My son has been accepted to UMass Amherst in the Natural Sciences Exploratory track in place of the engineering major he applied to. he has also been accepted to the University of Rhode Island in the Chemical Engineering major and their honors program. URI is also offering him a merit scholarship that would bring the out of state tuition costs close to what he’d receive for in state tuition at UMass. He’s leaning towards URI because he’s in the major of his choice but i know UMass Amherst is perceived to be the better school between the two. He’s concerned of taking the risk at UMass and trying to apply to the engineering school once on campus and not being able to get in versus going to a school he already knows he’s in hte major of choice. Will he receive just as good of an education at URI?
A good friend of mine has a S at UMass in Chem Engineering and he has gotten several very good internships through the school. I would have your son ask URI what internship opportunities for a Chem Eng major there are there and how likely he would be able to get one. Considering he is in the honors program there he would probably have a good shot at it but you would want to make sure by asking questions as internships are great for the obvious - real experience and the chance to maybe get a job out of it in the future.
Other than that as long as he keeps a strong GPA at URI, stays in the honors program and can use that merit URI sounds like a solid choice - esp since its his major.
Also find out at UMass what the real chance would be for him to transfer into Chem Eng there - for some majors like Nursing it would never happen and as Engineering , CS and Business are also very competitive there he may never get into the major of his choice.
Good Luck - we have many friends whose children are at both UMass and URi and they all are very happy!
Thank you for the advice!
@sapphire1971 If he wants engineering then he should go with engineering. It is completely unimportant for engineers to be in the honors program. It is going to be hard enough. There is no need to do this mental calculation to bump up the program. His sophomore year the 100 million dollar engineering building will be finished at URI. That will be amazing. With chemical, he might want to take a multidiscipline approach with ocean engineering or look at the International Engineering Program. State flagship programs are pretty similar for engineering wit ABET accreditation.