collegeugm, thanks for your post. My son has been at Case for the past two years and loves it. He came from a fairly privileged east coast experience and has found Case to be a “wild west” experience - mostly excellent instruction, wonderful friends, interesting experiences, and far more entrepreneurial and scientific opportunity than was available in the east. He has been thrilled by the genuineness of the mid-west, that doesn’t exist on either coast (where people need to define themselves by the time they are 12).
There is something honest about this school that is different than what is available in many places. It is safe (if you are smart), but still has a sense that it is vibrant, new and mildly dangerous. I believe that now is the time to really enjoy this experience. Case is so good that it will definitely progress in the next ten years to a level when really great kids can no longer manage to be accepted. Which will be very, very sad.
Hi, ProudDad. Yes, it is important for the university health service/Dean of students to check on ill students. I am a physician in the university health service at a large private research university and can tell you both as a physician and as a mother of an incoming freshman at CWRU, it is concerning that there had been no inquiries. On the other hand, college health is typically poorly integrated or worse, without any real facilities, at most colleges. I predict things will get better everywhere but not without a lot of parents complaining.
CWRU kids are not too much into partying. They come to CWRU to study. My D is an Engineering major.
In reference to “hooking up”, this was what she said : “Who has time for that?”
Campus events are fun and students often get free stuff from these events. My D won a set of headphones and she was ecstatic . lol…But most of the time, students are busy studying, researching and attending SI sessions. I would say CWRU campus has an “extended family” atmosphere.
Students are very supportive of one another.
My son has had a somewhat different experience in the first two years at Case, than collegeugrn. He goes to Case swim meets and cheers on his swim team friends. He has traveled to Toronto for a three day weekend with Case friends, and Case picked up the transportation tab, provided the bus and most of the hotel tab. He says parties are open, I specifically asked him that after he dropped out of a service frat that did not suit him. He has driven to Penn State football games, and also visited Chicago and Ann Arbor for some variety in the social scene, with Case friends. The social life seems fine for a boy or girl, while there are some very introverted boys who game a LOT! My son’s first roommate never really talked to my son and visa versa. Since my son was an athletic type, we worried that he would not find friends at Case, but it was not a problem at all for him. I think the number of kids who wanted Stanford, Northwestern or Columbia are somewhat high, but those kids do very well together and find each other. As far as class size, its very very small, so no problem there, its a small college. Yes, all small schools have 300 kids in freshman calculus and physics, though, even MIT. Thats how school handle the weed out classes, toss them in and see if they can make it. Its the standard hazing practice in ANY GOOD engineering program in the USA. Our son has found the professors to be very dedicated and easy to approach. (math and physics major).
Great reviews by @collegeugrn, @ProudDad26, and @Coloradomama etc. We lived near University Circle for 3 years and absolutely loved it. I miss the great Italian food at Feast of the Assumption, just before fall semester starts.
@BethesdaM The Dean of Students office should have checked on your daughter. They messed up big time. Hope she is okay.
People are positing questions without looking through the existing threads. Since I, and others, consider this a good description, I’m bringing it to the front.
My D is a BME major at CWRU. Oh, almost forgot, she’s also a cheerleader and a mentor on campus. She’s having a time of her life meeting classmates, learning Engineering as well as working with her professor on their project.
My son is a senior football player. He is smart and nerdy but he is also social. He has had a good experience at Case. I think he likes to party on the weekends but he has to work hard during the week to maintain is good grades. He is a math major.
He has friends, is a fraternity brother and has a girlfriend who already graduated from Case. He says Case is a good place for smart kids and that there is a place for everyone on campus.
This makes me a lot more excited for Case, thanks! I’m already in Cle a lot so I like that. I just wonder, is Case kinda premed-heavy? Like I feel like it’s a lot of premeds and engineers. Fewer liberal arts kids. If true, how does this affect the atmosphere?
Keep in mind that Case Western Reserve University was formed by the union of Case Institute of Techology and Western Reserve College (a liberal arts college).
For 2014, there were 484 College of Arts and Science graduates, 363 Engineering graduates, 125 Business graduates.
Most people graduate from the College of Arts and Sciences, since that’s where the biology major is housed. There aren’t a lot of humanities majors compared to everything else.
@collegeugrn Hi! I know I’m really late on this thread but I’m still deciding between Case, Rutgers Honors, UPitt honors, Northeastern. Thank you so much for making this post it was so helpful! So a few things…
I’d say Case was one of the more prestigious schools I applied to, I’m DEFINITELY not someone who would apply to an Ivy league school. What I’m worried about is not being able to handle course work. It sounds like everyone there is so so smart, I don’t want to feel so inferior.
How would you be on an invite list for parties? If you’re not on it, they just don’t let you in? What about for freshmen?
So you listed the better frats, what are the best sororities?
@Missimperfect The nice thing about the sororities is that recruiting is in the spring so you will have been on campus a full semester before recruitment. You have time to make friends, meet some of the girls from the different sororities, and get a feel for Greek life. At recruitment you will visit each sorority and start paring down from there. It is a laid back process and you will know which houses and girls you are comfortable with and suit you best. My daughter is very involved in Greek life there and is enjoying it a lot. Good luck!
Case teaches engineering a very old fashioned way. Atleast for EE and CE, my focuses, there are few well taught design based courses. Case prefers to teach theory in lecture based classes. Even when labs are offered, they are formulaic and don’t require engineering effort. The two exceptions are digital design and circuits 371. However, digital design is very disorganized and does not teach modern techniques.
Since we have SAGEs we don’t teach intro to engineering courses like rpi or wpi.