<p>I will get straight to the point.</p>
<p>I have the option of going to a top 20 LAC or Carnegie Mellon (unless I get in Cornell).</p>
<p>I want to major in engineering, so until I was accepted into Carnegie Mellon, the plan was to go to the LAC and do 3-2 engineering and end up at Columbia or something. The LAC route will most likely cost less per year, but it will take one year longer.</p>
<p>So, is it justifiable to turn down a top LAC and pay slightly more to go to Carnegie (which is one of the top engineering schools, as I understand)?</p>
<p>I am merely looking more for reassurance.</p>
<p>There’s been a lot of anecdotal stories here about how most students that go to LACs with the intent of a 3-2 program won’t actually complete one. By the end of their third year they’ll have a bunch of friends, be comfortable at the school, and not want to uproot everything and essentially start over elsewhere.</p>
<p>Personally, if I wanted to do engineering in college, I can’t imagine taking three years of non-engineering courses until I hit something I was actually interested in (and having to keep a pretty good GPA up to that point, too).</p>
<p>I am in a similar situation. Wesleyan 3-2 with Caltech/Columbia vs CIT? I’m planning to study civil eng. combined with economics in some way…</p>
<p>Hope somebody can give som advice!</p>
<p>I don’t think Caltech offers Civil Engineering as an undergraduate major. Looking at ABET, it doesn’t have an accredited CE program, so that makes me doubt it even more.</p>
<p>^ Ok, disregard Caltech and think Columbia then</p>
<p>Im still not sure…</p>
<p>While the base of an engineering program of study is math and physics, engineering students do take some introductory engineering courses like statics, computer science, and/or electronics, which may be absent at the LAC. This may put the transfer student behind in finishing an engineering degree.</p>
<p>Indeed, some community colleges may be a better starting point for junior transfers to engineering degree programs, because they do offer some of the introductory engineering courses like statics, computer science, and/or electronics along with math and physics.</p>
<p>bump.</p>
<p>(sorry, but I really want more people to see it)</p>
<p>i would say go to cmu</p>
<p>What do you plan on majoring if you go to the lac?</p>
<p>I am currently going down the 3-2 path. I’m in my last year at my lac, and applied to Columbia (should be hearing from back from them sometime soon). I’m doing (pure) math at my lac, and applied to do computer engineering. </p>
<p>Personally, I’m kinda ready to move on. A lot of my friends are actually abroad this semester, and one of the biggest reason they cited for going abroad was that they just couldn’t handle another semester at school. They all really wanted a change of scenery. I completely agree with them. Also, since they are all abroad right now, in my personal experience I think it makes moving on somewhat easier.</p>
<p>Like someone mentioned, I think the 2+2 route may be better than the 3-2 route. Of course, I can only speak from the perspective of computer science. Many of the local community colleges have the same format for the first two years of a CS program.</p>
<ul>
<li>Introductory Object-Oriented programming I (Java or C++)</li>
<li>Introductory Object-Oriented programming II (Java or C++)</li>
<li>Discrete Structures</li>
<li>Computer Organization/Assembler/Low-Level Programming</li>
</ul>
<p>All of the schools under the “Univ of Maryland System” (U-Maryland Baltimore, Towson, U-Maryland Eastern Shore, etc) take these courses fully from the CC’s. U-Maryland College Park does not take the two Java/C++ courses BUT you can test out of them and the CC’s pretty much tailor the courses for that. It’s just that U-Maryland CP changed those first two courses in recent years and the CC’s have not acquired an agreement yet.</p>
<p>When you transfer as a junior, you start on the core CS courses. I believe Virginia is set up pretty much the same with their CC’s and UVA, VaTech and Old Dominion.</p>