Searching for an Engineering school where

College Search & Selection
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<p>I haven't been able to visit any colleges I want to apply to but, I would like to know the atmosphere of any of these colleges; Stanford, Cornell, CMU, JHU, Rice, Cooper Union, UC-Berkley, Caltech, Georgia Tech, Harvey Mudd, Rose-Hullman, UF, NCSU, UPittsburg, Columbia or RIT. </p>

<p>I'm looking for some sort of nerd haven; where there are practical jokes like the MIT hacks, where I am surrounded by intellectual equals, where sports are secondary(or nonexistent) to academics, where students don't form cliques, and where everyone seems to be laid back. Are any of them the exactly like that? Are any of them the complete opposite? </p>

<p>Thanks for your help.</p>

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<p>I hear Stanford's pretty laid back...although Cornell is quite opposite, but sports I believe are pretty big at Stanford (Harvard vs Cornell hockey is supposed to be intense rivalry).</p>

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<p>UF definitely isn't nerdy. I wouldn't say that NCSU is either. </p>

<p>If you're looking for a nerdy haven, you'd probably like Rice, Caltech, and Harvey Mudd best.</p>

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<p>I'm not sure how much they're into "MIT hack" type stuff, but RIT is pretty nerdy.</p>

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<p>Caltech is a nerd haven, but I wouldn't say the student body is laid back.</p>

<p>I think the best from your list that fits your criteria is Harvey Mudd. Very intelligent student body and students are generally laid back. They have a "work hard/play hard" attitude. </p>

<p>UF is extremely pro-sports, enginering students are no exception to the sports mania.</p>

<p>Rose and Rice having nurturing environments, I would put them at a close second behind Mudd.</p>

<p>Cornell is probably a good fit for you too, I would look into it more closely. </p>

<p>GT has an excellent sports scene, but the engineering students there are worked to death. Same with Berkeley. </p>

<p>Stanford has a nice environment for engineering, but more of a commercial/pre-professional environmental than an intellectual one. </p>

<p>IMO: I would pay more attention to Harvery Mudd, Rice, Rose, Cornell, and Caltech</p>

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<p>I agree with Gator. Harvey Mudd definitely matches your criteria. There aren't many cliques and a lot of students are laid back. Also, official sports are not very popular at Mudd (but there are a lot of scrimmages, some quirky). You will also find plenty of practical jokes there. Look up Harvey Mudd's prank policies and you'll find that it is perhaps the most prank-friendly school in the country.</p>

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<p>Case Western for the nerd haven ;-)</p>

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<p>You will not find "laid back" at Cal Tech. LOL. Of the schools you listed we looked closely at, here is how my son rated them: U Pitt (good - I liked it a lot, but moms don't count), RIT (mostly good, a few issues), Rose Hulman (very good), Rensselaer (very good), Cornell (not good) and CMU (not good). He's pretty much a nerd, hates sports, likes music and theater stuff, has a girlfriend at home and therefore thinks having many girls on campus doesn't matter (?!), hates cliques and Greek life. He's attending Worcester Polytech this fall. He felt it was his best fit.</p>

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<p>If you are a really good student, you might be a good fit at JHU, Stanford, Cornell, Columbia, CMU, Rice, Caltech.</p>

<p>Cornell is an awesome engineering school with a great college atmosphere in a bucolic setting in the hilly finger-lakes region of western NY. It is in a small city, Ithaca, with nice restaurants, movies, theater, and so on. The engineering program is very hard work. Nerds will find a big niche in Cornell engineering. Like almost all engineering schools, there are a lot of internationals and asian-americans.</p>

<p>JHU has a very strong engineering school, especially bioengineering/biomed. They have an affiliation with the space program at NASA. Half the campus borders a very nice part of Baltimore and half borders a "transitional neighborhood". Baltimore is really a wonderful city and JHU is mostly an urbanized suburban-like campus.</p>

<p>Chances of getting into Berkeley OOS are nil. Don't waste the app fee.</p>

<p>Stanford engineering is dominated by the grad program.</p>

<p>CMU's strngth is computer engineering and electrical but strong in most areas. Campus is in Pittsburgh, a very fun city, and is high on an escarpment overlooking the city. Rather techy, not a great graduation rate, but has the interesting counterbalance to tech of theater and music programs.</p>

<p>Rice is small, superb engineering, great cost-benefits ratio, known for electrical and affiliation with space program (Houston). I also think it has strength in bioengineering and nanotech. Next to big hospital. Very nice part of the city near museums. Great school.</p>

