<li><p>…are there any out there?</p></li>
<li><p>which of the following engineering colleges is the most exciting and innovative in terms of the way engineering is taught and how students apply in-class concepts:</p></li>
</ol>
<p>UIUC (with the iFoundry program), UC Berkeley, UCSD, UCLA, Cal Poly SLO, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara</p>
<p>Clemson, Virginia Tech and any state schools are fun haha</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd, Franklin W. Olin and Rose-Hulman for the 2nd question</p>
<p>=[ it’s too bad I didn’t apply for HMU, Olin or Rose-Hulman…do you think Cal Poly SLO or UIUC is comparable with them in excitement/innovation?</p>
<p>hmm well they are both large state school’s so you’re going to have large lecture classes with sometimes dull professors, I’d say go with Illinois though over Cal Poly</p>
<p>I think it depends on your idea of fun. I am a senior at Illinois, and I very much enjoy my classes and program. In regards to dull professors, you will find those literally anywhere, and in my department here at UIUC, I have only had 2 that I can think of, and they were both for early level classes that are boring to begin with.</p>
<p>1) We Are…Penn State!</p>
<p>i suggest you look at USC as well</p>
<p>I don’t know, my buddy went to VT and he said it was hell. Fun engineering colleges, I think that depends on the professors. Which most professors will put you to sleep.</p>
<p>What do you consider fun? Some of the colleges you listed do things like make the vehicles that compete in the Darpa challenge, have contests for making computer games, do robotics competitions, etc. However, these are all things you volunteer for if you’re interested. The ‘fun’ will tend to be what you make of it.</p>
<p>Given that, most engineering majors tend to be rigorous majors requiring a lot of work. A number of the colleges you listed are highly ranked for their engineering schools and as such you can be sure the courses will be challenging and you’ll be surrounded by highly capable fellow students and you’ll be spending plenty of time studying. It’ll be up to you to balance the work and seek out the ‘engineering fun’.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree with USCD UCLA DAD, if you are majoring in engineering, the major itself should be fun for you. Let me tell you something, if engineering isn’t fun for you, you aren’t going to make it. It will be painful to push yourself through the late night hours of studying and being totally confused reading your engineering texts. Engineering is more of a calling than a major. Same for math and physics and other sciences. It has to be the top of the list in your life. Or else you’ll end up dropping out like so many others, I’ve seen it happen time and time again. It never fails. People try to major in engineering for all the wrong reasons and they pay the price. If math, and studying isn’t interesting to you, stay away from engineering.</p>
<p>Forever LSU,</p>
<p>Can you expand on why your friend felt that way about VT? Maybe the reason is what you just mentioned in the previous post?</p>
<p>I’m graduating from VT this semester and I had a hell of a time :-)</p>
<p>Are we talking about schools that have fun engineering courses? Or fun universities that offer engineering?</p>
<p>I know RHIT is a very good school, but what makes it fun or innovative?</p>
<p>wow, so many comments since I’ve last checked!</p>
<p>what I meant by “fun” engineering schools was schools that:</p>
<p>a) allow students to innovate in class (e.g. in a post, sakky suggested to have classes where EE students analyze a radio or ME students analyze a motorcycle; from there, students should find a way to improve a certain feature)</p>
<p>b) don’t slaughter half the class over a test due to a curve. I think this creates a negative atmosphere because students get rewarded for low scores (when someone gets 30% with a class mean of 20%) or slammed for high scores (when someone gets 90 with a class mean of 95%). this way, students will be more concerned and distracted about the competition rather than what they’re studying. instead, I’d like a school that will give everyone a chance to succeed. </p>
<p>c) have enthusiastic teachers that teach really well and inspire students to love the subject taught in class. currently, I have an AP physics teacher in high school (who previously taught at a university) and he’s absolutely fantastic (no homework, teaches well in class, everything is based on tests, quizzes, and engineering reports).</p>
<p>please don’t get the wrong impression that I want to have an “easy” four years of college. why i stated “fun” instead of “easy” is because I want college to be challenging and inspirational, not dull and depressing. I’m totally into engineering at the moment and am sure there’s no other subject that will interest me more.</p>
<p>“a) allow students to innovate in class (e.g. in a post, sakky suggested to have classes where EE students analyze a radio or ME students analyze a motorcycle; from there, students should find a way to improve a certain feature)”</p>
<p>I am an ME at Illinois and we have numerous projects in our different classes with a similar feel to this. We had to design a bike pedal that could measure forces in all directions while pedaling in a competitive race. We had to design a piece of playground equipment with certain criteria on one class. In one class we used ANSYS to run an analysis on space shuttle rocket boosters and demonstrate what caused the Challenger to explode. I suspect that any similarly regarded engineering school will have similar projects in its classes.</p>
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<p>“b) don’t slaughter half the class over a test due to a curve. I think this creates a negative atmosphere because students get rewarded for low scores (when someone gets 30% with a class mean of 20%) or slammed for high scores (when someone gets 90 with a class mean of 95%). this way, students will be more concerned and distracted about the competition rather than what they’re studying. instead, I’d like a school that will give everyone a chance to succeed.”</p>
<p>It may not translate to everywhere, but here, I have had no classes graded on a traditional curve. If the class average was low, sometimes the grades have been scaled a bit due to the fact that it may be an unfair test, but basically all the professors I have had are more concerned with people learning the material and producing quality engineers as opposed to having a certain percentage of each grade at the end of the semester. Most of my classes have been graded on a straight point scale.</p>
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<p>“c) have enthusiastic teachers that teach really well and inspire students to love the subject taught in class. currently, I have an AP physics teacher in high school (who previously taught at a university) and he’s absolutely fantastic (no homework, teaches well in class, everything is based on tests, quizzes, and engineering reports).”</p>
<p>No matter what school you go to, there will be at least a couple profs that are no good. However, most of my profs have been good, and all have had a passion for their particular field.</p>
<p>awesome! now I’m glad I got accepted to UIUC =D. hopefully the EE department is comparable to the ME dept in terms of points a), b), and c).</p>
<p>by the way, would anyone consider UC Berkeley as “fun”? I’ve read and heard about their notorious EECS program and how much work it demands. if I do get accepted, i may switch from EECS to mechanical, so if anyone has any insight on UCB’s mechanical dept, please provide insight.</p>
<p>1) I think U of Missouri S&T (Rolla) blows something up every week. Wouldn’t that qualify as fun?</p>
<p>I don’t know but based on the friends I have in EE, it demands a lot of work no matter where you go.</p>
<p>ECE at UIUC is often considered the best department within College of Engineering. You will not be disappointed.</p>
<p>The MIT-AERO department and Daniel Webster College in NH are working with the CDIO model of learning: Conceive, Design Implement Operate. Google on CDIO for other schools. Concepts are taught within the context of small projects, right from the beginning. </p>
<p>Memorial University in Newfoundland (top reputation and dead cheap) is very hands on. </p>
<p>Any college that has large basic classes freshman year that flunk out 1/3 is not fun. It crushes your soul. Check ASEE profile data base for retention rates.</p>