<p>My son is a junior and is interested in majoring in computer engineering, electrical engineering or applied mathematics. He's already visited Wash U and was favorably impressed with the campus and the "feel" of the school. He's also looking at schools that have higher ranked engineering departments (such as Cornell, CMU, Rice, Hopkins, etc). For those of you who are current engineering students (or parents of current students), how do you feel the engineering department compares to higher ranked schools? Are you happy with your choice? Also, I've heard complaints about career counseling services at Wash U for engineers -- do you think this will improve now that it's been moved under the university-wide counseling office?</p>
<p>Thanks for any input you could provide us.</p>
<p>My S is going to WashU for computer science/engineering. He applied to Rice & CMU and was rejected. Had he been accepted it would have been an intesting discussion. Rice seems like a smaller version of WashU (never visited) and CMU is more siloed. You must "apply" to switch out of a college vs. a paper transfer at WashU, Nwestern, Vandy, etc. As his dad, I can say that $$$ should be the first thing to consider. If $$ is not a factor, WashU engineering program is very good, professors great very good marks from the reports on our visit and talking with students (ask about their professor ratings for the year), the school has a great student happiness factor, classes are taught by professors, and St Louis is a metro stop away. Since he likes so many subjects, the "open" cirriculum was a very positive influence. He'll likely double major in poly sci. The business school was impressive. I get the feeling that your son or mine can make the engineering track as rigorous as he wants. We met woth the carreer placement people now in place. I got mixed feelings. The new structure will seem to be a nice improvement. they have lots of almmni, and companies who are very satisfied with WashU engineers. The advisors are genuinely interested in helping all those that are willing wo walk into their office and seemed to fit the "really nice" label that describes this school. That said, our kids motivation is the key ingredient in the formula for post college sucsess. For pure engineering, there are "better" choices if that is what you son wants.</p>
<p>My S is going to WashU for computer science/engineering. He applied to Rice & CMU and was rejected. Had he been accepted it would have been an intesting discussion. Rice seems like a smaller version of WashU (never visited) and CMU is more siloed -you must "apply" to switch out of a college vs. a paper transfer at WashU, Nwestern, Vandy, etc. As his dad, I can say that $$$ should be the first thing to consider. If $$ is not a factor, WashU engineering program is very good, professors get very good marks from the reports on our visit and talking with students (ask about their professor ratings for the year), the school has a great student happiness factor, classes are taught by professors, and St Louis is a metro stop away. Since he likes so many subjects, the "open" cirriculum was a very positive influence. He'll likely double major in poly sci. The business school was impressive. I get the feeling that your son or mine can make the engineering track as rigorous as he wants. We met with the carreer placement people now in place. I got mixed feelings. The new structure will seem to be a nice improvement. they have lots of almmni, and companies who are very satisfied with WashU engineers. The advisors are genuinely interested in helping all those that are willing to walk into their office and seemed to fit the "really nice" label that describes this school. That said, our kids motivation is the key ingredient in the formula for post college sucsess. For pure engineering, there are "better" choices if that is what you son wants.</p>
<p>I graduated from engineering in 04... and although I didn't use the engineering career services much (I applied to grad school), my friends did, and were disappointed with the number of companies recruiting on campus. (Although - I was bme, and far fewer companies that recruit for engineering want bme's... so our selection was much more limited than a CS major's would be.) A relative of mine is heavily involved with washu's engineering school, and he's extremely excited about the merging of career services. I too think that as a result the services offered to engineering students will improve, along with job opportunities... and that a decent change can be made in the next 3-4 years.</p>
<p>laurezer -- Were you happy with the strength of the engineering program at Wash U? Did it provide as good a foundation for grad school as those who went to more top tier engineering schools? Did you have good opportunities available to you for grad school? (This is more likely the route my son would be taking than getting a job straight out of college.)</p>
<p>I was very happy with my engineering education at washu. My only complaints are related to the BME curriculum itself, and would probably be the same at any university. Acutally, now that I'm at a different university, I'm appreciating washu's engineering resources much more. I definitely think I am as prepared for graduate school as my classmates who were in higher ranked engineering programs (if not better prepared). I don't think washu's lower ranking limited my opportunities at all when I was applying to grad school - the name is well known in academia, and I think graduate programs look for students that have taken advantage of all the opportunities they're given at their school. I don't know as much about the CS department as I do BME, but I think it's important that your son would have interesting and challenging courses to take, along with the opportunity to perform some work/research as an undergrad - those are the things that I feel helped me get into grad schools. I'm now in a top 10 BME program, and was accepted at the other schools I applied to... I think the same is definitely possible for anyone that applies themself at washu.</p>
<p>laurezer - what were the problems/complaints you had with the BME curriculum?</p>
<p>The BME curriculum is comprised mostly of upper-level courses from other engineering departments... Fluids (ME), Thermo (ChE), Electromagnetics (EE), etc... and it felt like we'd never be able to take any actual BME courses. But I've found that this is the case in many BME departments, and is due to the broad range of BME and its applications. It's definitely possible, however, to schedule upper-level BME courses, and get experience with real BME problems and applications, and I do feel that all of the courses that we took from the other departments were necessary.<br>
The other complaint I have about BME curriculums is how heavily they're based on the research at the university... and that's often skewed toward either cellular research/bio, or devices/engineering. It's hard to know exactly what type of BME you'd be interested in when you're looking for colleges, or even for your first year or two... so it can be disappointing if you're not interested in the research focus of the department. (But there does seem to be a good amount of variety at washu, and I found an something I was interested in)</p>