<p>I am planning on majoring in Mechanical Engineering and am considering several schools. Rather than write a thread that compares them all, which inevitably leads to many negative comments about one school or another, I am taking a different approach...</p>
<p>Please tell my why I should go to NU for Mechanical Engineering. What are the "pros" that make this school the one I should pick over other very good choices?</p>
<p>It’s range:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northwestern-university/670748-fyi-department-rankings-special-programs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northwestern-university/670748-fyi-department-rankings-special-programs.html</a></p>
<p>We had the same thread like three months ago. Someone may be able to dig it up.</p>
<p>Actually, for the schools I am considering, the rankings are very similar. Outside of the academics, what makes NU special?</p>
<p>It’s got a nice location and it’s got a LOT of schools, which not only increases your opportunities but increases the diversity of people and passions around you beyond liberal arts</p>
<p>the weather. builds character.</p>
<p>I applied ED to Northwestern this year for Mechanical Engineering… got accepted and now I’m going there… so while not trying to convince you, I’ll list out some comparative reasons I made NU my first choice.</p>
<p>The colleges I mainly looked at were: University of Florida, U of Illinois Urbana and Champagne, Purdue, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon and Northwestern. At most of the publics, even Purdue… which is known as a good engineering school, you have a very, very basic first year program. You sit in a class and they tell you what engineering professions there are for an entire year. Even Hopkins and Carnegie are like that to a certain extent. Northwestern arguable has the best freshman curriculum out there… they have the Engineering Design and Communication courses that simultaneously teach you about the different sectors of engineering and give you hands on experience building products and working with real clients… something that most schools don’t offer.</p>
<p>Northwestern’s program emphasizes more real world experience, hands on stuff and working to make the world a better place. While this seems idealistic, I’ve read that companies recruit highly from Northwestern for engineers that are well versed in both the details of engineering and real world applications - so providing potential managers and higher ups for future companies. I really liked that about Northwestern because I prefer the broader view of engineering.</p>
<p>Last thing was the research aspect. I’m into robotics and the future applications of that. JHU and Carnegie ( I didn’t like Carnegie because the atmosphere seemed way too nerdy and engineering focused) both have great robotics research programs, JHU’s focused primarily on BME related applications and Carnegie’s everywhere (if you’ve followed the DARPA challenge at all, you’d know). However Northwestern has a lot of great research opportunities, they pair up a lot with the physical rehab centers in Chicago as well as being well connected in the midwest/Chicago area. JHU in Baltimore and Carnegie in Pittsburgh simply don’t have as great of a local engineering connection as Northwestern does with Chicago. And of course the public research scene is brutal considering how many kids you have to compete with, Northwestern’s engineering department says you can get a research position fairly easily.</p>
<p>Also Northwestern’s connections with Chicago provide good internship/ co-op opportunities that I might not have gotten in Pittsburgh or Baltimore. Also JHU didn’t have co-op programs which was definitely a turn off to me.</p>
<p>Those were just my reasons, hope they help you out.</p>
<ol>
<li>the only private in the Big Ten</li>
<li>lakefront property</li>
<li>a huge lagoon and a beach</li>
<li>location: Evanston + Chicago</li>
<li>new president</li>
<li>quarters–more classes, more flexibility, more double-majors </li>
<li>engineering first -unique first-year curriculum (see the post above mine)</li>
<li>engineering co-op</li>
<li>special programs that are well-respected by others: MMSS, ISP, Kellogg undergrad certificates</li>
<li>Dance Marathon</li>
<li>student theater scene with the nation’s largest number of independent productions by students</li>
<li>The Dolphin Show (America’s largest student-produced musical)
13 women lax</li>
<li>success in external scholarhips: 2 Rhodes (no school got more than 2), 1 Marshall, 1 Mitchell, 5 Gates Cambridge (the most in the nation), 2 Churchill (Harvey Mudd is the only other school with more than one), 4 Goldwater (tied with 5 other schools for the most), and 29 Fulbright (likely among the top-3 if not the most) this year
15…</li>
</ol>
<p>Hmm pesky, i’m kinda in the same position as you were in, having to decide between Carnegie and Northwestern, with the exception that you may have been alot more certain than I am regarding which school to pick. </p>
<p>Which brings me to my point: my uncertainty primarily stems from my concern about internships opportunities for engineering students at McCormick. There seems to be little question about such issues at Carnegie though. Having an internationally recognized tech (engineering and computer science) departments, internship offers for Carnegie students flood in from all over the country (P&G, Bayer, ExxonMobil, Intel, Caterpillar etc). So even though Pittsburgh may not outclass Chicago in this department, it is hardly an issue. Maybe you could shed some light on this matter. </p>
<p>Also, another concern I have about NU is the quality of research taking place there. It just seems that NU is not highly regarding within tech circles, and i fear this may be a consequence of the research taking place on campus.</p>
<p>Here is actually a list of companies that Northwestern actively coordinates co-ops with: [Walter</a> P. Murphy Cooperative Engineering Education Program - Northwestern University](<a href=“Academics | Northwestern Engineering”>Academics | Northwestern Engineering)</p>
<p>A brief look will turn up companies like Raytheon, Motorola, NASA, Autodesk, GE, GM (you could probably be the CEO after a few months of co-oping). I think you’ll get the same quality companies at both Northwestern and Carnegie. Chicago is a major hub for companies, you have a lot of management and industry based out of the midwest for some of those big companies. What drew me to Northwestern moreso than Carnegie or JHU is that Northwestern has a reputation of turning out both engineering and business savvy undergrads. So naturally the large midwest companies recruit for their management positions and industrial engineering positions from Northwestern. From that recruiting aspect, you can put NU up there with MIT.</p>
<p>No argument, CMU has a fantastic computer and electrical engineering program, which turns out more and better research than Northwestern’s does. However, you will see a lot of theoretical, robotics engineering coming out of Carnegie. Hence the robot that rolls on a ball - that’s nice and all - but what applications can you find for it? Northwestern tends to pride itself on training engineers who can find real world applications for their products. So you’ll see way more specifically designed medical robots and flexible solar cells. While the engineering research itself isn’t as prominent and is way more in the nitty, gritty, it’s probably more useful overall.</p>
<p>I also liked Northwestern’s curriculum way more than JHU or CMU’s. While I wasn’t exactly happy about NU’s research, I figured that I’d be spending way more time actually working on engineering class work than doing research, so first and foremost I should be happy with what will be taking up the majority of my time.</p>
<p>If you got into the CMU electrical/ computer engineering program (which is a very prestigious and difficult program to get into) I would suggest looking at that. However I think the question you want to ask yourself is, do you want to build robots and do more theoretical research with more future implications or are you aspiring to possibly managing and looking at the real world side of things. Obviously there is no right answer, you have to go with what you think. In the end I liked Northwestern’s real-life applications approach and decided to go with that. </p>
<p>Good luck with your decision.</p>