<p>Hey so I've been accepted to both Wesleyan University & Tufts University. I plan on doing engineering and going on to grad school for either engineering or law. </p>
<p>Tufts has its own engineering school while Wesleyan has a neat 3+2 program with Columbia and Caltech.</p>
<p>Can you guys please help me decide which one to pick of the two?</p>
<p>Factors to include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Grading system (curved or otherwise)</li>
<li>Value to law schools (only really looking at Harvard/Yale/Stanford for law) and value to engineering school.
-Problems/Benefits with the 3+2 program</li>
<li>Atmosphere at the school</li>
<li>Overall value for my money (parents money)</li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks to everyone and I hope I get something constructive!!</p>
<p>Look in here or the engineering forum for threads on 3+2 programs (or “3-2”). These have been discussed a lot.
Honestly, they make no sense to me at all. If you want to study engineering, then study engineering. Otherwise, how do you know that is what you really want to study? You need exposure to the discipline to know for sure.
Also, if you want to go to grad school then why spend 5 years of tuition on your undergrad degrees? I suppose if you are really wealthy, that might be fun, but otherwise, how could that make any sense?</p>
<p>Both Tufts and Wesleyan probably have equal value to law schools.</p>
<p>One of the problems that has been cited for 3+2 programs is the possibility that you won’t actually finish the engineering degree - that you’ll decide somewhere along the way that you don’t want to leave all your friends at School 1 to go do the 2-year part of the engineering program at School 2. I’ve never seen independent evidence that this actually happens all of the time. I had a lot of 3-2 engineering friends at my LAC and all of them went on to complete the engineering part of their degree (although that may be, in part, because I went to school in Atlanta and one of our 12 partner schools was Georgia Tech. Although students could do the 3-2 program with a variety of engineering schools, most of them chose Tech because it was right there and relatively cheap).</p>
<p>3/2 engineering programs often exist because people want to spend 3 years in a liberal arts environment and don’t want to be limited by an engineering-only environment. Also, do note that engineering majors require more credits (often 150) and sometimes take 5 years even in programs where they are designed to take 4. Different strokes for different folks, so the question for OP is - do you want to focus primarily on your engineering major, or do you want to have more time to explore other subjects and take liberal arts classes? That should help you decide. Also do take into account the very real possibility that you don’t meet the guaranteed requirements. Making a 3.1 GPA in the Tufts engineering program may not be a problem, but if you do that at Wesleyan, it may be the difference between actually majoring in engineering and moving on to Columbia or Caltech, or having to change your major to physics or something.</p>
<p>I would consider the two schools to be very equivalent – but if you want engineering then I’d go to Tufts. This way 1) you are sure to be in an engineering program and 2) if you any reason you start off as an engineer and find that you don’t like it you will have time to switch majors 3) you will have a full four year undergraduate experience at one college and 4) the program at Tufts will take 4 years instead of 5 years at a 3+2 program (important if you plan to go to law school after).</p>
<p>Really? A 4-year engineering curriculum leaves you with time for liberal arts. 3-2 engineering is usually for math, chemistry and physics majors. Read the thread posted above on USC vs. Wes 3-2.</p>
<p>If you want to be an engineer, go to Tufts.</p>
<p>Otherwise, both are great schools, go to the one you prefer. Though some do a 3-2 program, I’ve always wondered how many apply for it, and how many get accepted. Without those numbers it’s impossible to answer your question any better.</p>