<p>Hey everyone, I'm trying to decide what university I should attend: Cornell, Columbia, or UPenn. I got into the engineering schools from all three. I would appreciate any advice on which school I should choose:</p>
<p>I guess you should know these things too:</p>
<ul>
<li>I don't care if I go somewhere rural or urban.</li>
<li>The more undergrad research opportunities, the better.</li>
<li>Doing some sort of Co-op/internship is very appealing to me.</li>
<li>I'm very interested in nanotech.</li>
<li>I'll probably go into either materials or applied physics; although, the possibility of doing a completely different engineering major does exist (people change majors all the time...).</li>
<li>I find liberal arts to be interesting and important, but remember I applied to engineering schools to be an engineer not an historian, etc.</li>
<li>I'm definitely going to grad school.</li>
</ul>
<p>Your advice can be on anything, but if you could note on the pros and cons of each school and then give your verdict I'd appreciate it.</p>
<p>If you need any more info please ask. If I can think of anything else to add I'll post it. Thanks for all of your help!!!</p>
<p>definitely penn. i think they are expanding there nanotechnology or sth like that. i remember when i was decided whether to apply to columbia or penn ed, i noticed that penn had more dedication to nanotechnology.
for liberal arts, i would also go with penn because you can take classes from any schools. ie you can take classes from wharton, CAS, etc. you can also double major in liberal arts and technology fairly easily. columbia has a fairly rigid curriculum. i think they have PE classes as requirments to graduate....
i would say you would find a lot of research opportunities at penn. not sure about the other schools. </p>
<p>I am not going to go as far as to say this school is better than the other, but you seem like a good fit at penn.</p>
<p>for nanotech, you can't beat penn. they're pouring a huge amount of research dollars into their materials engineering and they are building a new nanotech research building that will open in a few years. The liberal arts offerings in the College are top-notch as well. It is also a relatively small major (i think less than 50 in your class), so you get a whole lot of individualized attention from a very renowned faculty but still with a very broad range of nanotech-related courses. you also have many opportunities to conduct research at these facilities. penn was recently ranked #1 in the country for nanotech research.</p>
<p>here are some graduate schools that penn material engineers went to:</p>
<p>2006
Columbia University, PhD; Bioengineering
Imperial College London, MS; Physics
Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, MD; Medicine
Northwestern University, PhD; Materials Science</p>
<p>2005
University of Pennsylvania, JD; Law</p>
<p>2004
University of California at Berkeley, Ph.D.; Materials Science and Engineering
University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D.; Engineering Science – Materials</p>
<p>add the fact that material engineers at penn have one of the highest starting salaries at 60k (should you chose to enter the workforce after graduation) the list above shows that the postgrad options are really limitless. another advantage of materials engineering is that it pretty much follows the chemical engineering curriculum in the first two years, making it easy to switch out if materials is not your thing.</p>
<p>all your choices are great, so there's right or wrong answer. i just provided info about penn, so take it for what it's worth. good luck with your decision, and hope you come to penn!</p>
<p>
[quote]
- I'm definitely going to grad school.
[/quote]
Grad school for what? Engineering, go to Cornell. It's a far more respected engineering program than the other two schools. Med/law/business, pick between Columbia and Penn. To pick between the two, just decide if you want your graduation requirements to be dictated to you or if you want complete freedom in choosing the liberal arts courses you take. If you are 100% about Wall Street, Columbia should get a slight edge, but Penn's environment and campus life are much better.</p>
<p>abhim89, do you have the source for penn being ranked #1 in the country for nanotech research?</p>
<p>Venkat89, I understand why your asking for a reason to go to grad school. I know that many and probably most engineers don't, but if I wish to pursue to nanotech and have a successful career in it, grad school is a must.</p>
<p>Thanks for commenting everyone, I really appreciate it. I'll let everyone know my decision once I make it!</p>
<p>I was reading the US News grad school rankings yesterday, but the nanotech rankings escape me (because I was focusing on law and med). I want to say that none of these three showed up in the top 10, but after rereading abhi's post, Penn seems like a solid choice. Go to a book store or a news stand and look at the US News rankings to see if any of these are top 10.</p>
<p>Like somenoe said before--- Cornell if you want hardcore engineering. Columbia if you want ~2 years of Core course work. Penn if you wanna party and do your own thing. Columbia probably has a heads up on CAS for Finance just due to its proximity and sheer Wall-Street obsession/culture. Social scene sucks tho.</p>
<p>In the US News graduate engineering rankings, Penn ranked 14th for Material engineering, which is not far from Cornell at 9th, despite how Cornell is allegedly more "hardcore". Columbia does not have a renown materials department, although it has a good physics department.</p>
<p>I would dispute Columbia's Wall Street advantage given that Penn engineers are often heavily recruited by employers who come to recruit at Wharton, and a Penn engineer can take pretty much whatever wharton coursework they want/can fit in.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The May/June 2006 issue of Small Times magazine ranks the University of Pennsylvania #1 in research in nanotechnology. This is a result of an integrated initiative across the campus of numerous centers, laboratories, and collaborations. These include the Nano/Bio Interface Center, the Nanotechnology Institute, and the Penn Regional Nanotechnology Facility to name a few. The article also ranks other aspects like education, facilities, and industrial outreach. On the Education list, Penn ranks 5th and on the Commercialization list it ranks 10th.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>EDIT: I should also add that since it appears grad school is your goal, keep in mind that the schools that I mentioned in my earlier post (Berkeley, UT-Austin, and Northwestern) are all excellent for engineering. penn material engineers are successful at getting into top grad schools because 1) there are so many top research opportunities available 2) they can develop a close relationship with their professors, who in turn can give more individualized attention and excellent recommendations</p>
<p>Columbia SEAS places better than Penn SEAS on wallstreet. I'm not in SEAS but our business team visited a well known PE firms a couple of months ago and the MD told me upon learning that I'll be there next year that Columbia is actually their most heavily recruited hunting ground. Columbia CC/SEAS vs. Wharton? Wharton. Columbia CC/SEAS vs Penn SEAS/CAS? Columbia wins.</p>
<p>what you don't seem to realize, truzan, is that recruiting at Penn is set up in an almost seamless fashion. All students are able to participate in OCR and get interviews, meaning students in the college or in engineering have access to the same employers who come for the wharton students, and are often treated equally to them. By your own admission, wharton draws more recruiting than Columbia, therefore Penn as a whole draws more recruiting than Columbia.</p>
<p>truazn, the OP isn't interested in a career on wall street...</p>
<p>however, just cauz i love a nice debate... truazn, you admitted that Wharton recruiting is better than Columbia recruiting. Now since Wharton recruiting is open to ALL of Penn, doesn't that logically mean that Penngineers (I won't discuss nursing, CAS etc because this thread is about engineering) have better recruiting than Columbia Engineers?</p>
<p>Seriously tho, I really don't think this argument is necessary. At the point of comparing Penn to Columbia, the school you go to will hardly matter as much as your interviewing skills, resume, GPA etc. It's not what school you go to (especially with Columbia vs Penn), its what you make of it there.</p>
<p>truazn, what that MD told you certainly doesn't prove that Columbia SEAS does better than Penn SEAS on Wall Street. In any case, both schools are heavily recruited by Wall Street, so that debate is pretty much irrelevant.</p>