classmates and teachers. It just seems much more “scholastic.” There is a reason that many, many, many graduates go onto grad school and do things like win Nobel Prizes.

However, not a place to go if you want to design process flows, put together quality plans, develop logistical framworks. IF you are absolutely sure that is what you want, then your options at Purdue are your best bet. If you are set on being an engineer and especially if you are in state, you’d be foolish to consider anywhere else for an engineering undergraduate degree.

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Other answers.

1> You will not be limited to grad schools with any of these as an undergrad
2> Undergrads doing research happen just about everywhere and at Purdue I think it is even required with honors college to do some sort of research. Big Research Universities always seem to prioritize graduate research, but it isn’t a binary situation.

3> UChicago does have engineering, albeit not in the sense that it is Aero or IE. But, they do have Molecular Engineering.
4> ABET is over rated and I know of nobody in industry who will shy away from a UChicago undergrad in molecular engineering because it isn’t ABET certified.
5> CMU is a great school. I do think you’ll have more opportunities to “play engineer” at bigger engineering schools in terms of clubs and orgs.
6> I for one wouldn’t go to a school not knowing if I’d get into engineering school. At Purdue, at least you are pretty much guaranteed an engineering school, you won’t have an issue getting into IE, it isn’t one of the super coveted majors. And, if you are good enough to get into the honors college, you should have little problem getting into AE if you make studying a priority.
7> Which school has better grading policies? Here is a bit of advice I’ll give that I learned the hard way. When I was getting my MS in IE at Purdue, I worked my tail off the first semester and got my first 4.0 of my college career. I felt very accomplished. I then found out others in my class who didn’t work nearly as hard or do, in my opinion, nearly as good of work. I was pretty upset. Upset enough to talk to my advisor about it. She told me my motivations are wrong. I should try to learn as much as I can about the topic and the grades will take care of themselves. From that point on, through the remainder of that degree and then my MBA, my grades took care of themselves. It was some advice that I wished someone would have told me sooner. You go to school to learn, not to get a grade. You sound like you are very bright, I don’t think you’ll have a problem being successful anywhere. Especially if you are going to learn, not get a grade.

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ABET accreditation is specifically important for those who want to become licensed as a Professional Engineer (PE), which is mostly important in civil engineering. It is also specifically important for those who want to take the patent exam.

It is not specifically important in many other contexts, but is helpful in indicating a relatively high minimum standard of quality for an engineering degree (particularly in one of the more traditional engineering fields like mechanical or electrical) at a lesser known college. Some colleges with strong reputations in engineering no longer go through ABET accreditation for some of their engineering majors because it is extra work for them (but they continue to do so for civil engineering).

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The engineering firm I worked for worked in part on big public projects. All their engineers- and they hired a lot of them- were expected to get PE designations, which required the engineering breadth typically obtained via ABET-accredited programs.
This included all the engineering disciplines- mechanical, electrical- NOT just civil.

I think a lot of people in industry will shy away from hiring an undergrad who is not trained to work in their department, if their degree does not provide training as directly relevant to their work as students from other departments/ programs elsewhere that they can recruit at.

My firm hired degreed engineers, with obviously directly applicable training, into the following departments: Civil, Mechanical, Electrical. From ABET-accredited programs. They had no “molecular” department.

On the other hand, a trained civil engineer might be a less attractive hire for a "molecular"department. Wherever those are. But that is outside of the realm of “normal” engineering. Though it may be very interesting and rewarding in its own right.

When I say “outside of the realm of “normal” engineering”, I mean:
99.99% of firms or departments that call themselves “engineering” do not have such job function; and 99.99% of departments training engineers do not have such program. The exact percentage might be a little off, but that’s the idea anyway.

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thank you!