<p>Please share your insights into how good Rice Undergrad Engineering is compared to the Undergrad Engineering at schools such as Duke, Swarthmore, Olin College, Cornell, Harvey Mudd, and Rose-Hulman. Many thanks.</p>
<p>Much better. BTW Swarthmore shouldn’t even be included in that group.</p>
<p>Maybe Cornell tad better but I agree Swarthmore doesn’t count</p>
<p>Rice engineering better than Harvey Mudd, Olin and Rose-Hulman? Really?</p>
<p>I know about Rice’s OEDK, but what about Rice Engineering graduates with a BS degree. What are their job prospects and prospects for graduate school? Rose Hulman has been rated #1 by US News 14 consecutive years for undergraduate engineering. Is Rice really better and is how, in what way? Thanks.</p>
<p>The difference between Rice and Rose-Hulman is in the name - Rice is a University while the latter is an Institute of Technology. So you need to pick a lens to compare them through: US News ratings, job prospects, nontangibles, etc. Graduates from both schools have great job prospects. The entire undergraduate experience will be very different at both schools. Rice’s Residential College system is unmatched at many other top engineering schools and allows you to mix with nonengineering majors in ways not possible at other schools. Rose-Hulman has a Greek system - Rice doesn’t.</p>
<p>I applied to Harvey Mudd and know that best, but Olin and Rose-Hulman are similar. The reason I chose Rice over those schools was because of the undergrad experience. I didn’t want to enter an engineering bubble where everyone around me is studying the same (or similar) thing. I wanted to continue to take classes outside of engineering with people majoring in those fields. Yet I still wanted the small community found at those smaller schools. I found all of that at Rice.</p>
<p>Rice vs MIT for computer engineering?</p>
<p>^ I think the curriculum is different between the two schools, so it very much depends on what your personal focus is.</p>
<p>Compare the required classes for the major between the two schools and see which you prefer.</p>
<p>OP - All schools you mentioned are fine schools.</p>
<p>I have been on the engineering faculty at a highly respected school for my entire teaching career. I have spent two sabbaticals at other well respected institutions so my experience extends beyond my own school. My DS attended and graduated from Rice recently.</p>
<p>There are several factors to keep in mind when judging which program is better suited for your child:</p>
<p>First, each engineering program at each school is ABET accredited which means that there are strict curriculum requirements that each program must meet. This discourages innovation at the undergraduate level and levels the playing field at most schools.</p>
<p>Second, the US News ranking methodology relies heavily on peer judgments of the programs at other schools. How are faculty at one school supposed to evaluate the undergraduate learning experience at another institution? We haven’t spent any time interviewing undergraduates at the many schools we are asked to evaluate so the question becomes one of assessing the work and reputation of the faculty. This is absolutely no indication of the learning experience at the undergraduate level. In fact, many of the elite professors who attract large research programs and grants spend very little time in an undergraduate classroom!</p>
<p>Third, college is about much more than spending every waking moment with your nose in the books. It is a time for a young person to learn to interact with their peers, to socialize and stay up until dawn discussing life and dreams. How does your prospective school foster diverse interaction?</p>
<p>Finally, what sort of a network does the school have among alumni? This will help years after graduation although this can be over-rated. </p>
<p>My DS was an exceptional student in high school, but every student admitted to the top engineering schools will also be exceptional in high school. Once they reach college they will find that with competition that is just as exceptional, their confidence drops as they realize that A’s are much more difficult to come by. When you evaluate a prospective college ask yourself, or students during a campus visit, what the school does to help first years through this transition, which can be quite difficult.</p>
<p>In addition to Rice my DS considered (was admitted to) Duke, Johns Hopkins, Olin, Case, Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd, Penn, Columbia and Northwestern. One of his selection criteria was a smaller school for his undergraduate studies. He could then consider larger schools with specific, specialized programs for his graduate work.</p>
<p>I honestly didn’t know where he would end up but it was a matter of how he felt he would fit in. His impression was that at Rice he had the opportunity for individualized attention from the faculty due to the low faculty/student ratio. He also discovered during a campus visit that it was easy to form study groups, especially within ones college. </p>
<p>Impressions that he had formed during his visits that turned out to be true were that Rice students tended to be helpful and collaborative rather than competitive and knife in the back types. Interaction with upperclassmen was fostered by the college system (compared with Duke where the freshmen were isolated at a separate location on campus that was a bus ride away - this was a major turn-off for him). And Rice students did seem to be genuinely happy and content with their living and learning environments. There was plenty to do on campus and he was involved in a number of organizations (clubs) on campus. There was a healthy social atmosphere among students which was conducive to personal growth. In addition, each college at Rice had its own masters, usually a married faculty couple that lived in a separate house on campus adjacent to their dorm (college). The masters were advocates for their students as well as hosts for social functions, etc.</p>
<p>So, don’t rely on ratings to define what schools are better than others. It comes down to much more than how the faculty at many other schools rate the individual program which is based on publications and to some extent facilities rather student experience.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Among those schools, I’d say Cornell and Harvey Mudd would be your best options for engineering. And then between those two is a matter of what type of environment you want to be in for college. Do you want to be at a large research university (Cornell), or are you more suited for a smaller school where you’ll get more individual attention (Harvey Mudd)?</p>
<p>As far as Rice goes, I’d say it’s pretty similar to Cornell in that they’re both research-intensive universities, both with great overall prestige. However, Cornell’s engineering program is much more respected than that of Rice, and it offers a lot more post-graduate opportunities due to very heavy recruitment.</p>
<p>That being said, Rice is a fantastic institution. But from what I’ve seen, it focuses a lot of its attention on bio/pre-med, whereas Cornell and Harvey Mudd are more well-renowned for their engineering programs.</p>
<p>it depends on the majors. For engineering physics, Cornell is #1. overall, Cornell is ranked #8.</p>
<p>The rankings truly do not reflect how good Rice Engineering is because Rice programs are quite small in each area while they are offering every engineering major.</p>