These are my top two choices for Chemical Engineering so assuming I get into both with around an equal cost which should I choose?
I know that UW is ranked #6 for ChemE but Schreyers seems to offer a great opportunity. Any input is appreciated, thanks!
I go to Penn State with that exact experience (senior in Schreyer majoring in ChemE) so let me know if you have any specific questions. I am not familiar with the other program so can’t speak to any comparisons.
For the same cost, I would pick Wisconsin. Madison is one of the great college towns.
bodangles, Do you feel that the Schreyer experience was a definite advantage over just simply regular Penn State. I am not putting down Penn State at all (I think it’s a great school) but having small class sizes and a more personal education while having the awesome atmosphere of a big school sounds great. I am curious if that is truly the case. Also, how was the ChemE education? Do you feel you had enough opportunities for research/co-op/real experience?
Thanks for your help!
I enjoy Schreyer and have had a real opportunity to take interesting classes I never expected to take (the yearlong honors English sequence, criminology, geography, energy) as well as honors math (Calc 1, Calc 2, DiffEq). But your major classes are not going to be offered in a regular version and an honors version, so the main CHE classes are going to be 100-200 students still. You can “honors option” these classes so you can dive more deeply into the engineering material, but it’s not quite the same thing as having an official CHE 340H or whatever.
For me that’s not a problem because I get to pursue other random interests and CHE is hard enough without taking those classes as honors, but that’s kind of a personal preference thing.
I have been participating in research for 1.5 years now (started junior fall), and it was pretty easy to get involved with; I just asked a professor whose class I had taken if he had space available for undergrads in his lab. Two other students started about the same time as me, one being a sophomore and one a junior. So you may have to ask more than one professor if you get unlucky the first time you ask, but they want to work with you and the opportunities are there.
I also had one internship, which I found out about because the department emailed out a request from the company for resume submissions. The PSU career fairs are quite big.
Awesome, sounds great, thanks for the detailed response.
Belated correction: the two that joined research with me were a sophomore and a senior.
Good luck with your decision!
For what it is worth, Wisconsin chemical engineering requires a 3.5 technical and 3.0 overall college GPA to stay in the major, while Penn State chemical engineering requires a 3.2 college GPA to declare the major. I.e. at both schools, there is significant “weeding out” of students who are otherwise capable of handling the work.
https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/student-services/academic-advising/first-year-undergraduate-students/progression-requirements/
https://advising.psu.edu/entrance-major-requirements-college-engineering
Thanks, that is definitely good to know. I have always been good at chemistry/physics/math in high school so hopefully I can maintain the grades.
@bengals44 They are both good programs, but there is a real risk of going to Wisconsin and then not getting admitted to Chem e. It happens to quite a few students. Then your options would be to choose an engineering major that is easier to get admitted to or transfer.
For that reason alone, I would choose Penn State.
Thank you, that’s a great point. I am definitely going to consider that risk.
Remember that most students find that earning a 3.5 or 3.2 college GPA is significantly more difficult than earning a 3.5 or 3.2 high school GPA.