<p>Looking for schools with a strong environmental engineering program.
Just post some suggestions and I will look into them.</p>
<p>Here are the schools I am going to apply to so far:
NC State
Johns Hopkins
Stevens Institute of technology
Yale
NC A&T State</p>
<p>For those who are wondering I'm located in NC.
Thanks for your suggestions in advance!</p>
<p>Yale would be a great place to look, given that it has the oldest and best environmental school in the country (which has many overlapping programs to undergrad). See <a href="http://environment.yale.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://environment.yale.edu/</a>.</p>
<p>As an added bonus, Yale is ranked #1 in engineering research quality. <a href="http://www.sciencewatch.com/nov-dec2002/sw_nov-dec2002_page2.htm#Engineering%5B/url%5D">http://www.sciencewatch.com/nov-dec2002/sw_nov-dec2002_page2.htm#Engineering</a>. Granted, it has a smaller program so it isn't ranked at the top of every ranking (since most rankings are biased by size, like if you were going to rank McDonald's versus Nobu McD's would often come out on top), but it is generally the top-ranked school when size is taken into account. Of course, what the size really means is that students get much more personal attention there than they do at any other program.</p>
<p>The other schools on your list look pretty good, too. Remember, for undergrad engineering your best bet is to get the strongest possible background in the "core" areas of chemistry, physics, math and engineering (electrical, thermodynamics, process modeling, etc.), and then specialize later on. "Environmental Engineering" is a very wide field, so most engineers I know would not recommend trying to specialize in that at the undergrad level. Getting a thorough understanding of the basic physical and chemical processes underlying engineering problems is much more important. You'll see Yale's chairperson basically says the same thing: <a href="http://www.eng.yale.edu/content/DPEnvironmentalEngineering.asp?progsIK=28%5B/url%5D">http://www.eng.yale.edu/content/DPEnvironmentalEngineering.asp?progsIK=28</a></p>
<p>If I don't specialize in environmental engineering and get a undergrad. degree in that what do you recommend me doing? Getting a degree in civil engineering with my junior and senior year being pulled more to the environmental aspect of civil engineering?</p>
<p>I would start out with a broad base of core science and engineering and specialize from there. You don't need to make a decision now - wait until you've had a year or two of college under your belt. </p>
<p>Perhaps you would end up with a chemical engineering degree (if you're interested in the chemical and biological processes as they relate to environmental engineering, like toxicology), for example, or, if you were interested in technology applications you might major in electrical engineering or physics. Or maybe even go with a environmental engineering major. </p>
<p>For graduate school anyhow, it's probably more important to have a solid background all around, with the more "core" the major the better, and for the workplace, I simply can't see how an environmental engineering degree could be any more valuable than a civil, electrical or chemical engineering degree, even for a firm that specifically focuses on environmental engineering. The same holds true for biomedical engineering, which mostly just is a term referring to an unrelated group of advanced fields within the core areas of engineering (for example, MRI design, which is mostly physics, math and EE, or nanoparticle drug delivery, which is mostly chemical engineering). I just don't think it's necessary or helpful to specialize so much at the undergraduate level, but talk with the faculty advisors about this.</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice its nice to know that they have some helpful people on this forum and I'll let you know what I decide and if I get into my #1 choice which is Johns Hopkins University!</p>
<p>Eh, I would stay away from NC A&T. Since you're in-state, consider Duke. Pratt offers a Civil/Environmental Engineering program that's quite good, especially when you add the benefits of other campus resources (like CIEMAS and the Nicholas School). Georgia Tech, Stanford, and Cornell would also be good choices.</p>
<p>From an employer's standpoint, the schools that come immediately to mind that produce solid env engineers (some/most programs are combined w/ civil):</p>
<p>JHU (one of my favorites...separate env eng dept)
U Washington
U Michigan
Berkeley
Cornell
Penn State
Stanford
Carnegie Mellon
UT Austin
MIT</p>
<p>I am not 1st hand familiar with the NC programs other than UNC Chapel Hill's Env health school, which is fantastic.....they have an env eng program that is a bit more public health oriented than the conventional civil/env program. I think Duke's program is good, but one doesn't run across many Duke env eng folks in the env consulting world.</p>
<p>Also, some env departments are much stronger in certain areas & topics than others, so if you have a specific interest, you'll want to investigate the research reputations of each of your targets in more depth (look at the department's research web page & professors' CV's.). For instance, some focus more in water & water treatment areas, & others may focus more on remediation or air qulaity issues. For the most part, the larger state schools have broad capabilities. Some universities may have more than one department that practices env engineering, like Cornell with a conventional civil/env department as well as a bioresources dept as part of the ag school.</p>
<p>I know Conn College is pretty good with env sci, they have their own program designed around their enviroment and stuff -- it's pretty popular there too :) Learned about it when I visited, haha - so if you're in need of a match-ish type school (Yale would be a reach, I'm assuming), it also has a really nice campus!</p>
<p>Berkeley :) :) :)</p>
<p>I not looking to go all the way across to Cali.</p>
<p>Definitely check out the following schools (schools with a * are probably the strongest in the field):</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon University
Cornell University
Duke University
Johns Hopkins University *
Massachusetts Institute of Technology *
Northwestern University
Pennsylvania State University
Rice University
University of Florida-Gainesville
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign *
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor *
University of Texas-Austin *
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Yale University</p>
<p>Michigan's a good choice for environmental engineering. They have strong of connections with the EPA. The head of the EPA (who's actually my neighbor) is a Michigan Alum and they tend to hire a lot of UM alums (thats how my mom got her old job at the EPA)</p>
<p>I just want to thank everyone for posting. I have a daughter who is also interested in studying environmental engineering (or civil with an environmental focus). I will have her look at some of the schools mentioned to see if she thinks any of them should be added to her list. She recently visited several schools - I believe her favourites among them were Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and Dartmouth. Now she's actively trying to identify some safety/match schools. LBW-hopkins#1 good luck with your college search!</p>
<p>BTW, the JHU env eng undergard program is very new...couple of years, so its not well established yet. However, the faculty & grad program are tops, so I'd still be favorably biased toward JHU DOGEE (dept of geography & env eng) underrgrad if it were my own child.</p>
<p>My daughter met with one of the professors in the JHU DOGEE while visiting a few weeks ago. She was very impressed with the school and with the level of attention the professor and the admissions office have shown - both during her visit and by responding to several emails. She rather likes the idea of a small department, assuming this would provide her opportunities she wouldn't get at a larger school. We didn't get a good sense of campus life as we visited during the summer - and on a Saturday! I told her she could visit again if accepted (I'm not a big fan of ED, so I don't think she will be applying early anywhere). She wants to attend the October open house but her sports schedule may interfere. The campus is beautiful and our tour guide was excellent. Have you visited LBW-hopkins#1? What do you think of the campus and facilities? Thanks again to everyone for the posted information.</p>
<p>SMU has an undergrad Environmental Engineering program. I believe it's fairly new. The Engineering Dean at SMU is quite dynamic and is doing great things with SMU Engineering. For those of you with daughters, SMU is being very agressive at recruiting females into Engineering. Apparently they are quite successful at that endeavor reaching something 29% female - not sure if that's for their newest class or for the dept as a whole. It's worth a look at least.</p>
<p>I visited Johns Hopkins University this summer also and I liked the campus and the facilities provided there. Baltimore, Md is my hometown so I use to the surrounding area. When parents divorced I moved with mom down here but I still have a lot of family there including my dad who went on the tour with me.</p>
<p>bump bump bump</p>