I’m a graduating senior and aspiring CompSci Engineer Major and PoliSci minor and I’m currently deciding if I should choose Bates or Wesleyan 3-2 program for the engineering route or go to Georgia Tech. I’m only hesitant in this decision because I’m not a Georgia Resident and Bates and Wesleyan give great Financial Aid, so I’m kinda stuck between a fork in the road. The down side with Bates and Wesleyan is they only offer Digital and Computational Studies instead of straight CompSci, although I’ve heard they’re pretty much the same. I read in a past thread about the same thing with Colby, and it said the Dual Degree programs with Columbia and Dartmouth are extremely hard to get into with like a limited space of 15 students. I’m hoping to see if there are any present students at Bates or Wesleyan who is willing to enlighten me on what they think I should do.
I’m a huge fan of Bates but honestly if you’re sure you want to do CS/Engineering I would choose 1. GT if it’s affordable, or 2. Wesleyan if the financial aid is substantially better than GT’s.
I think it’s quite possible to do a 3-2 program but the question is whether you will actually do it. Many kids find they don’t want to leave their undergrad school after 3 years, and the lack of undergrad engineering courses means you don’t get to try out the discipline to see if it’s really what you want to do.
@PurpleTitan GT does cost more and I hate that Georgia residents get tons of money taken off for aid but OOS students pay out of pocket.
@Sue22 GT is not affordable. Wesleyan and Bates are matched pretty well for financial aid. As far as the 3-2 program I have thought about this program since I visited both schools last year and I liked the way the program was described. Unfornuately, I can’t really know how well I like the 3-2 option until I actually do it which sucks.
^Wesleyan also has a 2-1-1-1 variation with Dartmouth where you spend frosh and sophomore year at Wes, a year at Dartmouth then, graduation year with Wes before going back to Big Green for a final year.
3+2 programs are often not completed by transfer to the “2” school, due to not getting admitted to the “2” school, not getting enough FA at the “2” school, not being able to afford the extra year even with FA, or not wanting to leave the “3” school.
If GT isn’t affordable I’d do the revisits at Bates and Wes and ask a whole lot of questions. They’re both great schools so I don’t think you can go wrong. Bates has a new and innovative Digital and Computational Studies (CS) program but Wesleyan has more course offerings. See which sells itself better and feels like the best fit for you.