Should I choose the Engineering program from a small Liberal Arts college (LAC) with relatively good ranking in engineering or from a big researched university like WPI, Baylor, etc which focuses on research?
It is hard for me to decide because I am not sure what I will major in, but 90% engineering.
The pros of LAC’s engineering program is that students are educated broadly with interdisciplinary knowledge and lifelong skills which are important in the future and get personal attention from professors, and there are no teaching assistants. The cons of LAC’s engineering program is that it is not as recognized as that in researched university although the program is accredited by ABET.
The pros of the researched university’s engineering is that students get hands-on experience, participate in many projects but will know mainly in the expertise with no well-rounded education. Moreover, students will get less personal attention compared with that of LAC.
I am an international student studying in the US for the first time. It will be very helpful for me to choose my suitable higher education in next four years should I get useful advice.
Thanks!
WPI is a small. Your education will not be more well rounded at the LAC. You only have a few slots (around 8) open for non engineering classes in any ABET program.
So which program is more worthy for future engineers?
WPI produces very capable engineers with a lot of hands on experience. I don’t know Baylor. What is the LAC?
Messiah College, a small Christian college in Penn, with its rising engineering program. You can do more research on messiah.edu and this is the link about US Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs Rankings in 2013: http://www.university-list.net/us/rank/univ-20130036.html. Messiah Engineering program is in top 100 (in 2013 ranks 84) but it is growing fast.
@EngineVm I seriously do not know how meaningful that ranking list is since it.does not include colleges which offer doctorates. I don’t think it truly represents the best colleges for engineering.
Messiah only has one engineering program, general engineering. I would find that to be a detriment.
@Erin’s Dad but it has some concentrations to choose
@EngineVin Why don’t you include a school like UMass Amherst. You can take classes at four LACs at no extra charge since it is part of a consortium.