Reputations

College Search & Selection
1

So I have my list narrowed down to a few colleges

  • UMDCP
  • Villanova
  • Lehigh
  • Bucknell
  • University of Delaware

I was wondering how these schools stacked up in terms of their reputations. I’m going for engineering. Here are the questions I have:

How are they viewed academic wise? Do people consider this to be a challenging school?
How do people view getting in? Would they say “oh that schools easy to get into” or see it as a selective school?
Is it a respectable school?

I understand that this is not by any means the method of determining which college I’m going to. However, Its definitely a part. I worked hard in high school and have a shot at all these schools, I want to make sure my decision is the most rewarding.

Also for the more expensive private schools - Villanova, Lehigh, Bucknell. Which ones are worth the money?

2

You can look them up in the US News rankings, which are based partly or completely (depending on the ranking) on peer reputations.

Overall national university ranking (22.5% based on peer assessments by college officials):
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities

Undergraduate engineering program ranking (100% based on peer assessments by college deans and senior faculty members):
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate

24 UMCP

44 Lehigh

58 Delaware

91 Villanova

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-no-doctorate

7 Bucknell

It’s probably impossible to determine how to align the two engineering program rankings.
It’s probably also impossible to determine how much difference in quality there might be between the #N and #M schools, and whether a higher rank is worth a significant price premium.

IMO a higher magazine ranking, per se, isn’t worth a big price premium if you can get the the same ABET-accredited engineering program at your own state university.

3

What branch of Engineering. Delaware is elite in Chemical Engineering. Otherwise, I would say Maryland is best, closely followed by Bucknell (LAC, but excellent nonetheless).

4

Have you run the online net price calculators?
Unless you first determine the net cost differences we’re talking about in your case, and also answer @Alexandre’s question, it’s hard to answer that question.

5

I work as an engineer and, of the schools on your list, Lehigh, UMD and Delaware have the best reputations. I personally don’t know any engineers from Villanova or Bucknell.

6

If one were to try, they might look at the peer assessment scores in absolute terms:

Bucknell: 3.9
UMD-CP: 3.6
Lehigh: 3.2
Delaware: 2.9
Villanova: NA

7

They’re all excellent schools. I promise you in 5-7 years, after you have graduated and moved on in life, what will be most “rewarding” for you won’t be whether random people opine on whether the college is challenging or whether the school is perceived as “easy to get into”. That doesn’t matter - what matters are the quality of education and the career placement/connections you can get from it.

8

If we are talking about engineering programs, I would place colleges as follows:

  1. Bucknell
  2. Maryland
  3. Lehigh
  4. University of Delaware
  5. Villanova

Delaware has great chemical engineering programs, Bucknell - mechanical, electronic and communications. Maryland has robust engineering programs as well. I would choose Maryland and cross Villanova out of my list. And I wouldn’t choose the most expansive one, especially if you are going to take a student loan, most of my friends, who chose the most expensive college (out of ones they “could afford” of course) and who’ve already graduated, regretted. They say that it wasn’t worth it in the end.

9

IMO they are all fine schools. Apply, see where you get in, see what is affordable and then decide.

10

Agree with the post above. These are all great schools.

I would add that the style of school/teaching/support may be very important. Small BS/MS schools that don’t employ TA’s to teach likely give more personalize attention (if you go after it) and may allow you to do research sooner since they don’t have tons of PhD’s in the labs. Large schools = large resources = large alumni bases so the opportunities you do get might be part of something bigger. But thats not a hard fast rule. Other things to consider are the curricula if you are Engineering but undecided. Some schools have a common first semester or freshman year which helps pick a specific major. For example, Bucknell has ENG100:

http://www.bucknell.edu/academics/engineering-college-of/special-engineering-programs/engr-100-exploring-engineering.html

Sure, each one you mention has a particular area where they are well known (UDel CHemE, UMD EE, etc.) but for undergrads seeking jobs or PhD’s seeking roles as generalists, often its ‘the best engineer’ not ‘the best school’ that wins the job. For PhD’s very focused on a certain sub-discipline like catalysis, biomolecules, etc., the opposite may be true - the school may make more of a difference - perhaps even the particular advisor/lab, but not at BS/MS levels.

I work in a large department of engineers and every school on your list is represented with multiple people. Going back down the list of our hires for the last few decades there have to be at least 25-50 additional schools - MIT, Princeton, Columbia, Ga Tech, PSU, WPI, RPI, Purdue, IIT, UI-UC, UPR, CMU, NCSt, Vandy, Rutgers, Michigan, OSU, Missouri, etc. - the list goes on. I have personally interviewed grads from top/Ivy schools that were not qualified and state schools kids that knocked it out of the park. And vice versa. IMHO, it’s the person and what they did with their time at the school over the school reputation, for BS/MS.

Go with what you can afford and where you feel you fit in best, but then pursue every opportunity you can manage regardless of which school you choose.