<p>RIT has a rather bland architecture all bricks, high tech look. Good second-tier engineering school but not much fun. Definitely nerds will find a home there. 75% males. Drop out rate from engineering and from RIT is very bad. I heard less than 40% finish in engineering (versus 90% at Cornell), overall about 60% graduate. Not a bad school for the above-average. No theater or music majors to counterbalance the tech. They should pay girls to go there.</p>

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<p>I'm considering Cooper as well (for art though), and I'm actually going up to New York and plan on making a stop there. From what I've heard, it's not exactly the most attractive school (as a matter of fact it received one of the Ugliest School awards on a website I came across), and there are very few clubs and other activities. However, I've also heard that the school of engineering is incredible. And if you're looking for a nerdy environment, I think that Cooper would be perfect. Since it's so selective (freshmen class is 230 students, I believe?) I'm sure it would have only the best of the best, and you'd be surrounded by a bunch of super-dedicated engineers, architects, and artists.</p>

<p>I'll let you know once I get back how it looks.</p>

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<p>One school that comes to mind is Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. It was recently founded with the goal emphasizing team and project based learning, among other goals. It has free tuition like Cooper Union, and seems to be fairly laid back and happy. Olin is extremely selective, with about 80 students per year. It's not for everyone, but check it out.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>RPI would be great for you, i live in the arrive and every week there would be students (nerds) from RPI comming to help us with science olympiad. i visited cornell and thought it was a little uptight.</p>

<p>my opionion...best engineering campus is still VaTech...if you can understand the the 4/16 incident is just a incident and it probably will never happen again.</p>

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<p>All of your best academic choices will be very work-intensive. But if by laid back you mean no cut-throat mentality on campus I strongly second Harvey Mudd and Rice. Lots of pranksters and parties (along with a very rough workload) at Mudd. The very egalitarian residential college system at Rice is beloved by students and lends itself to fun rivalries and a great atmosphere.</p>

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<p>I've got to second Rice as the closest fit to what you're looking for. It's definitely a nerd-paradise - a small, intense, fun-loving, academically-focused environment. The residential college system places each student in a college for their entire 4 years, and it becomes like your family and social environment. Each college has its own quirky traditions and they play "jacks" on the other colleges. I recommend taking a look at one of the orientation booklets put out by the residential colleges for "O-Week" to get a sense of what life is like at Rice. Randomly, here's a link to the Weiss college O-Week booklet (where you can access the pdf). Take a look and see what you think. <a href="http://www.teamwiess.com/index.php?module=page&page=o-week%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.teamwiess.com/index.php?module=page&page=o-week&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Also, the research opportunities at Rice are outstanding for undergraduates, since the school is undergrad-focused. Rice is currently building a Collaborative Research Center at the corner of its campus across the street from the Texas Medical Center (the world's largest medical center that consists of 13 separate hospitals and 2 medical schools) for biotech research.</p>

<p>Rice students are collaborative and laid-back. My son looked all over the country for engineering programs, and was accepted at Cornell, JHU, CMU, among others, and chose to go to Rice because of the strength of their engineering program, but most importantly because of the social environment which is unlike anywhere else. (He almost didn't even apply there because it was so close to home, but he's now glad he did.)</p>

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<p>Thanks, I'll take your input into consideration when I start filling in my applications. :D </p>

<p>By laid back I meant a student body that was more informal and less tense. I'm full prepared, or so I think, to embrace the rigorous curriculum of most of those schools.</p>

<p>Just wondering should I be concern with the Male to Female ratio and dating prospects when I continue my college selection process? </p>

<p>Oh yea, the MIT</a> hacks. I thought they were hilarious and wold love to be in an environmental that "promotes" such ingenuity and humor.</p>

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<p>Anybody else?</p>

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<p>Well, you certainly won't have to worry about the male-female ratio here at Rice; it's pretty much evenly split. As others have said, our residential college system helps cultivate a very friendly, collaborative student body, while the school-sanctioned "jacks" between colleges are often similar to the famous (or infamous?) "hacks" at MIT.</p>

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<p>Rose-Hulman really fits your description well also. The school is incredibly laid back and low key about a lot of stuff. Classes are rigorous and a lot of work, but it's a great community here. There's a ton of academic support and cooperation and working with other students is all but mandatory for success here. </p>

<p>The focus on undergraduate education is also a great benefit because it means that all the professors here are teachers first and foremost. They're hired based on teaching ability. Also they're available. They're in the office or in a lab every day of the week from 9-5 available for help. No "office hours" for 2-3 hours a week. I've always been able to sit down with a professor and talk about homework or something we talked about in class or anything really, which is nice because I have a busy schedule during the week and don't want to have to try and fiddle around with scheduling meetings with professors. If I have a question, I just grab my notebook and head on down to their office and get help.</p>

<p>If you want a place that is going to challenge you academically while still being a very personal experience, Rose is definitely for you.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your help :D</p>