Hello,
My S23 has visited quite a number of LACs, and after some summer programs is now fairly certain he wants engineering. Specifically, engineering in service of protecting the environment/fighting climate change. Right now he is eschewing 3-2 engineering programs, although we parents would be ok with those. So, we visited some great places where he likely won’t apply now.
At many schools, environmental engineering seems to be lumped in with civil. This may not be the best fit for my S because he is less interested in managing floodwaters, for example, than possibly something with managing carbon, renewable energy or environmentally friendly materials development. I am NOT very knowledgeable about engineering though. I would love someone who knows more about this to weigh in!
He wants small or midsize, not too rural. Would like to participate in theatre productions. ACT 33, GPA UW 3.9, most rigorous schedule at his private school, white male from MN. Decent ECs, though not engineering related. Right now we are considering:
Tufts
Lafayette
Wash U
U Vermont
Union
WPI (not enough liberal arts opportunities for him possibly)
Santa Clara
U Rochester
Bucknell
Trinity
Cal Poly SLO
Loyola Marymount?
He has already applied to UMN-TC but does not really want to go there (too big).
His brother is going to CU Boulder but I haven’t been able to get him interested in that yet either. Too big.
UW-Madison is popular but maybe too big. Same with Iowa State, Purdue, etc.
He toured Lehigh but doesn’t think it’s for him.
We are full pay and prepared for it although of course merit would be welcome.
If anyone has other ideas, or insight into advising this type of engineering student, I’d love to hear it! Thanks
The issue with a 3-2 may be - so kids follow through and go vs staying and getting, say a physics degree. It’s not easy to leave and start again after 3 years. Plus you spend an extra year.
Theater may not be easy if you’re not a part of the program. So check school by school.
Are you sure he wants engineering and not a policy related program. It sounds moreso like that to me in how you describe his desires. See the link at the bottom for UC Davis and see if one of these might fit better. Not saying the school is right but it’s a well laid out website that might spurn a different direction to meet his need. I know you said he went to camps and said engineering. It may be just how you’re presenting it. But there are many ways to skin this cat.
I can’t speak for theater and these are likely high reaches but check out the curriculum at Duke, Johns Hopkins.
UVM may be a public school substitute for UMN and CU. But also Che k out UNH and U Maine. SMU and Col School of Mines would be more.
Finally for huge merit (it’s auto based on gpa and test), check out UAH.
A few other thoughts - an engineering major does not ensure you end up in a specific field. It’s more the education. Most engineers don’t even do engineering jobs. My sons entire sept the summer was engineers and data scientists and did nothing with engineering. My last sales vp was an aero engineer
But an Aero major may be at a tech company. A MechE at an oil, etc.
I would study the curriculum, see if there are electives that would interest him or design projects where the school doesn’t pre-pick them. I’d also have him reach out to faculty or the dept head and share his goals and see if the program is right for him. Admissions can help you set it up if he’s uncomfortable himself.
The education is important - what he does with it certainly won’t be fixed.
Based off what you say your family is looking for, I’d check out these schools that are all ABET-accredited for environmental engineering:
Brown (RI)
Gannon (PA )
SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry (though may not have the liberal arts focus he was looking for)
Northwestern (IL)
U. of Notre Dame (IN)
Rensselaer Polytechnic (NY)
Southern Methodist (TX)
U. of Toledo (OH)
Tufts (MA)
Wilkes (PA )
Some of these will be full pay (Brown, Northwestern, Notre Dame, and very likely Tufts). Others are very likely to offer merit aid, and quite possibly extremely generous merit aid, for your son with the strength of his background.
I don’t believe SLO has an engineering major that is environment/energy focused.
USC has Chemical Engineering with an emphases in either Sustainable Energy or Environmental.
While not the type of school you are looking for, UCSD has an environmental engineering major that seems to match your son’s interest. “The Environmental Engineering program within the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at UCSD is a modern interpretation of this rapidly changing field. Unlike the classical environmental engineering topics (e.g. water sanitation, brownfield remediation) many new environmental engineering and sustainability challenges require strong quantitative skills. Renewable energy technologies require skills in material science and physics, climate change research requires individuals trained in fluid mechanics and environmental transport and sustainable building design requires deep knowledge of heat and mass transfer in complex geometries.”
Besides Environmental Engineering, he might also want to look into Materials Engineering programs, such that he would be able to work in solar or battery or other energy alternatives.
As for participation in theater, it depends on what he wants to do. There are certainly opportunities in production, as sound, sets, lighting, etc. are all run by ASI.
Does he really want a degree in Environmental Engineering or does he want to apply the tools of another engineering discipline (Chem, Electrical, Materials, etc) to environmental issues? Getting a degree in a traditional engineering major and supplementing with environmental science classes may get him what he wants.
