<p>I am trying to get clearer on who comes to Rose and why - and what kind of institution Rose is. </p>
<p>I have heard it mentioned many times that there is some large percentage+ of incoming college students nationwide who are undecided coming in. Is this often-repeated quote applicable only to the universities and the liberal arts colleges where there is a wide smattering of majors, from the 'soft humanities' to art to the 'hard sciences'? </p>
<p>Is it also applicable to Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, which by its name SEEMS to already be biased in what it is and therefore who it serves? To what extent is Rose like a LAC and to what extent is Rose like a 'Nurses training school', where everyone who enrolls has already decided to become a nurse, to use a quick image?</p>
<p>What pct of incoming freshmen at Rose are undecided in their major line of study coming in? By when do they typically declare their major?</p>
<p>The majority of our incoming freshman students are undecided as to which area of science, mathematics or engineering to major in, but they must KNOW it is somewhere in that realm. We don’t expect a 17 year old to even know what Optical Engineering is let alone know that is what s/he wants to make a 40+ year career out of.</p>
<p>Rose-Hulman is not a LAC where graduates are educated in everything and qualified to do nothing. As you note, our name implies an understanding among our students of what they want to do just like at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, California Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, and so on. We are not a trade school just like the schools listed are not trade schools.</p>
<p>Students typically will choose their major by the end of the first year, but some go even longer to decide.</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Jared Goulding
Assistant Director of Admissions
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology</p>
<p>to TwizzWhizz11, yes… you should be able to change your major any time during your freshman year. For most people, they will eventually realize which major suits themselves best by the time they enter their sophomore year.</p>
<p>thanks, jared, for the reply and thanks for your patience as I am trying to get a better understanding of LAC, University, Technology Institute, and trade school.</p>
<p>You mentioned MIT as a peer institution. Curiously, my son had just been asking me questions about Noam Chomsky from his AP Psych class he is taking now. I told him he was on the faculty of MIT, and sure enough he is in the linguistics and philosophy dept. </p>
<p>So I thought from your stmt above that everything a person studies at RH or at Technology Institutes would be in the realm of math, science or engineering. I see that you said ‘major in’ at RH, and you were not characterizing the whole of MITs specific programs. (I was not trying to do a pgm by pgm comparison , RH:MIT, but was just tying to figure out what is included in a technology institute, vs LACs.</p>
<p>I see that cal polytechnical institute despite its name has the university kind of assortment of LAS college and art and architecture pgms.
[Cal</a> Poly - Welcome to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California](<a href=“http://www.calpoly.edu/]Cal”>http://www.calpoly.edu/)</p>
<p>I see that the lawrence technology university has minors in things like history but not majors - kinda like RH. I know of LTU since it comes up accidently on searches (my son’s sister is a student at lawrence university, a classic LAC).
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<p>The foregoing is info I uncovered as I was trying to distinguish a technical institute from LACs. Seems to be a mixed bag of offerings. </p>
<p>But a ‘trade school’, probably would not have such liberal arts courses as philosophy, whether for a major or a minor, I guess?</p>
<p>btw, , jared, speaking of mission -like stmts of colleges, isn’t that pithy statement of yours similar to a quote I have heard that I thought was attributed to a Williams president on the nature and mission of an LAC? I believe it was constructed a bit differently,but cannot recall it exactly.</p>
<p>roderick… I think you are just too obsessed with the name. Really, people can call these schools what ever name they want, but they are above all, academic institutes. Some places call themselves “university” like DeVry for instance, but we all know these are for-profit businesses selling online degrees.</p>
<p>Any way, are you some foreigner (ie, non-American)?</p>
<p>I think the most important thing for him is to look past the name of the institution and perhaps visit them himself. That way…he will be able to get a feel of the college and see if he really fits in. </p>
<p>That’s really how I ended my college search in the end.</p>
<p>When S1 and I first visited R-H, we were very impressed by the humanities and SS offerings. I wanted to take some of the classes they sounded so interesting! You might want to browse the website and see what is offered. It is very possible to have a minor in a non technical subject area. He is now a Junior there, and has really enjoyed his poly sci and economics classes. They are some of his favorite professors.</p>
<p>You can be undecided as to a specific field within the engineering and science fields and go to RH, but if there is a chance you want to major in literature, linguistics, philosophy, or business, you will need to go elsewhere. MIT may be seen as a peer institution to RH, but they have all the majors cited above, while the only “humanities” major at RH is economics. To me, institutions similar to RH are the smaller schools more focused on engineering, like Harvey Mudd, Olin, WPI, Colo School of Mines, etc. and some of the other schools listed in this link:</p>