I believe WPI only awards A, B, or C grades. They have other designations, like satisfactory or unsatisfactory, but no Ds or Fs.
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The first semester at MIT (and I believe at HMC also) is graded pass/fail. At Caltech, the first two quarters are graded pass/fail.
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First semester Pass Fail AND if by some chance a kid is placed in the wrong section/level based on the placement tests, the professor will IMMEDIATELY suggest dropping down. Ask me how I know…
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Yes, to some degree. It also depends on what one means by “supportive” environment. More spending, for example, could mean little or no restriction on major selection or class registrations, even for the most popular majors or the most popular courses. Even among the elite privates, the difference can sometimes be stark. As an example, MIT/Caltech/Stanford have a very large percentage of their students majoring in CS these days (approaching 40% at MIT/Caltech and 30% at Stanford) and they place no cap or restriction. CMU, another great CS school, on the other hand, makes it almost impossible for students who aren’t admitted directly to its CS school to transfer in.
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@taverngirl So wouldn’t the NR just be looked at as a D or F?
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More spending at Michigan may have been used to make it easier for students to choose or change major in terms of capacity limitations.
ABET sets a fairly high minimum standard for content, although different schools organize the curriculum differently and may have different learning environments. Different schools may also have required or elective content beyond the minimum for the major.
The high minimum standard does assure employers to some extent, but also makes the rigor level high enough that less selective schools have many students who have difficulty and therefore leave the major (this is much less of a risk for stronger students).
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@1NJParent How prevalent is this issue? Do both small and large schools have overcrowding in CS/popular classes?
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@ucbalumnus “Look right, Look left…” This is why I’m asking about Plan B 
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Totally not disagreeing here. Having some fun. Of course there are a lot of factors involved and the local state uni might not even be the less expensive option (looking at you UIUC).
I am taking out the possible negotiation for a first time engineering graduate. Also just looking at listprice since who knows everyone’s circumstances. Yes T20 might be the better options for some etc.
Not sure If I agree about pricing. There are many kids not going to T20 due to pricing and staying home and going to less expensive public. That’s on CC all the time. So that is a variable that is hard to track here. Of course family financial situation plays a big factor here.
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@ucbalumnus If greater spending = increased flexibility to choose and change majors, it seems that this criteria would be relevant to the undecided engineering/stem applicant.
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Just want to make the point that Michigan and Purdue are both in the T10 for undergraduate engineering. (Along with UIUC since they have been discussed here too). ; )
And I also want to stress location of starting salaries. Quality of life in low cost of living areas is not something to be overlooked. (I say this having recently moved from fairly rural OH to a close in suburb of Chicago ; )).
And yes, CS and ECE majors command higher salaries and some schools don’t break that out of their engineering stats.
Also agreed that most starting salaries are pretty close. I know my H’s company has a set salary structure for their new hires and the kid the graduated from Alabama gets the same salary as the kid who graduated from Northwestern. If they are getting an offer, it’s because of what they accomplished as an undergrad, not where they went to school.
I will say though that from what we are seeing with my D’s co-ops/internships, and the hiring practices of the companies H has worked for over the years, some companies develop affinities and relationships with certain schools. My D’s co-op company seems to take nearly all their ELDPs from Purdue and GT. My H’s old company took most of their new hires from a regional engineering school. There is something to be said about going to school closer to where you think you want to live after graduation.
The other work related “surprise” to us is how many companies have their R&D and manufacturing facilities near big engineering schools. At last count, there are over 60 companies, from big to little, in the greater Lafayette area from aviation to automotive to biotech to pharma to industrial chemical, etc… Many of these companies have partnerships with the university. My D’s summer internship company has one of their R&D branches near campus (although she’s working at their corporate R&D in PA). There are a good number of Purdue students who get their internships in town which is super if you have an off campus lease running the full year.
On the cost side, My D’s schools acceptance costs ranged from $9K (safety with lots and lots of merit) all the way up to $73K (private with $0 merit), and everything in between. We would have happily paid the $73K/year if that was her top choice and the right fit. I appreciate how fortunate we are to not have the finances driving the decision. To Data10’s point, we had a number of publics and privates that all came in around the $40K/year mark. So yes, publics are not always more affordable than privates.
FWIW, I think you are on the right track on focusing on the best fit.
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No debate. MIT is in a different ballgame all together and most would know that. I know of people that applied to one internship. Got that right away and applied to one job and done. Sure that happens elsewhere but not common… Lol…
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So what answer are you looking for? It doesn’t matter how much resources the school has if the student doesn’t take advantage of the resources right?
55% of classes are 25 students and 15:1 professor /student ratio
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Yes, but it is better to look at the actual declare or change major policies, rather than assuming based on spending.
Same for class sizes. Look for them in the college’s online class schedule.
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@momofboiler1 Wow, a lot to think about here:
1- If a graduate with more experiences (projects? Co-ops? Research?) will be hired more readily, what should I look for in a college? (Or do they all have great potential opportunities… it’s up to the student to engage 
2-So if my son wants to stay in the Midwest, go to school in the Midwest? Go to Santa Clara for Silicon Valley? VT to work in DC area?
3-I didn’t realize there were many companies near W Lafayette. Good to know!
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From Illinois many, many families send their kids to Alabama for this very reason and they all get jobs. Of course it’s probably everything you don’t want in a college so that’s a factor.
One thing being left out is the faculty and facilities when other things are equal. There are differences here. To some they can make a difference.
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But isn’t your student a strong student who has much less risk of being unable to handle engineering rigor? Also, it does not sound like your student will be too into parties and beer.
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@Knowsstuff Facilities and faculty… can you elaborate? Are there pros and cons here?
I don’t know specifics about what the grading designations are beyond the A, B, and C. It was something like that though. I assume the benefit is it doesn’t negatively affect your gpa.
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@ucbalumnus Well, from what we know of him this far, he seems capable of increasing rigor. We don’t have any engineers in our family, so it’s like sending a kid to the moon. I don’t know what to expect.
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