My son is stressed about picking his school. He wants to major in Mechanical Engineering. He has been accepted to the following:
Miami - Mechanical
Ohio Northern - Mechanical
University of Cincinnati- Chemical (3rd Choice)
Ohio State - Main Campus (not a direct admit school)
Ohio University- Mechanical
UC was his first choice but he is now concerned he will not be able to switch to mechanical.
Miami was a very close second but he is concerned about their engineering program strength.
He was very enticed by Ohio Northern’s new engineering facility but is sure he would be happy in the middle of nowhere.
Ohio State has a great program but he is worried he may not be accepted since it’s not a direct admit and he is not sure he wants a large school.
Ohio University is somewhere in the middle of all these for him.
Looking for feedback from anyone who has any pros or cons for him.
He will be visiting all of them again.
He currently has a 4.1 weighted GPA and is taking a few AP and college classes this year. He got a 27 on the ACT. Additionally he is the Mechanical Team lead on his high school robotics team.
Here are some general thoughts just as an OH resident but I have no direct engineering expertise: OU as in the ‘middle for all’ kind of means to me, he gets nothing that he wants. Of this list IMO it is the bottom academically. Miami is definitely well regarded and seems like a better ‘middle’ option than OU, as in quite a bit more active/social than Ohio Northern and more academically regarded than OU. Ohio State is great and engineering is a strength. But it is 100% big school. Big sports, big campus, medium sized city. I’ve heard lots of great things about Cinci’s coop programs that I think are stronger than any of this list. Could he find out from someone in the department about how likely a transfer is?
How certain are you both that he would stay in engineering? Knowing that will help you know where to place the strength/placement of engineering programs in your process. I hope you get more engineering based input. His second visits should definitely help. Sometimes it is nice just to sit on it for a while and his thoughts might clarify.
Anyone interested in OSU engineering needs to consider the difficulty level of admission to the specific engineering major of interest after the sophomore year (separate and apart from admission to undergraduate engineering). Some engineering majors are easy to get in and some are difficult. Mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering have the highest bars to entry. OSU requires a 3.4 gpa (ephr) on freshman/sophomore engineering coursework for automatic entry into the major. Most will be admitted through this standard. A small fraction will be admitted with gpa’s of just below 3.4. Details of ephr calculation are at the following link:
Have to agree with DG here. When it comes to engineering programs, scale matters. If he got into OSU’s engineering school, this is a no-brainer. While OSU is huge, he will feel its size on the good things, mostly. Game day, etc. But OSU is very decentralized. Each college acts very much like its own college. And there are 9,000 undergrads In the engineering college. Hat makes it one of the biggest engineering programs in the country (read: most big employers recruit at OSU engineering). OSU is a major player in numerous multi-institution research programs. The other Ohio state schools are not even close.
He is going to have to work hard in ANY of those schools. Go where the opportunities are the strongest.
My only caveat to that would be Cincy. For some, the co-op experience is extremely impactful. That can’t be replicated at OSU.
My DS16 was admitted to OSU Cincy and many other OOS engineering programs. He ultimately chose a smaller OOS program for many of the reasons your DS is concerned about OSU. I would consider where he personally is with AP credit (to lighten his load), math level and chemistry expertise. These classes are key to getting that high GPA at OSU to get his first choice major and they are usually quite large. Large employers are not the only source of great engineering jobs so I would not be as concerned about who recruits seniors on campus as much as the ease of summer internships, co-op, etc. to build that resume. My DS16 worked FT every summer at major related jobs and had leadership positions on his smaller campus. He accepted a job by Thanksgiving that is his first choice. As long as the college is a good fit, is ABET accredited , and is affordable, he can be successful.