Smaller schools with project based learning for civil engineering?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

If you wanted a smaller school, with a project based learning approach for civil engineering, where would you look?

Schools that meet financial need, or have good merit aid are particularly of interest.

2

First off what state are you from? Usually the most affordable is in your backyard.

But

WPI, Kettering, Olin, Rose Hulman, IIT, comes to mind.

1 Like
3

We are in MD. As far as we can tell the only public in state options for civil engineering are UMD which is the opposite of small, although he’ll apply, and Morgan State which we are investigating.

USNA and Hopkins also have civil but neither seems like a match for him.

4

Price limit?

SD Mines and NM Tech are small engineering focus schools whose out-of-state list prices are not that high.

Course plan maps suggest that SD Mines may bring some of the design experiences earlier into the curriculum than NM Tech, if that is what you mean by “project based learning”.
https://ecatalog.sdsmt.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=23&poid=2274&returnto=5944
https://www.nmt.edu/academics/ceeng/flowchart/index.html

1 Like
5

Olin

1 Like
6

Olin doesn’t have civil as far as I can tell.

1 Like
7

Don’t discount UMD because of the size if your student has the stats to be in honors or scholars. The living learning communities do a great job of making a big school seems much smaller.

2 Likes
8

We are still sorting out the finances as we’ve got some things up in the air. It’s likely that we will be able to afford more than our EFC, and that our EFC will be less than in state tuition at MD.

Will definitely look into SD Mines.

9

Other small options with hands on learning - Michigan Tech and Clarkson

1 Like
10

The University of Vermont is known for giving students good experience in this area. You can also reach out to the American Society for Engineering Education to see if they have any recommendations since they have many alumni from different schools who are members.

1 Like
11

Look at Cal Poly. It’s not small, but it has small professor taught classes.

2 Likes
12

Clarkson, Manhattan (if Catholic is okay)

1 Like
13
  1. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Terre-Haute, Indiana)
  2. Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, NJ)
  3. Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, Massachusetts)
  4. Bucknell University (Lewisburg, Pennsylvania)
  5. Clarkson University (Potsdam, NY)
  6. Campbell University (Buies Creek, North Carolina)
  7. Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts) - not small
  8. University of Vermont (Burlington, VT) - not small

Here are some other small colleges which offer majors in civil engineering but don’t specifically advertise “project-based learning”. Engineering is by its nature an applied science, so any program will involve “hands on” learning in labs and research projects. If you don’t find what you’re looking for in one of the 8 schools above, which do employ project-based learning, you might expand your search to the schools below.

The College of New Jersey (Trenton, NJ)
The Cooper Union (East Village, Manhattan, NY)*
Hope College (Hope, Michigan)
Lafayette College (Easton, Pennsylvania)
Manhattan College (Riverdale, NY)
Milwaukee School of Engineering (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
Rice University (Houston, TX)**

*Any student admitted to The Cooper Union automatically receives a half tuition scholarship
**Any student admitted to Rice with a family income below $200,000 automatically receives a half tuition scholarship, below $130,000 a full tuition scholarship, and below $60,000 full tuition + room, board and fees all covered by scholarship

1 Like
14

Look at Rowan in NJ - every year, engineers take a class called ‘Engineering Clinic’ which is basically working on a long-term project. There are 100s of projects to choose from. I can’t post a link, but search on ‘Rowan Engineering Clinic Showcase’ and you can read about it, and see all of the projects the students get to choose from.

Rowan is about 15,000 undergrads, but the Engineering program is close-nit and has small classes.

It’s a state school, as well.

2 Likes
15

Thank you! These lists are super helpful.

Three schools that I wondered about were CWRU, RPI, and Lehigh. Should they be on our list?

16

All strong for engineering but not small schools and more medium size.

My D had both RPI and Lehigh on her list too.

17

They probably should be. CWRU, RPI, and Lehigh are not “small colleges”, but at 5000-7000 undergrads, they’re all a lot smaller than the University of Maryland at 30,000 undergrads. And they all offer civil engineering.

None of them seem to describe their approach to teaching and learning as “project-based learning”, but a quick glance at their website suggests that they may be doing a lot of what constitutes pbl but are just using different terminology.

They vary in terms of financial aid, but there some good opportunities for discounted tuition here. So, I would say, good find. They are worth being included on the list.

Just my 2 cents to your question.

18

I forgot about the cost constraints. Lehigh is not generous with merit aid. RPI and Case merit awards can typically bring the cost down to around $40k/year for a high stats student.

2 Likes
19

Lehigh and Case are both on the list of schools that meet full need, which is why Ia particularly interested. RPI, just because it seems like a lot of people who like WPI like RPI.

20

Run the NPCs for the schools and make sure they are affordable. I know a lot of folks that have been disappointed with their awards from both Lehigh and Case.