My daughter wants to major in electrical engineering with a concentration in renewable energy. We’re doing a spring break trip (luckily her spring break is different that most of the colleges) looking at the following schools: Clarkson University, Rensselaer, Smith, Worcester Institute of Technology, and Boston University. We’ll probably also take a look (no tours or anything) at Union College even though they’re on spring break and UMass since they are in a consortium with Smith. Rochester Institute of Technology is on spring break and kind of far from the others. We considered Northeastern but they have nothing about renewable energy on their website.
Any suggestions for other schools in the area that might have EE with the renewable energy focus?
You hit RPI and WPI. I’d add Olin if you’re out there. It’s unique in that it’s VERY small and has an innovative curriculum. For most, it’s love it or hate it. It’s proximity to Babson makes it not feel quite so small. I’d also add Tufts, again, if you have the time. It doesn’t have the same level of engineering as some of the rest, but it’s good enough and the students seemed very happy there. If you can extend into Pennsylvania, I’d go to Lehigh. Frankly, I’d leave Union off the list. Their engineering offerings are very limited.
I agree dropping Union. I would strongly suggest visiting Northeastern, regardless of a renewable energy concentration since they are a solid engineering school known for their co-op program. I realize RIT is far, but both RIT and U of Rochester have engineering programs that are worth Googling at the very least.
yes add University of Rochester - maybe Tufts
at this point she needs to decide if she feels more comfortable at a LAC/small research university
Rochester/Tufts/Bucknell/Union/Lehigh/Colgate
or
more tech/engineering place RIT//WPI/RPI
visit one of two of each then things will be more clear
The difference between the two types mentioned by @swampdraggin is mainly what the mix of students around her will be and she will have alternate options if she doesn’t like engineering. What won’t be much different is her curriculum. Either way, she’ll get lots of tech work and 20% or so humanities, history and social science.
Even though Lehigh isn’t technically a tech school, the engineering department is large, well respected and has lots of toys. From an engineering perspective, it doesn’t belong in the same sentence as the rest mentioned.
@eyemgh Olin sounds great and I think she’d like the atmosphere, but just too much of a reach academically. I have a niece who went to Tufts (science, not eng.) and loved it, so we will probably take a look. D wasn’t too enthusiastic about Union anyway so will probably skip it. Lehigh looks like they only have renewable energy research in their ME department.
@gogeorgiatech (GT is where I met my husband!) and @PengsPhils Okay, I blame the poorly designed website for not finding the info about NEU’s sustainable energy minor. Or instead of blaming them, I could just learn to google. Anyway, D is excited now to have NEU on the list. We will miss their “Engineering Wednesday” due to another visit, but can still do the regular tour and D will see if she can set something up with the EE dept separately.
@swampdraggin Yes, I think this trip is going to be really eye-opening in comparing different types of schools beyond just seeing what she thinks of each individually.
Thanks for the advice everyone! So far her only school visits have been to CU-Boulder and Oregon Tech, so we are both pretty psyched about this trip!
@snoozn I have another suggestion since I have a DD who is an engineering student. For the colleges that you are visiting see if there is a person responsible for enrollment for your DD’s major (they may be called “in charge of recruiting”. Try to arrange an appointment with that person when you are visiting to get more specifics of the major, research, lab facilities etc. The admission rep from very first college my DD visited (GT) arranged meetings for her with the enrollment head of her major who explained how the curriculum worked, gave her a tour of their labs and walked her into a classroom to meet the students and professor. It made a huge difference to my DD in evaluating colleges and it became the standard of every college visit she did after that. If you can’t find the name of the person than have your DD write to the admission rep for your area for the respective college and as her for the person she could contact in EE to learn more about being an EE student.
Along the same lines, the same admission rep arranged for my DD to meet with the Assistant Director for Women in Engineering at that college and she found that type of meeting very informative- she could ask how they support women in engineering, extra scholarships available, mentoring programs etc. I did a quick search and saw that RPI has a Women in Engineering office. Again a quick email to set up a meeting would be a good idea.
I also suggest your DD keep a small notebook with her while you visit these colleges and write down her impressions, and who she meets etc. It will come in handy when she has to write those college supplements "Why college X? Being able to give specifics like “I met with XX from Women in Engineering and learned of xxx which I am interested in.” My DD did those sorts of things and it really helped her in the college admissions process and with her apps. Plus at her college she then kept in contact with those faculty she met and it has led to lots of opportunity for her. Good luck.
@itsv Great ideas – thank you for sharing! The only “extra” I’d considered was requesting to sit in on a class. Good timing as D was just about ready to email the schools asking about what class she might be able to attend. I love the notebook idea too. I remember 6 years ago my oldest D filling out those supplemental essays and her eyes glazing over as she struggled to explain in some detail why she wanted to attend X college. Of course also sounds great for the actual decision making.
@swampdraggin Good idea to make sure she knows she doesn’t have to share all her thoughts on schools with me. Luckily though she’s been pretty happy talking to me about tons of college stuff so far!