evolve

I am trying to decided between Brown, Olin College, and Cornell Engineering.

Obviously, I am interesting in engineering, so it is fair to say that I was a little surprised when I got my acceptance to Brown. I really like Brown's campus and I am really happy with the fact that Brown has a strong reputation, BUT...

How are the engineering programs at Brown? And how many engineering students are there at Brown? I'm unsure of Brown's commitment to engineering, and I'm not sure if it's the place for me. Any thoughts?

dylalien

I'm wondering the very same... While I was thrilled to get into Brown and it would be a good school for me in some respects, I also got into some schools that probably have better engineering programs (that would also be less costly). I don't want to go somewhere just because of its general reputation.

JustinTime

If money is a factor at all, I'd go with Olin. I live in the town where Olin is and know a kid who went there and loved it. After all, it's practically free vs. 200K...

JP_Omnipotence

True, Olin is a much better option financially, plus it's engineering department is held in much higher regard than Brown's.

Cornell is your option if you simply MUST have that Ivy name and prestige.

Honestly, brown is your worst option here. Not a very well known engineering department, especially when compared to cornell. If you want proof, take a look at US News' engineering rankings:

"Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs (At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)

1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology 4.9
2. Stanford University (CA) 4.7
2. University of California–Berkeley * 4.7
4. California Institute of Technology 4.6
5. Georgia Institute of Technology * 4.5
5. U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign * 4.5
7. Cornell University (NY) 4.4
7. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor * 4.4
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37. Arizona State University * 3.3
37. Case Western Reserve Univ. (OH) 3.3
37. Iowa State University * 3.3
37. Lehigh University (PA) 3.3
37. Univ. of California–Santa Barbara * 3.3
37. Yale University (CT) 3.3
43. Brown University (RI) 3.2
43. Michigan State University * 3.2
43. University of Notre Dame (IN) 3.2
43. Vanderbilt University (TN) 3.2
43. Washington University in St. Louis 3.2
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"

So yeah, if you want a top program class engineering program, go with Cornell. If you want a free yet solid program, go with Olin. If you want a school you can brag about to your grocer but won't help you at all when you try to get a job as an engineer, go with Brown.

sly_vt

My husband got an ScB from Brown in engineering, and most of our friends were engineers. They all got into good grad programs, scored excellent jobs, and continue to have success professionally. So I take great issue with the idea that you'll struggle to find a job as an engineer if you go to Brown.

modestmelody

Brown University was the first Ivy engineering program and the third program in the country.

To say we don't have a commitment or well known program is completely crazy...

To say we don't have an extensive graduate program here would be correct.

Each year about 100 students graduate with a degree in engineering. About 50% will go directly to graduate school after Brown Engineering, and a fair number (about 1/4 of the total.. so about 1/2 of those at grad school) go to some form of professional school [business, medical, law]). Of those that don't go to graduate school directly, most go directly into industry, and most return to some kind of graduate school within the next 5 years.

There are plenty of successful engineers that go to Brown.

For instance, our Formula SAE racecar team is one of the most successful for its size -- 15 or so students with no faculty input on design or faculty help on construction. Compare that to Cornell. the "power house" when it comes to Formula SAE (we beat them last year), who has 80 students and quite a few professors and professionals helping out. Guess what? At Cornell, freshman year, you can forget about actually touching the car. At Brown, everyone builds, everyone designs, everyone drives. Which is the better experience? Your call.

There are plenty of examples like that. Brown is also known for its strong connection between engineering and entrepreneurship, a connection which has been made stronger by the up-and-coming COE concentration.

Brown is a fine place to do science and engineering and will offer a very different experience than a more technical school (or a school with a separate college of engineering which is very focused). It depends on how you want to shape your education.

If you want to laugh at those rankings though, I personally would. Case Western ranked that low? Anyone who's been there or knows students there would scoff at that. Completely and utterly ridiculous, actually.

