Hi! Would appreciate thoughts and advice on which one, or more, of these schools would be best for an Engineering student. My D has narrowed it down to these.
Syracuse, BU, UConn, Univ of Maryland.
Other info greatly appreciated such as Anything about professors, TAs teaching classes, are the professors or departments inspiring and engaging, are they invested in the students or there for their own purposes?
Thank you!
Here is my take (for what it is worth). SU, BU, CT and MD are all medium to large schools with strong engineering programs. I am sure due to the size that all of them will have professors that are inspiring and engaging and some that are not. Your D can research that online and talk to other students (which is the best way to get info).
To me, the most important thing is for her to choose a school where she will fit in, be comfortable and have fun. Despite all the technical and career oriented objectives she may have, she will transfer if she does not make friends easily.
I know a lot about the cultures and campus at SU, BU and UConn, and a little about MD. BU is a city campus, in a great city. It has beautiful buildings and views of the Charles along a stretch of Commonwealth Ave. You have to be comfortable in a city. If she is, she will love it. It is big, lots of students and a lot going on. It has a unique culture that is progressive and diverse. It is expensive, not just to go there, but to live there… There are no breaks on prices for students when you go out in a city.
UConn is not super big, but it feels super big when you are on the campus, which is spread out over a lot of space. Be prepared to walk a lot. It could not be more different than BU. BU is city, UConn is country farmland. BU is hockey, UConn is basketball. BU is Boston, UConn is Storrs.
Syracuse is a medium sized school on a compact campus. While in Central NY, most of the students are from major cities, New York, Boston, Philly, DC, Chicago, etc. The campus borders the city, but does not feel like a city at all. It is on a hill overlooking Syracuse. SU has tremendous school spirit, students that live on campus and don’t go home until Thanksgiving break. The winters are brutal with lake effect snow from December to March, but in Central NY they know how to deal with snow and you don’t really need a car to get around as everything is walking distance. Like BU, SU is very diverse. If you could move BU out of the city, to a pretty campus overlooking the city, you’d get Syracuse. BU is a college city, SU is a college town. BU is one of dozens of colleges in Boston, SU is the college in Syracuse. Boston is the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics. Syracuse is the Orange.
As I said, I don’t know too much about Maryland. I have a nephew that is a grad student there and he likes it because it is close to DC. It is large and its reputation is strong in that area. It is more DC than Baltimore.
Hope this gives you some decent background.
Good luck!
@Aeg203 I understand that Maryland Engineering has a very strong engineering program. Maybe @maryversity can chime in as her son recieved an Engineerimg degree from Maryland and she is a frequent poster and ardent supporter of Maryland’s undergrad engineering program. Checkout the following thread which has several informative links for everything about Maryland Engineering.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-maryland-college-park/1732708-everything-you-want-to-know-about-engineering-at-maryland-p7.html Best of luck!
For engineering I would chose UMD.
In general, for engineering schools (if ABET accredited), it is fine to use Finances and Fit as important factors.