PapaSmurf

So...anyone have any suggestions of colleges in cool cities that offer civil engineering as a major? Schools like Northwestern, Northeastern, or USC? I'm also looking for schools that aren't JUST engineering schools; I mean schools with a guy/girl ratio closer to 1:1 as opposed to 3:1, and schools that are a little more laid back as far as competition.

Les Stats:
GPA: 4.02
ACT: 32
Rank: 6/460
A few decent ECs...nothing special

noimagination

Carnegie Mellon
University of Minnesota
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin (is Madison enough of a city?)
Rice University
Johns Hopkins
North Carolina State
University of Maryland
University of Pittsburgh

PapaSmurf

Thanks for the suggestions...any more?

aglages

Case Western Reserve University (possibly not enough women).

mdcissp

USC, UCLA and UCSD. University of Pennsylvania and Cornell.

PapaSmurf

Yeah, schools like Case Western and Carnegie Mellon fit the stereotype of a tech school too well. Don't get me wrong, I know engineering is a hard degree, but it would be nice to be able to have a balanced college experience that doesn't revolve around work. I also don't want to go to a college with a social scene that revolves around frat parties, which is where the city aspect comes into play.

aglages

Carnegie Mellon is across the street from the University of Pittsburgh and only a couple of blocks from a primarily female college (Carlow). It should offer both challenging engineering courses and plenty of non-greek social activities.

JWT86

UT-Austin. Austin itself is probably one of the absolute top college cities and UT is top 10 in Engineering and top 10-20 in all its other academic departments/colleges.

Montegut

Marquette has civil engineering and is in Milwaukee. Good male/female ratio.

On the other hand, I've heard that Georgia Tech, an excellent engineering school, has one girl for every four or five guys. After going to all boys school since fifth grade, many of our boys have nixed that one, despite its great reputation.

Also in Milwaukee is the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Texas A and M has excellent civil engineering, although not in an urban location. Great school, though.

Good luck!

midmo

You might be interested in a place like Vanderbilt Univ. While the engineering school itself (VUSE) is only about 1/3 female, the university overall is approximately 50/50. There is an active fraternity scene--university-wide, about 1/3 of the males belong to fraternities--but membership among engineers is less, I think. At any rate, Nashville is a fun city; the campus is about a mile from the downtown.

As for the 'laid back' part: engineering is tough everywhere. I get the impression students at VUSE work together well and there is a lot of collaboration, but grades are hard to come by, as they will be in engineering programs just about anywhere.

ilovebagels

Cornell is great but urban it ain't. Penn SEAS is more urban, and so is Columbia SEAS

tenisghs

Northwestern University (next door to Chicago)
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (Ann Arbor is a small city)

confidentialcoll

Northwestern is more sub-urban, but it fits all of your other criteria.

Columbia and UPenn fit your criteria perfectly, except both are somewhat competitive. But both are in cities, penn is 20 minutes from the heart of Philly, and Columbia is in Manhattan and about 20 minutes from mid-town Manhattan. Each has a separate engineering school, with a liberal arts college connected, so girl to guy ratio is pretty much 1:1 (at Columbia with Barnard across the street the girl to guy ratio is more like 60:40)

Even if kids are not outwardly competitive, everyone works hard to compete for grades, internships, etc. Your profile doesn't make you very competitive for Upenn or Columbia, but they are both reasonably reaches, and your profile doesn't in any way disqualify you from gaining acceptance to either of these schools.

PapaSmurf

Yeah, Northwestern is pretty high on my list right now. ^^ As far as I know, Penn doesn't have a civil engineering program.

jr1038

UT-Austin. Top 10 engineering school in a great city with an awesome social scene.