Can you tell the difference between these 2 schools?
almost same size of Campus (WPI>SIT)
both small numbers of undergrad students (WPI>SIT)
almost identically same income after graduate (see PayScale)
both good internship, Co-op
They are same kind of small private engineering school.
Which school can you recommend people to go?
Both are fine schools. It looks like you may have ED’d to Stevens if that is the case then it seems you made your choice and I’d wait to see if you get in there first. Other than that I’d suggest you visit both schools, read up on both schools in good college guide books which can often be found in the HS guidance office and/or a library (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review, Insiders Guide) to learn more.
Yah, my son chose Stevens ED1 instead of WPI.
We liked both Campus, but he did not like city around WPI, and also far from Boston.
It is very cold in winter, too…
Other than that, it is tie for us.
The schools have very different curriculum approach. Steven’s still gives a BE versus a BS with students taking more courses in each discipline. They have a design spine thread with semesters and high co-op participation versus WPI’s project based curriculum with quarters and one semester non-major IQP semester. WPI students choose a major mid-freshman year while Steven’s students have 1-1.5 years. Worcester is a college town with many other schools while Hoboken is a yuppie haven just across from the largest US city population. I forgot that standing on ‘the point’ really feels like you can touch NYC.
Steven’s has made most of their investment in a financial business curriculum and not in engineering labs. They are also in process of a campus renovation and student population growth, so upper class students are spread out living in Hoboken. This can be a plus unless you are looking for a more traditional campus life.
WPI’s CS, ME and EE departments work together to support their robotics program. Their campus renovation has been steady for a long time and they are not going to feel the same pain as Stevens, because their building projects are focused and not as disruptive.
I heard that WPI use different grade system, and does not show below “C” grade.
Also I heard if you transfer to other school, it may affect to transfer some credits?
Which school is better choice for “Mechanical Engineering” major?
Unless you plan to get multiple Ds, your transcript should look the same.
Transferring leaves anyone at risk of not complying with the new institutions core curriculum and major requirements.
ME is Steven’s original one major; John Stevens- stem engine, railroad and America’s cup . For mechatronics/robotics definately WPI. ME is a broad field, so research both departments in his areas of interest. Undergraduate teaching styles are very different. We are Steven’s graduates. In the 1980’s Steven’s Engineering School was highly nationally ranked, since they have slipped and are currently in a long term growth/investment phase while WPI has made investments over 30 years while concentrating on undergraduate teaching.
As WPI credits its success on a three part project based system which requires a lot of student input and which was not listed on your selection criteria, your son made the right choice. To my knowledge, Olin is the only other program which is so focused on mentoring program design and undergraduate project research for all students. The senior “Capstone” projects are now required by all ABET accredited engineering programs. :bz
The senior capstone projects were always required by ABET and its predecessor the ECPD as a condition of accreditation, even 40 years ago when I was in school. They are not a new requirement. The Design Spine at Stevens, which requires design work in each semester of the engineering curriculum leading up to the final year capstone project, is a unique strength of Stevens which was one of the first universities to institute such a program. Stevens graduates as a result of the broad-based B.E. curriculum take courses in every major engineering discipline, in addition to their particular major. The curriculum has far greater breadth and depth than most other schools, many of which have become quite specialized. The broad-based education of Stevens makes the graduates far better problem solvers who feel at home with problems that span multiple disciplines (as most engineering problems do) and as a result are highly prized by industry and government. It may interest you that even in the realm of engineering schools, which traditionally produce the highest paid graduates, Stevens comes in at 10th in the nation for starting salaries and return on investment of tuition (Bloomberg Business Week/Paycale survey “What’s Your College Degree Worth, 2017”) and first for engineering schools in the northeast (also Payscale). Apparently, employers believe that Stevens (not “Steven’s” BTW) graduates offer the highest level of problem solving capability of all the schools at which they recruit. The current Stevens strategic plan has created over $60 million in new funding from both government and private industry and a goal of $150 million is planned. This will benefit both the engineering and financial/business programs.
