@nordicdad, I checked out their website and it looks like Santa Clara could be a good fit. They have co-op (D is a big fan) and renewable energy classes plus an energy lab. Very nice. The COA of $66,000 is not so nice. The NPC only showed $2000-$3000 merit. According to College Data they give 25% of non-need students merit averaging $14,000. I would call it a target for admission and a high reach for affordability.
If she really likes the co-op idea, RIT may be a good option. Both my children chose co-op schools and engineering majors (Northeastern and RIT). The co-op experience has been wonderful (the senior has finished 3 co-ops, the freshman none yet of course). It gives them a chance to do real work and find out what they like and don’t like. My freshman at RIT’s calculus class has 40 students in it. His largest class is a chem lecture with around 100. But there seem to be mostly small classes at RIT.
Oh, that’s a good idea. RIT is an excellent STEM school, and travel logistics would be far easier than Clarkson.
I’d like to point out that even the big state engineering programs have co-op programs. They just simply aren’t typically baked into the curriculum like they are at some programs like RIT or Northeastern. Co-ops are still an option, they just aren’t required.
Yep - many schools have optional co-op program. Also any engineering student can apply for summer internship jobs (often there are even on-campus job fairs and interviews).
A school with formal co-op requirements does have some logistic advantages for housing, semester details etc. In college I had seriously considered an autumn Semester-In-Industry program (which got paired with summer classes prior). However, the logistics got complicated for arranging housing/roommates and classwork. In contrast, Northeastern (the example I know the best) revolves around the co-op/experiential learning focus. After the first year, everybody is on an A/B rotation. Many students opt to live on campus while working. (There can be housing headaches after the 3rd year, when housing is not guaranteed.) Some student have even commented that co-op session is when they have the most time for clubs etc because no homework.
Co-op school is certainly not the right path for everybody. i think most students prefer the more traditional semester (or trimester) scheme.
One interesting thing that we have started doing in my engineering group is only hiring interns who are willing to stay 9 or preferably 12 months. So the schools that encourage those longer job experiences have a big advantage in placing students with us. We seem to be a highly desirable job opportunity so we can entice people to take a year off school even if it is not encouraged by the school, but we do recruit heavily at a few places that encourage long internships.
The longer term assignment is another good approach. It seems like it would be win/win for employer and student to allow enough time for good learning/ramp-up. I’ve heard about some students that do that by taking a year break from school. From above post, it sounds like there are also schools that do formal long term intership.
For Northeastern, co-ops are about 5 months long… longer than summer, but not 9+ months. Some students opt to return to same workplace, but there is a few months of classwork in between.
@krnBoston, I’m glad to hear good things about RIT. We had a great visit there and it’s very high up on her list (actually #1 as far as plausibly affordable schools). She did like Northeastern in terms of co-op and just generally when we visited. But she decided it was a little too urban (even though she likes Boston) and a little too reachy.
@boneh3ad, she does prefer the “baked-in” programs pretty much for the reasons stated by @colorado_mom. At CSU she asked the tour guide about co-op (or actually it was probably me!) and he couldn’t have been more unenthusiastic – “oh yeah, I think we have that but most students just do internships.” Not that you can count on a single student tour guide to be right, but she probably will need to look further into how strongly co-op is supported depending on what choices she has.
@nordicdad and @colorado_mom, I have never heard about these longer term assignments. They sound pretty intriguing, especially with a school that doesn’t have co-op but would be supportive of that approach either formally or informally.
And I have to say I really love this forum! You engineers have been very helpful in my D’s college search.
@snoozn - You won’t need intership job sites for a while… but if your are curious here is an example
http://www.indeed.com/q-Engineering-Internship-jobs.html
There is similar for Glassdoor, Career Finder etc
Look at CREATe (Center for Renewable Energy and Aerodynamic Technology) at Virginia Tech. There’s a prof contact on their homepage (http://www.create.centers.vt.edu) and from our experience with the school, I think emailing him would yield good info on your questions. Engineering school in general is heavily recruited, but I don’t know if that’s regional or national for renewable energy…the prof could answer that for sure. Big classes should be within her thresholds. Beautiful campus for someone from CO, think she’d feel fairly at home in that aspect. Would think the campus vibe would be ok for her, it’s not terribly politically active but not apathetic. VERY passionate alums, the kids that go there LOVE the school (that def showed up in Princeton Review rankings)…my son didn’t get that at all until he started there. Now he does :). Engineering school very competitive to get into, don’t think her stats would make her a lock but she’d be in the pool for sure (being female is a help).