If you look at engineering as only having 4 disciplines- chemical, electrical, mechanical, and civil (plus computers), then environmental is part of civil. My nephew’s girlfriend was in environmental engineering at CU and does have to take the PE exam, as she’s considered in the civil group. She had some really cool experiences like studying volcanoes in Scandinavia. She now works for a company that does some urban design projects.
I don’t think your son will be able to parse exactly what he wants to study from the engineering department and leave the rest. You have to take the general classes too and those may include floodwaters as well as other ‘waters’ like lift stations, swamps, and sea levels.
If he really wants theater, he should not only ask if non-majors can be in productions (they will all say they can), he should ask how many non-majors are actually cast in productions. It’s hard for theater majors to get parts and may be impossible for non-majors. It may also be difficult for non-majors to schedule the rehearsals with their labs and lecture classes. I had one engineer and one theater major, and their schedules were totally different. To be fair, the engineer was also an athlete so had a lot of other things to schedule (and did), but her team practices and games were set whereas rehearsals do seem to run late and take longer. At her engineering school, there was a group of professors who did plays and music performances and students were encouraged to participate, but there was no theater department (or music department). The plays were a lot less professional than most college theater, but boy those sets were impressive engineering feats!
Theater major’s roommate was a dance major and when the theater/dance dept did the Nutcracker, roommate was rehearsing all day, every day for weeks, right at the end of the semester. Her dance class teachers were very accommodating, but I’m not sure how she would have fit engineering labs into that schedule, especially during finals week.
This. I would think anyone involved with Environmental Engineering should know the basics about it all - then specialize. It’s a good foundation to have IMO as many things end up working together to some extent. H specializes in water and land, but he had to know a bit about other things too, and sometimes uses some of it.
I would delve into what undergrads are actually doing at schools of interest, not specifics about the title of the degree.
I realize he’s not interested in larger schools, but larger schools often can do the most with engineering since they have the money for large projects and “toys” to work with those projects. It doesn’t mean one has to get involved in sports or all the other things on campus. Many students will hang out in the labs. It’d be worth investigating all types/sizes, including asking to meet with some profs (and seeing what they specialize in usually via websites).
OP- there are a lot of potential fields for someone interested in “environmental” and a lot of people with diverse training who work in cool roles right now.
Geologists- important work in natural resources, using carbon based energy as efficiently as possible (which includes not ruining the environment during extraction).
Urban planning- think about the layout of a traditional airport-- designed for a non-environmentally conscious age in terms of energy use, placement, run-off from runways, how to access from the urban center.
Materials Science- full cycle, including how stuff is made, where it goes when something is no longer needed, how much excess is used during its creation.
Supply chain- the hidden costs of getting stuff from one part of the world to the other, and how poorly energy is managed during transport
Demography- how population trends will impact the environment
Agronomy- how do we feed the world, and how do we create/incent food producers so that it does the least damage to the environment?
Public health- what have we wrought on the environment with irresponsible use of antibiotics, poor stewardship of water, crossover infections from animals to humans
Etc. There are dozens more. But only one of these (Materials science) gets close to engineering and even then- you can study Chem and do well in the discipline without engineering.
I think getting MORE clarity on what the undergrad education should look like is really going to help your son focus…
In terms of SLO, the General Engineering program has an individualized option that students have customized to focus on sustainable energy: General Engineering | Cal Poly It would depend on the student whether that option would be more desirable than choosing a more traditional engineering discipline and focusing on environmental applications within that discipline.
It’s true that Enviro Engineering tends to be an offshoot of civil. A student who is more interested in sustainable energy might be better served by an EE or Materials Science major. There isn’t typically an undergrad major that focuses exclusively on sustainable energy, but it’s becoming more common for a minor or concentration to be offered to students across a range of engineering disciplines, such as this one Concentration in Energy Technologies and Sustainability | College of Engineering
Thanks. My nephew was interested in climate/energy and, at the time, SLO didn’t have that as engineering option. Good to know they have individualized options to customize the program.
Based on interests in Climate change he may want to look at ocean engineering as well.Most programs have a focus on climate change and sea level rise.
At UNH, there are minors on environmental sustainability that can work with their Ocean engineering program. They have access to hands-on labs and research from the first semester.
The have an Environmental focus within Civil (it is the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department now), within General Engineering, or in Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences Department in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. There are LOTS of angle into ESci at Cal Poly now.
As noted, lots of other majors have concentrations in environmental and sustainability engineering too. My D is a chem E and that was one of the potential concentrations.
I would avoid 3 + 2 programs. Stick with ABET-accredited 4-year programs.
I also agree that the major doesn’t necessarily need to be environmental.
U of Dayton only does the bread-and-butter engineering majors as a rule, but they offer tons of concentrations including some environmental-focued ones. Great engineering program there.
I second the suggestion of Notre Dame. While we weren’t dazzled with their engineering in general (we did an in-person visit), environmental seems to be a strength there.
