<p>University of Kentucky
Rochester Institute of Technology
Drexel University
Ohio State University - Columbus
Rutgers University - New Brunswick</p>
<p>The answer is…whatever one is cheapest for you.</p>
<p>Money isn’t that big of an issue for me. It’s more about picking the school that has a good engineering reputation.</p>
<p>They all have good eng’g programs. Go where you like. Have you visited these? Which did you like and why?</p>
<p>Eng’g isn’t some unique major that only a few schools can have very good programs. Nearly every state has at least 2-3 schools with good eng’g programs. </p>
<p>So, are your parents saying that they’ll pay $55k+ per year for any school you want? Have they said that?</p>
<p>Actually, this is not a close call. Ohio State is the best engineering school on that list, with Rutgers being second. If money is not an issue, then go to the best university that you can do well at (in other words, if you barely get in you probably won’t feel comfortable).</p>
<p>After looking around lately, it is obvious to me that Georgia Tech is one of the best values among engineering schools. If you can get into Ohio State, you might be able to get into GT. Considering how good it is, it is not that difficult to get into (although it probably is harder for out of state students).</p>
<p>Drexel and RIT are the two most overrated schools on that list, although Drexel has lots of coop opportunities. RIT is down the road from University of Rochester which is a better tech school. Consider it too.</p>
<p>People on this site often speak of “reach” “match” and “safety” schools. Compare your SAT/ACT scores to various schools and figure out which ones are the best fit for you. Apply to at least one “reach” school and also at least one “safety” school… and at least five schools total. Do research on at least ten.</p>
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<p>It’s not quite as one-dimensional as that…</p>
<p>I would argue that it is unwise to go about selecting a school based primarily on selectivity “bracketing”, if you will. There are simply too many variables which contribute to the quality of a school/program, and by over-generalizing the search process via the “reach, match, safety” method you are eliminating many schools which may otherwise offer a better all-around fit.</p>
<p>ABET accreditation, and engineering reputation are the two most important academic factors to consider. Beyond that, most schools offer an honors program as an option for those looking for a more challenging academic environment. </p>
<p>To answer jef’s question though, pick the school where you feel you would be happiest at and succeed.</p>
<p>I’m considering Drexel, and Ohio State, at this point. I’ll probably end up picking Ohio State because it seems like it has a good Chemical Engineering department. Drexel is way too expensive, but I received a scholarship which has brought the price down significantly. The only thing I really liked about Drexel was the fact that you can do multiple co-ops. My parents will pay for my undergraduate, but not graduate, schooling.</p>
<p>As far as feeling the happiest, I’d say Ohio State University, for sure. I’ve visited the campus and love it. Beautiful, huge, great research opportunities, etc.</p>
<p>Go Buckeyes!</p>
<p>Based on what your wrote, Ohio State should be your answer!</p>
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<p>NROTCgrad, how do you know this? I’m not denying it’s true, I’d just like to understand how you can be so confident that one school’s programs (across many engineering disciplines) are clearly better than all the others. </p>
<p>In answering questions like the OP’s, I’d usually cite the US News engineering rankings or perhaps the NRC/Chronicle rankings. That isn’t because I believe they are 100% reliable, but because they are published sources with documented methodologies that are applied in the same way to scores (or hundreds) of schools.
So they seem to be the best available basis for objective, systematic comparisons (unless you happen to know a trusted expert who is personally familiar with multiple programs that interest you.)</p>
<p>USNWR appears to support NROTC’s claim that Ohio State has the best engineering programs in this group. It has more ranked engineering programs. Most if not all of them are higher ranked than the other schools’. </p>
<p>One caveat: it’s not clear how big a difference there really is between, say, the #25 aerospace engineering program (TOSU) and the #30 aerospace engineering program (Rutgers). Would it be a big enough difference to justify a cost premium (if there is one)? Hard to say.</p>