<p>Heh, my undergrad school and my current graduate school.</p>
<p>I had an absolutely great time at CMU, with plenty of time to make friends, party, and do all the sorts of things you’d like from a “traditional” college experience. One part that is a bit different is that homework becomes part of your social life. Very few people sit in their rooms alone doing homework; most people have study groups with a set of friends you do almost every assignment with. I actually looked forward to the assignments for some of my easier classes since we’d go to our department’s computer lab and hang out for the next six hours while doing a little bit of homework.</p>
<p>If your son wants an easy school without very high expectations I definitely wouldn’t recommend CMU, though. Carnegie Mellon’s motto is “My heart is in the work,” and unless you agree with that, you’ll never have a good time there. If you love what you’re doing and really want to learn what you’re studying, then there’s nowhere else you could want to be.</p>
<p>It all depends on what you call a reasonable social life.</p>
<p>Non-engineers at my school often:
Took a weekday off from classes to go skiing at the ski resort
Took 3 day weekends for side trips
Partied during the week (freshman year) and couldn’t make it to class the next day
Took part in leadership conferences, which required time off from school
If someone knocked on their door, they gladly stopped working on homework to hang out with friends for a few hours</p>
<p>Undergraduate engineers are my school:
Skiied on Saturdays only, and rarely skipped class
Usually didn’t participate in conferences or trips
Usually spent only Friday and Saturday for social events so they could focus on homework during the week
If a guy knocked on their door to invite them to a group study session, they gladly stopped working on Electrical Circuits to go study Thermodynamics for a few hours</p>
<p>So it just depends on what your sons opinion of how much “down time” they need. Engineering is a program that requires a lot of focus and concentration and does resulted in a more limited social time than business or communications.</p>
<p>Well, that wasn’t the full extent of my social life, but while doing homework with my group I probably spent equal time screwing around playing games, joking, talking, and making fun of each other as we did actually doing homework.</p>
<p>I found the rule was as soon as the group gets larger than 5 people someone always wants to take a break. My group tended to be 8-10 people.</p>
<p>If he wants to go to a school where active social life can be a huge part of the college experience (im talking parties and girls) while still providing a rigorous curriculum and a prestigious degree, tell him to check out large state schools, which usually have a perfect blend of academics/social life. I may be biased but I would say Penn State sounds like a great match for him. It has very good eng programs and an active social life, plus it is one of the largest research universities in the country. Honors programs at state universities are usually as rigorous as any top 5 programs as well</p>
<p>I think you also need to factor in how much he loves school.</p>
<p>Me? I do not mind sitting down and studying for a Pre-Calc test (we can’t take Calc Jr year) for a couple hours b/c I enjoy doing math. I don’t mind sitting down and finishing an AP Chem problem set nights before it is actually due because I just love physical sciences. I know a ton of people (even those who are good at it) that hate math with a passion. I like math, therefore I anticipate that while it won’t be a breeze, attempting to do well in math courses as a Computer Engineer won’t be all that difficult. Whether or not I am successful in these math courses? Well, we’ll find out in a couple years :D</p>
<p>I think that if you had the work ethic and the brains to get into CalTech, then you shouldn’t have a problem studying there. Besides, just because it’s an uber nerd school doesn’t mean that you can’t have a social life there. And in the end, you still worked hard regardless of where you went, except if you went to CalTech you might have had a unique experience that most won’t be able to have, make some connections, the usual things that come with graduating from an amazing school with a great name.</p>
<p>One of my friends got into MIT and was planning to go until he visited. He said that being there and feeling the vibes and the environment and interacting with the people there helped him with his decision. He’s turning them down, which I think is a shame, however everyone has different preferences, and like him, your son may not even know until he actually experiences it.</p>
<p>mommymom, it’s all relative. A superior student will be able to do well in a tough engineering with only a few hours per day of studying. An ‘average’ engineering student will put in far more hours. A sizable number will put in the heavy hours and drop out of engineering. Some will struggle at first but learn to study more effectively, i.e. become better students.</p>
<p>Maybe you should ask your son whether he’s better at theory or practice. The best schools are theory heavy; they can prepare future engineering professors. Some schools emphasize theory less and practical aspects more. For the kind of kid who would end up dropping out at a more theoretical school, a more practical (“lesser”) school is a better fit and should prepare him well for industry.</p>
<p>Example: A civil eng. I know, who was a UIUC grad, thought that SIUC (So. Ill Carbondale) produced great engineers (“that’s a great program”). That’s because they entered the work force ready to produce. This person thought that UIUC was a little too theoretical. From a recent SIUC grad, the guys there had a life vrs. all work and no play.</p>
<p>For EE and ME, you might look at the curriculum and learn how many lab classes they expect you to take, how much math they require, etc.</p>
<p>Hey, every time I’ve been visited Carnegie I’ve gone to a party I really wasn’t supposed to. There’s parties it’s just major/club specific instead of the frat. Like the NSBE party or the Indian Club party. Engineers get out, it’s just usually on weekends. I don’t see parties on Sunday though there were movies and pancakes at night for some reason. I think at any engineering school the ones that complain about lacking a social life are the ones that lack social skills and go on the internet and complain.</p>
<p>I personally am a fan of the Big 10 state universities with good engineering programs (Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin). Besides having very good engineering schools, they have alot of other majors in case a student changes his/her mind about their educational pursuits and minors to explore other areas of interest. I attended one of these universities (as an engineer) and have a son who is an engineering major at another. My view is that the engineering programs they offer are a good mix of theoretical and applied (hands-on) learning, opportunities for undergraduate research, and decent job placement. Also, they offer alot of opportunities to get involved and have some fun.</p>
<p>To be quite honest, engineering is hard. The ability to have time to have ‘fun’ as an engineering major is tied to a combination of several personal factors including but not limited to (not necessarily in any order): raw intelligence, technical aptitude, reading and writing capabilities, work ethic, determination, time-management skills, ability to juggle priorities, and how interested they are in the subject matter. If you look at any engineering program, you will find students who do little else but study and have a hard time maintaining a 3.0 while others can be quite involved in extracurriculars, athletics, volunteerism,etc. and maintain Dean’s list grades. It is all a matter of finding a school that fits the student’s capabilities and interests.</p>
<p>Speaking of state, UT is supposedly incredibly sexy and party with 6th street and all the texas hotties. The engineering is also top and getting into honors there is not easy.</p>
<p>UT’s honors program for engineering is only “hard” to get into because of the flawed method they use in selection, i.e. all they do is look at SAT scores. I got into Caltech, CMU, Cornell, waitlisted at Stanford etc. but rejected from UT’s Engineering Honors. They also use this method in their engineering scholarship selection. It’s extremely easy to join honors once you have a GPA at UT, and even when you’re in, the program itself is only a couple of classes with the word “honors” tacked onto them. Its nothing like UT’s other honors programs like Turing or Dean’s Scholars where you actually do different stuff from “regular” majors.</p>