<p>My S is accepted at Villanova and Michigan. He thought he wanted a small school but we visited UM last weekend and he was really impressed by the facilities. We also visited Villanova and the faculty were great. Can anyone speak to the benefits of smaller class sizes and personalized attention vs unlimited resources and huge name brand when it comes to grad school acceptance and career recruitment? Thanks!</p>
<p>First of all, it’s way to soon to think about grad school acceptance because 2 out of 3 freshman engineering students will dropout prior to finishing school. </p>
<p>I think your son should go to the school that he is most comfortable with. The school that he enjoys the most is the one that he will be most likely to graduate from and getting his diploma is more important than any other factor. Once he gets his ABET accredited engineering degree, he can get hired anywhere.</p>
<p>Big Trees - thank you. We have been surprised at the vehemence of friends/family who tell him he is crazy to consider anything other than Michigan now that he’s been accepted there. Our concern is that Villanova, though ranked in the top 10 by USNWR for Engineering doesn’t have the name recognition of Michigan. Though he may transfer out of Engineering at some point he does want to be sure he’s not taking himself out of the running for top grad. programs later. We’ve read many of these threads and though there are many small/large schools compared, Villanova rarely comes up. Is that a sign he shouldn’t ignore?</p>
<p>No, I don’t think it’s a sign relating to engineering. I can’t say in careers other than engineering.</p>
<p>These people that say he is crazy - are they engineers too?</p>
<p>Not engineers, though I did speak to one today who grad. from Iowa State 25 years ago. He said go with the top program rather than the top school. So Vanderbilt, though it has a huge rep. is rated much lower than both Mich and Nova in Engineering and is now out of the running. My son applied to all smaller schools thinking he’d prefer the atmosphere, but when we visited Michigan he was impressed by the “Big House” and I’m just concerned that he’s throwing all his plans out the window for the “glamour” of Michigan. Can you tell I’m not a B10 fanatic?</p>
<p>jrhdjh, </p>
<p>we can both agree small program’s are better than big programs…but we can also agree they (small programs) have crap rankings and are expensive too (i.e.brown, darmouth) and even if there is a university out there that’s ranked near michigan that has a small program it would be near impossible to get into and would be very expensive, but it doesn’t matter because there isn’t a university like that. Michigan is what like top 5? and if your instate than wow that’s a sweet deal.</p>
<p>here is the dirty little secret to fixing this problem with big state engineering flagships…join the honors program. It’s not harder, it’s easier, it’s not meant to challenge you, it’s meant to reward you! they university rewards you for maintaining good grades by allowing you to enroll in ‘reserved’ sections with very small class sizes and a great teacher…it’s a bloody sweet’ deal.</p>
<p>cyclone10 -
thanks for helping to put things in perspective - we are unfortunately not in-state for MI so it is actually just as expensive as the small, pvt school pgm. That being said, my son has to check more on the honors program at MI - we are unclear abt how it works - looks like it isn’t offered until Jr yr. I know IL has a great one starting Fr yr with sections for math and science no larger than 20 students. Haven’t seen that option for MI as of yet. For the record, he also got into Iowa State (your current school?) and was offered some nice $$ but had been planning to try out a new area of the country so hasn’t jumped on that yet. This move to the big school thinking is VERY recent! What are your thoughts on the ISU pgm?</p>
<p>Having been born and raised in Iowa (quad cities), all I ever knew was ISU engineering. I did not even know of other schools out of state, which ones were good or bad, ISU just was from the start the place to be for engineering. </p>
<p>Just now learning about how many strong programs were nearby at Illinois and Michicagn, and Purdue… I still feel for someone paying instate tution and having been born and raised in Iowa, ISU is the best place to go absolutely.</p>
<p>yea it’s too bad to hear it’s (honors program) not offered until Jr. yr…those first two years are when you need those small class sizes most imho.</p>