Can anyone comment on William and Mary engineering? Is it worth it to go to W&M based on this information?
I have been accepted to William & Mary, Virginia Tech, Stevens institute of tech, U richmond, WPI, and RIT. I want to study math and sciences, with an interest in biomedical sciences. I would really like to explore engineering, specifically biomedical engineering. I may want to pursue graduate school. I think ultimately my decision lies between Virginia tech and Stevens where I can do accelerated masters programs and the price is cheaper. However, I fell in love with William & Mary. In terms of atmosphere, it is more my style as a smaller school with a campus encompassed with nature. I love everything about the school. However, it is the most expensive school, I do not see an option to pursue an accelerated masters program for what i’d like, and I think its engineering and engineering opportunities is lacking. Academically and financially, I think the better choices are Stevens and Virginia Tech. Can anyone comment on William and Mary engineering? Is it worth it to go to W&M based on this information? Because my heart is with this school, I am having a hard time rejecting it. I need some real talk and perspective.
I graduated from William & Mary a while back, and before they started offering some of the new engineering programs, but I think I can offer some insight into this question.
There are two types of ways you can pursue engineering at William & Mary.
Through the 3:2 Engineering Program where you get a degree in another subject from W&M and pursue joint degree with Colombia Engineering. They do have some prerequisite courses that you take and like @airway1 mentioned Columbia recently changed their requirements so that it is not currently a guaranteed admissions. Here is some more information about it: https://www.wm.edu/as/undergraduate/more-pathways/engineering/index.php.
Recently William & Mary created EPAD (an Engineering Physics and Applied Design Degree). It is currently housed under the Applied Physics department and has a lot of crossover with the faculty. Here is some more information about that: https://www.wm.edu/as/undergraduate/more-pathways/engineering/index.php and here https://www.wm.edu/as/physics/undergrad/major/index.php respectively. From what I understand about the program, is that it a really innovative concentration where you focus in on engineering concepts, with design, mechanics, and physics mixed in. This might be good for students who are interested in engineering, as well as a liberal arts frame of study, but not sure where they want to go yet. There are some interesting electives that mix in entrepreneurship and business as well. I would encourage you to reach out to the faculty of this program who will be very honest with you and help determine if it is a right fit for you.
What I will say is this: William & Mary has done A LOT to recently to bolster its science programs, including building makerspaces, offering tools like 3D Printers, and building upon its entrepreneurship in combination with the sciences in the past couple years. It is a great place to also do research and get that close faculty interactions that you are looking for. However, if you are dead-set on engineering – like you want to do aerospace engineering for instance, at the undergraduate level, it might not be the best fit for that unless you are interested in pursuing a 3:2 route. The EPAD program is great and plenty of people pursue masters in engineering later on, but it is not strictly an “engineering degree” the same way it would be if you got a degree in electrical engineering or mechanical engineering – but if you are interested in exploring engineering thinking, design, the sciences, and entrepreneurship in combination with the liberal arts it might be a great fit.
So depending on what you are looking for that may of consideration. I know you have already applied to some schools, but if you are looking for that environment – there are some smaller liberal arts schools that also offering engineering degrees like I believe Lehigh or Lafayette, so if you decide to explore those later on, those could be options as well.
Best of luck with your college decision, and congratulations on your fantastic choices!
Others have commented on your engineering options. I’ll just comment that in STEM fields only a couple of public universities produce as many Doctorates on a per capita basis as William & Mary.
I dont know If I can still contribute, but William and Mary EPAD is lacking. Im currently a junior physics major, I was going to do engineering, took one of the classes, then dropped it because the professor was just not suited for the course. Many of my friends are doing EPAD and they say its a total mess. The only good class is Intro to Engineering taught by Professor Frey, I did research with him over this past summer.
He’s a very cool guy. Honestly if you got into Virginia tech I would definitely go there. hopefully this is not discouraging, but you can still do the 3:2 Columbia program.
The way I would think about it is yes “your heart is with this school” but keep in mind this is just 4 years of your life, youre probably only going to come back to visit. Choosing the right major with the right background, which is correlated to the school you go to, shifts the rest of your life. I mean not completely but a good portion depends on it.