Stevens is very popular in East Coast, but not in West Coast. I also look at carefully any category of PayScale, and Stevens is in good standing. However, many of us are just looking at Ranking of US News or same kind of other ranking system which makes Stevens under rating? I could recommend my son to apply any big or small school with lower ranking than the ranking of Stevens, but after studied about Stevens very carefully, we decided not apply other schools, and applied Stevens as ED 1 (Mechanical Engineering).
Did we make a right choice?
Even did not apply NYU Engineering major!
Pls comment.
Stevens has expanded its national and global reach considerably since 40 years ago when I attended. Stevens has been an underdog in college rankings (most of which are really just marketing tools for USNWR and others to sell magazines, not providers of unbiased educational advice, though Payscale objectively relies on salary information reported by graduates not subjective opinions of institutions by academics as in USNWR, which will always yield “rankings” highly correlated with the name recognition or popularity of the institution as opposed to hard academic facts. One can arguably say that the outcomes of the graduates are really the proof of the pudding, and Stevens ranks in the top 1% of universities in the nation in this regard on that objective Payscale survey).
Your son will not go wrong at Stevens. As I say, historically, Stevens graduates have been highly valued in industry for their broad-based, in-depth training which gives them an edge over those of highly specialized schools today. If one for example majors in mechanical engineering at Stevens, he/she must also take courses in all of the other major engineering disciplines such as electrical, chemical, civil, and others. Very few engineering problems today can be solved with only knowledge of one engineering specialty. At the undergraduate level, the broadly based trained person will always have an advantage.
I don’t know about NYU but I do know that most of my colleagues who attended the former Polytechnic University (formerly New York Polytechnic, formerly Brooklyn Polytechnic) do not like the fact that NYU essentially bought the school. They believe that Polytechnic’s former high regard and reputation will be diluted by NYU, which they regard as a school whose only interest is packing their classrooms with as many students willing to pay their high tuition as possible. Interestingly, NYU had its own school of engineering 40 years ago (which was highly regarded at that time) and divested it, mostly to Polytechnic. They thought at the time engineering wasn’t the future of NYU, now, they realized apparently the divestiture was a mistake and they re-acquired Polytechnic to recapture that lost tuition revenue. Also interestingly, NYU and Stevens used to have a joint degree program in which one could get both a BS in a science (e.g., physics, math, chemistry, etc.) and a BE in engineering from Stevens in 4 or 5 years.
I put Stevens on a par with any engineering school in the world including the big names such as MIT, CMU, and UC Berkeley. Do you know that one of the founders of General Motors, the founder of Texas Instruments, of Sealed Air Corp, two past CEOs of Verizon, and quite a few Fortune 500 CEOs (General Electric, Pratt & Whitney, and others) were Stevens alumni?
Michael, Ph.D., P.E., Stevens '80, MSEE MIT, MS Mathematics, Rutgers. Consulting aerospace engineer.
My son chose Stevens out of CMU, CWRU, WPI, RPI, RIT. with many reasons w/o thinking of just ranking.
Hi Engineer80,
My son got in Stevens today with scholarship.
So he will decide to go there, and no more apply WPI, Other schools.
Congrats to your son! What are his stats? My son applied to Stevens- regular decision.
Congrats on attending Stevens!
But there appears to be a bit too much Stevens marketing here. Much better than WPI, comparable to MIT and Cal Berkeley? Seriously?
dallas123 - I also have an RD applicant (from Austin). I would love to know when he will hear back. It’s sounding as if RD will be April.
So many great comments! Following as my son, rising sophomore is interested in both schools. (but open to others) Trying to help guide him as he loves all things Robotics(building, programming, etc…) but also has a high interest in Computer Science (anything from Parametric Modeling and all things building to YouTube video creating, video editing and graphic design (creating logos) and of course gaming! Looking for help on guiding him to the best schools to visit that offer a varied program to help narrow his interests. He prefers a Northeast location (most likely but that could change!). To me he seems all over the place but I could be wrong bc I don’t know anything about the tech industry. 