Yale Engineering?

<p>Hi guys,
On the Yale application, there's an extra essay for those who would like to apply to the school of engineering as an undergraduate. Since it asks if the applicant has an prior experience in engineering, I was wondering if I would need to already have had some engineering experience under my belt. I'm about 90% sure I would like to do engineering in college, but none of my extracurriculars relate to engineering nor do I have any experiences in engineering. Would it be a wiser choice for me to apply to the college and deciding my major from there? Or describing why I would like to study engineering to apply to the school of engineering?
Thanks for your input.</p>

<p>I don’t pretend to have any inside knowledge, but in general anything that can get you noticed as a person as opposed to one of the thousands of bright, motivated, accomplished young people who apply is a good thing. If you have some interesting/good/insightful reasons for why you think engineering is a match for you, I’d say go for it. As an aside, Yale is currently trying to burnish their reputation in the sciences and engineering (last spring they sent likely letters to a number of accomplished young science-oriented kids, my daughter–Yale class of 2015-- among them) so getting noticed by the admissions office in that area can be a good thing.</p>

<p>Yale engineering? wrong place. You should try Princeton instead, among the IVY league schools. Alternatively, you should try the real engineering power houses such as MIT, Caltech, Stanford and Georgia Tech.</p>

<p>Undersrchiever (sic);
That shows naivety how modern engineering schools compare.
US News is outdated
The latest NRC S rankings show Yale, MIT, & UCLA ranked that same at 6th;
and Georgia Tech below them.
Don’t propogate old biases - do your homework</p>

<p>NRC ranking is based on old data (in fact only one year information). Some of the normalization is proven erroneous. There are quite a few engineering rankings these days: ARWU, US news, THES, QS, HEEACT. None show Yale in the top echelon. By objective criteria of faculty productivity, Yale was ranked at the rock bottom among the IVY league schools in engineering (144).
[Performance</a> Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities](<a href=“http://ranking.heeact.edu.tw/en-us/2010%20by%20Field/Domain/ENG]Performance”>http://ranking.heeact.edu.tw/en-us/2010%20by%20Field/Domain/ENG)
[ARWU</a> in Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences - 2011](<a href=“http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldENG2011.html]ARWU”>http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldENG2011.html)
[Top</a> Universities for Engineering & Technology 2010-2011](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/engineering-and-IT.html]Top”>World University Rankings 2010-11 | Times Higher Education (THE))
<a href=“http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2011/subjehttp://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctoratect-rankings[/url]”>http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2011/subjehttp://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctoratect-rankings&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Dear Underachiever; </p>

<p>A recent issue of Science Watch, which tracks trends and performance in basic research, ranked Yale Engineering No. 1 in citation impact of its faculty research papers. Yale Engineering was followed by Harvard, University of California at Santa Barbara, Princeton, UCLA, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Caltech, etc. </p>

<p>Hard to reconcile this with the statements you made.</p>

<p>One can pick any number of data points to support their claim. All these indices have large error bars; the point of the data is that your broad brush statements on school rankings need more careful scrutiny. The important point is that these are all good schools, & all have excellent programs - the decision on where to go will be issues the technical aspects</p>

<p>correction: “… issues other than the pure technical aspects.”</p>

<p>The OP wants to know what it is like to be in the engineering school at Yale, and getting in…</p>

<p>Our student is a frosh at Yale and is going to pursue engineering.
Picked Yale for many reasons.</p>

<p>If you want to be more tech/no classics etc, than places like CMU are better choices.</p>

<p>In your app and essays etc, be sure to include how/why you feel engineering is the direction you want to pursue your next 4 yrs…any competitions you have won and so on…
plus why yale for engineering (instead of mit, rit,cmu etc etc)</p>

<p>The Science watch would have better credibility if the staffs know what they are doing: Their citation per paper ranking in engineering excluded the interdiscipline journals where the most important papers in engineering are published. That ranking is quite bogus. By citation per paper, MD Anderson Cancer Center were ranked in top 5 in engineering in 2009 because a few collaborations in high profile papers. By impact, citation per faculty will be more credible.</p>

<p>But don’t get me wrong. I think that Yale is a great school. It is world class in social science and humanity, highly respectable in natural science. But its engineering program is average at best. Twenty years ago, Yale even attempted to close down its engineering school by claiming applied science never its strong forte.</p>

<p>here’s another viewpoint: how’s Yale’s engineering program going to get better (not to say it’s bad, of course) if all of the gifted engineering students apply to other places?</p>

<p>Yet another view point: Many gifted engineering students do not take a “real” engineering job these days. So, whatever school whose name would help him break into the field he is interested in getting into will likely serve him well.</p>

<p>Sadly, as more and more white-colored engineering jobs go abroad, the engineering jobs are hotter in many other countries than in this country.</p>

<p>Also, most engineers at many (likely most) companies seem to be graduated from the state school. In some area like silicon valley, many of them even do not get their BS degrees in US. some may speculate that the “shift” is triggered by the end of cold war.</p>

<p>Here’s what one innovative Yale engineering alum is doing:</p>

<p>[Chairigami</a> sets up on York | Yale Daily News](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/sep/02/chairigami-sets-york/]Chairigami”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/sep/02/chairigami-sets-york/)</p>

<p>How about the USNews rankings?</p>

<p>^ one post posters/low post posters…?
sooo, whats to hide…
who posts on a thread like this for a first post???</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>let’s keep it on track for the OP…</p>

<p>If the OP is still reading this thread: To clarify, you don’t apply separately to the school of engineering. You’re still just applying to Yale College; I think they have that extra essay question to help ensure that people don’t randomly put down engineering as their prospective major to get an admissions boost. If you think you have compelling reasons behind your wanting to major in an engineering discipline, then go ahead and write the extra essay. And even if your essay doesn’t give you an actual boost, I suspect that it won’t make them decline you if they would have accepted you without the essay.</p>

<p>The new US news engineering ranking is here: [Best</a> Undergraduate Engineering Programs | Rankings | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate]Best”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate)</p>

<p>Cornell appears the best among IVY league schools.</p>

<p>Thank you fogfog and livorneo for clearing things up. You’ve given me a lot to think about. (:</p>