JP_Omnipotence

Perhaps you misinterpretted what I meant by "won't help you find a job". I doubt you will struggle finding a job if you went to, say UC Santa Barbara, which has a comparable engineering program to Brown's prestige wise. However, people would call you a fool for picking Santa Barbara's engineering program over Cornell's.

sly_vt

You said: "If you want a school you can brag about to your grocer but won't help you at all when you try to get a job as an engineer, go with Brown."

How on earth did I misinterpret that? You straight out said that getting an engin degree at Brown makes it tough to get a job as an engineer, and I responded that that is totally and absolutely absurd.

If your goal in life is to be an engineer in the Santa Barbara area, then I would call you a fool to go to Cornell for engineering. I am not someone who is ruled by prestige and prestige only. There is a heck of a lot more in life to value than the concept of prestige.

I'm going to echo everything that modest melody said. Brown engineering is great -- especially if you want to take advantage of some of the other benefits of Brown, like having no distribution requirements.

evolve: Brown has a strong commitment to engineering. However, I suggest you look closely at the finances, because perhaps the most important consideration is the free ride at Olin, which is hard to turn down. Olin is a new school, but I think a lot of people know about it and are impressed with it.

evolve

Finances aren't really an issue since Brown provided me a $40,000 scholarship, which is comparable to Olin's. (No word from Cornell FA yet)

I was invited to a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) presentation at ADOCH, so hopefully that can give me more insight into Brown's engineering.

matthewyy

Brown Engineering seems to fix 21 courses of engineers..but still there is enough freedom: 11 courses of freedom..=))

christinaB

out of curiosity, JP_Omnipotence, if you see this, where does Rutgers New Brunswick fall on that list of best engineering programs?

christinaB

apparently Rutgers-New Brunswick has a very reputable Biomedical Engineering program. Im from NJ and I got a full ride there because of my SAT scores, but I also got in to Brown with no financial aid. I'm pretty sure my parents will contribute to paying for Brown if that's where I really want to go, but it's extremely hard for them because of the cost - especially when you pit that against Rutgers-for-free. Also, they think that Rutgers-New Brunswick has a better BME program than Brown, and they say I should go there undergrad and then go to an Ivy League school to get either my masters in engineering or to go to med school if i so decide. my concerns about this plan are twofold: 1. rutgers is a totally different college experience than brown - i think the quality of life at brown will be much better, i dont really want a huge school (the only reason i applied to rutgers was for a safety school, and because of the good BME program), i really love the open curriculum at brown, which is good especially for engineers cuz it seems like at schools other than brown it would be hard to take classes outside of math/science/engineering. when i explain the quality of life bit to my parents, they ask me to put a price on my happiness and "having a good college life experience" which is hard. 2. i definitely dont feel that i would be able to get into an as-good engineering masters program or medical school (whichever i ultimately decide to pursue) if i were to go to rutgers than if i were to go to brown.

so - this is obviously a really hard choice - the full ride is sooo tempting, but honestly i am completely in love with brown and thats where my heart is. anyone have advice/comments on Rutgers' BME program/is my parents' plan of rutgers-for-free undergrad/ivy league masters or med school plausible and/or reasonable?

(sry about the excessive use of slashes)

wolfmanjack

I've learned to ignore anyone who quotes from US News rankings, as should everyone else.

matthewyy

I have one question about Brown Engineering as well...I know that each Brown student must take 32 courses and pass 30 of them...So that is 4 courses each term. Someone with a relatively less challenging concentration may take 5 courses each term. BUT I wonder if that is possible for engineering concentration students? Is it exteremely tough and impossible? Engineering concentrations has 21 courses mandatory for students. And most of the current Brown students that I know told me that Engineering is probably the toughest and most of the engineering freshers end up in Math,Physics or Applied Math in their sophmore year. Considering this does it mean that taking 5 courses each term as an engineering student is quite impossible? Thanks..

modestmelody

Most engineers who switch out due so due to lack of interest, not toughness like at other schools. I think engineering is doable, five courses is possible, but DEFINITELY not every semester-- some semester are going to be too hard. And definitely not as easy with some engineering as other forms of engineering.

The course requirements are largely due to ABET and are actually lower than at most schools.

That's not to say that engineering isn't very time consuming, but I do know some engineers who have taken five.