ETA: Newish President is big on getting research $$ in. STEM program there is excellent and recognized, and research grants growing (and they weren’t bad before Sands came in). Definitely a school - both in general and Engineering School - aggressively moving up.
That CREATe organization is going to be heavily leaning toward wind energy, and specifically the aerodynamics side of wind energy. It is essentially operated by the Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering. I don’t think it’s particularly applicable to the OP, who was asking about electrical engineering.
Typical Northeastern co-ops are 6 months. The big difference I’ve observed is as noted above - when everyone is doing co-op, it’s just how things work. The career office is setup to help find co-ops, they are of a longer duration, activities, social life, everything just works with a co-op schedule. And you still graduate with your college peers. That said, my daughter has worked alongside students who were there for a shorter internships. In fact, at one company since she was there Jan-June, she was somewhat out of sync with the huge group of summer interns. That had some good and some bad aspects.
My RIT student didn’t want to be in a big city either - he wouldn’t even consider Northeastern.
My son felt Northeastern was more “campus-y” at its core than you would expect from a city school, but yea - it’s definitely a city school. @krnBoston - tell us more about RIT. I’ve been impressed by the graduates, but I’ve never seen the campus.
@JustGraduate, I’m glad to hear your son is having such a great experience at VT. D is interested in the green engineering minor. They also seem big in sustainability in general with a lot of possible research areas. My H almost went there and has said how beautiful Blacksburg is. I have family in VA which is another plus. And maybe most of all, they are affordable (barely!) even without merit. Not too bad for OOS.
@krnBoston and @colorado_mom, D thought NEU’s campus was more campus-y than BU considering how close together they are. She knew almost right away she didn’t like BU. I’m glad she dropped NEU because I’m not ready to have her in a big city! D and I agreed that the RIT campus is pretty average/neutral, but she doesn’t care too much about ivy-draped stone buildings. We like the tunnel system. It was great seeing all the geeky murals that line the walls – a good sign she’d be with her tribe there.
Northeastern and RIT campuses are really different. RIT is a fairly modern campus, as the University moved from downtown Rochester to the current location in the suburbs in the late 60s. All the buildings are the same brick - they call it Brick City. No old ivy-covered buildings. Some of the newer buildings are more interesting architecturally (in my opinion). The dorms are at one end of campus and are all connected by tunnels; the academic buildings are connected by a separate tunnel system. Freshman dorms are traditional dorms. Most housing after that is apartment-style. It’s definitely suburban - once you’re off campus it’s strip malls and shopping centers. It’s only 10-15 minutes (if that) to get to downtown Rochester. Lots of kids have cars.
The community is a combination of artsy and techy. My son has definitely found his people there. I was impressed by many of the labs and facilities - they have a full clean room, which is used by undergraduates. My son doesn’t like the food, but that’s his biggest complaint. Maybe his only complaint. My city-loving daughter wouldn’t have enjoyed the campus, but my son wouldn’t even look at Northeastern because he didn’t want to be in the city. They each found the school that was right for them.
@krnBoston, yes, the combo of artsy and techy also appeals to D. At least some of the completely tech schools seem to focus on getting through and getting jobs rather than the full college experience. Not everyone wants that experience, so it probably works for them. Another issue of fit. I’m glad to hear both your kids found their right fit.
@snoozn The type of school can make a big difference in fit, even in engineering. Northeastern student really wanted a research university that also had engineering - did not want a primarily tech school. Other schools included GW, BU, Tufts. RIT student preferred the tech schools - if not RIT, he would have been at WPI.
@krnBoston – thanks so much for the info about RIT - it is on our list for sure - my DS has a friend there who really likes it. We just spent a day at WPI and DS liked much about it too. A nice, manageable campus, strong engineering programs in a supportive environment, good music programs too and the 3 courses for 7 weeks could be a good thing. DS is smart but has some exec functioning challenges. Access to professors and small classes will be very helpful for him but he wants the content to be interesting and challenging too!
@CA1543 I know people who have graduated from WPI and loved it. We were a bit concerned about the 7 weeks - you miss something and boom! you’re in trouble. We weren’t sure if it would be good or not for my son. In the end, he choose the one that felt right to him. RIT has a lot of supports in place for students with different exec functioning challenges. My son did a summer program at WPI and really liked it - nice campus, nice kids.
@CA1543 and @krnBoston, regarding the exec functioning supports, a huge reason I like RIT is their spectrum support program for kids with autism (D is autistic) which I haven’t seen from other schools that fit her academically. It’s not surprising they would support kids with exec function issues or various LD’s at a high level too.