Hi,
S has been accepted at both schools. When he went to Union’s Admitted Student Day he was leaning towards RPI bc of it’s name and reputation. A week later he went to RPI’s admitted student day with a lean toward Union as he felt like he “fit” at Union.
At Union, he met fellow incoming freshman, learned that he would have plenty of opportunities for research as a biomedical engineer and felt that Union’s ability to help student’s network would be very useful for future employment. He liked the Olin Center and immediate hands on approach for engineers. Union is Trimester and they use one of the trimesters in their junior year for internships.
The RPI Admitted student day was more chaotic. He did not have any opportunity to meet with fellow freshman but he did have the chance to see “The Forge” and speak with a Junior and Senior in “The Mill”. He was also able to speak with one of the Biomedical engineering professors and really loved the possible opportunities of RPI. With the new required Arch program it is now mandatory for students to spend the summer between their sophomore and junior year (summer session) taking classes so that in their junior year they take 1 semester Away for an internship or co-op. He likes the opportunity for an internship but is not too crazy about a summer session.
My S is still deciding between the 2 schools. He got a better financial aid package from Union. Looking for feedback…if he were to go to Union, would he receive employment opportunities from top tier engineering firms such as Skylar (prosthetic field)? RPI has a spectacular reputation and students who graduate from the school are highly regarded.
My S dilemma (as well as mine) …RPI reputation vs Union’s engineering reputaion? Thanks
Let me rephrase my initial question regarding Union’s Engineering and RPI’s engineering programs. Knowing that Union is ranked very well as a liberal Art School with a strong Engineering program and RPI is ranked very high as a Engineering Tech school. Do both schools render the same recognition for their engineering programs when potential employers look at resumes?
Locally/regionally, perhaps. Nationally, definitely not. To be honest, I had never even heard of Union College until I frequented this site, and I’ve still never met an engineer from there. This is because I’ve spent all my life in the Midwest and Southwest, where it has no real name recognition outside of its home region. It’s simply too small.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t great. It just means that, if there is any desire to move out of the Northeast, it might be worth considering RPI instead, which has a much broader reputation geographically.
Although an imperfect metric as it represents the maximum number of course titles possible, not the actual number of classes actually taught (occasionally a school will not offer a course in their catalogue even once during a school year), engineering classes in the catalog does give an idea of breadth and depth possible at a school. RPI (11 ABET offerings) has 800 unique engineering courses. Union has 74. Lafayette and Bucknell, also small programs, offer 165 and 167 respectively. Swarthmore and Smith, ultratiny programs offer 35 and 37 respectively.
All that said, if Union feels like home, I’m sure he’ll do fine and end up with a decent job.
My sons actually have a friend graduating from each school this year. The RPI student has a job lined up with an aerospace company on the West Coast, the Union student has an engineering job in Manhattan lined up. The latter student’s father is an engineer as well, while the RPI student’s parents are in the entertainment field. I’ve had the opportunity to see and speak with both boys over the years and they each love their school and are very pleased with their education and opportunities. One summer, both boys interned at the same firm. The Union student is much more of a partier than the RPI student and I get the impression that Union is a more active party school.