What are some really good midwest smaller engineering schools, preferablly under 10,000
Rose-Hulman.
For small public engineering schools, check out “Mines” schools. A number of western and midwestern states established technical schools in the 1800s to support the mining industry. As mining declined, the schools expanded their focus into other areas of engineering and technology. All have enrollment below 10,000, and sometimes below 5,000.
- Colorado School of Mines (would be my top pick, but may not qualify as "midwestern")
- Missouri S&T
- Michigan Tech
- South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
For smaller private engineering schools in the midwest, look at:
- Rose-Hulman
- Illinois Institute of Technology
- Milwaukee School of Engineering
- Kettering Univ. (in Michigan, not Kettering College in OH)
- Lawrence Tech (in Michigan, not Lawrence Univ. in WI)
If you can go over 10,000, look at:
- Case Western (11,000 enrollment, but only 5,000 undergrads)
- Washington Univ. in St. Louis (15,000 enrollment, but only 7,500 undergrads)
- Notre Dame (12,000 enrollment, but only 8,000 undergrads)
The last three privates are relatively large universities with national reputations (especially Notre Dame due to football). Of the other privates, my pick would be Rose-Hulman, which is definitely small at 2,200 enrollment.
SD Mines is also relatively low cost.
No kidding. Their out-of-state tuition/fees (at $13,806) are lower than the in-state tuition/fees at many other public universities. It wouldn’t surprise me if they offer merit aid to well-qualified out-of-staters as well.
U of North Dakota might work. The student population is on the high end for your figures, but the campus does not feel over-crowded by any means.
I consider Pittsburgh to be Midwestern, so Carnegie Mellon would qualify in my book.
Northwestern has 9,000 undergrads, but it also has a large graduate student population.
The University of Tulsa is a fabulous match for you. 3,000 undergrads and an extremely solid engineering school. A gorgeous campus with a great mix of students - average incoming ACT at 30. They also are quite generous with financial aid and merit scholarships.
A friend of our family attends Valparaiso University in Indiana (about an hour from Chicago) for engineering, and I hear he is very happy there.
For a safety – and fairly inexpensive option, even for OOS, check out UW-Platteville.
Enrollment stats for Northwestern (of the nine specialties ranked by USN, two are in the top-5, four in the top-15 and the remaining three within top-30)
Undergrads: 8,353
Grads: 12,855
Total: 21,208