college tours - engineering schools in Northeast

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Planning a September trip w S1 ('15) for our first trip to look at schools. He doesn’t really have any clue what type of school he wants, except he’s fairly confident he wants to major in engineering, which is why I’ve picked a variety of urban/suburban and big/small. </p>

<p>I have the following itinerary sketched out, but am looking for another the final day on the way home to NJ. (i have visited all but Northeastern w D1, so I have some idea where we are going on the various campuses). We do want to spend one night in Boston, as he has a good friend at Northeastern. D1 & I completely hated BU, which is why it’s not on the list. I thought of U-Conn, but I expect he will get the big state school vibe from UMass, as well as Rutgers. </p>

<p>Day 1
RPI
U Mass - Amherst</p>

<p>Day 2
WPI
Northeastern</p>

<p>Day 3
Tufts</p>

2

<p>Just jumping on here, as son is going to have to select grad schools, and he definitely wants out of the south. Son also going for engineering. I really don’t know of any northeast engineering schools, other than MIT, which is WAY out of son’s reach. So, I’m interested in feedback about these schools as well.</p>

<p>Good luck on your trip!</p>

3

<p>If you want to add a contrast to the tech schools and include a small school, Union College, which is outside of Albany, might be worth a look. It is one of the few LACs to offer engineering. You could see it and RPI on the same day, then do UMass and WPI on day 2 and Tufts and Northeastern on day 3. </p>

<p>Not sure how high your son can reach, but of course, MIT and Olin are near Boston as well.</p>

4

<p>Syracuse University!</p>

5

<p>Second Union, had the aid worked out that’s probably where my son would of landed…agree it would make more sense to pair it with RPI since it’s a stones throw. We visited Stevens in New Jersey…wasn’t a great match for what my guy was looking for but great school nonetheless and the views are amazing!</p>

6

<p>Oh…and TCNJ. My son wasn’t wild about the location but I really liked the campus and it’s a great middle ground between state and private.</p>

7

<p>NJ2011, please describe what you and D1 disliked about BU. My DD is considering that as well as others that you are visiting. Please share your experiences!</p>

8

<p>Surprised to see Tufts on this list. DS1 is a Tufts grad and we wouldn’t consider their engineering program to be especially strong. What about Lehigh?</p>

9

<p>Thanks all. I will look into Union - have never heard of it. </p>

<p>MIT and Olin are beyond reach schools for him. I’ve heard Tufts had decent engineering, which is why it’s on the list. D1 & I liked the vibe and the campus when we visited. </p>

<p>We didn’t like BU because there was no feeling of a campus and it was huge. There was no grass except for the tiny ‘BU beach’. Everyone of our potential tour guides were Juniors majoring in ‘undecided’. </p>

<p>Lehigh and TCNJ are easy day trips for us, so we will pick them up another time. </p>

<p>adding - he’s a big sports fan and doesn’t like Syracuse, so I don’t think he would consider it. He also hates orange and his sister has already told him even the fire hydrants are orange. </p>

<p>I really hope he likes WPI, as D1 & I loved it and I think it would be a good fit for him. He’s a swimmer and has times as a 16yo that would make his a contributor to their team even now. He knows D3 is where he needs to be if he plans to swim in college - it’s just another piece of the puzzle, not a deal breaker, but could be the deciding factor in 2015.</p>

10

<p>nj2011mom:</p>

<p>Day 1 should not have RPI and UMASS on it. As others have said, visit RPI and Union in the same day. Very close together. My S2 (2014) is also leaning toward engineering so we have researched all these colleges. Union is a gorgeous college but it was too much of an LAC with a tiny Engineering Dept. and my S wants the full tech school experience. We liked RPI very much, but not the town itself…also RPI doesn’t have any languages other than one or two Chinese classes. (My S is leaning toward a Spanish minor) It also seems to be more competitive to get in than WPI.</p>

<p>If you HAVE to do two colleges in a day (I’d recommend one day for each college), then try for UMASS and WPI together and then Northeastern and Tufts together.</p>

<p>Tufts ranks #58 in Engineering, the same exact # as WPI. Northeastern and UMASS all have the same exact ranking, #58. (RPI #23)</p>

<p>BU is ranked #53, Lehigh at #44…they’re all close enough in ranking (except for RPI) that the OP’s child should go where they fit in the best. My S2’s first choice is currently WPI. But he wants a techie school).</p>

<p>BTW: S1 is at Tufts currently, but not in Engineering.</p>

<p>PS: Did you go on a BU tour? And see the Engineering Dept? Many kids are not crazy about BU because it’s smack in the city with just sidewalks and no grass, but once they meet students and see the academics, they change their minds about the location and decide to go there!</p>

11

<p>PS: I think the Engineering Dept. at Trinity College in Hartford, CT is bigger/stronger than the one at Union. However, many people don’t like the location of Trinity…and there has been some robberies there. But the school has taken many safety precautions so that may be a better place or another place to check out too.</p>

<p>Don’t rule out UCONN. Many happy people go there and love the school even though it’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s big enough that kids stay very active on campus and the rah rah is quite important there because they have outstanding sports!! Engineering at UCONN and UMASS are both supposed to be terrific and they both are on our list as well.</p>

12

<p>just looked up Union. It’s too small. One requirement is to be larger than his high school and Union is not. I might just stick with one in the morning and drive back so we are home at a decent time. We might consider a drive-by of UConn as I’ve never seen the campus, but all things considered, I’d rather see him at Rutgers vs UConn for cost and convenience. </p>

<p>I don’t think he will consider Syracuse. He’s a big sports fan and not too fond of them, plus he hates Orange. (he’s one of those kids where school colors could be a deal breaker. His sister told him the fire hydrants were painted orange).</p>

13

<p>How about Lafayette? Or U of Pittsburgh? I believe I’ve heard other people here talk about Pitt as a good engineering school.</p>

14

<p>Penn State is a very good engineering school. Although OOS tuition is pretty high. And it has a classic college town, unlike UConn.</p>

15

<p>You might want to also do a Pennsylvania road trip for a few days in the future. You could hit Lafayette, Lehigh, Drexel, Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, and if you want to ride a little further, Case Western.</p>

<p>Another school that’s a bit different (maybe a safety?) is RIT.</p>

<p>Back when I did my college visits I liked both WPI and RPI a lot, but wound up going to CMU since it felt like home each time I visited. (My brother was two years older and wound up going to Pitt, so I visited campus twice a year while helping him move in and out.)</p>

16

<p>Don’t forget Bucknell. Really charming and if Lehigh and Lafayette are in the mix, it should be considered also.</p>

17

<p>I have shared this information a number of times but a terrific source is ASEE.org. That’s the American Society for Engineering Education. Don’t know why they aren’t better known.</p>

<p>If you go to the site and go [url=&lt;a href=“http://profiles.asee.org%5Dhere%5B/url”&gt;http://profiles.asee.org]here[/url</a>], which is the online search for profile by school, you get pretty much what that school’s engineering department has. Lots of information. You can see enrollment by area by year, degrees conferred by area, faculty by area, etc. One of the most interesting is “Research Expenditures”, which is listed under Graduate on the left. You see the external funding - government and private - for each area. </p>

<p>Pick a school. You see, for example, that if you have an interest in biomed then BU gets $30M, which is a very big number, for that, but if you want materials science, odds are another program will have more attention. </p>

<p>This information lets you see the strengths of individual programs. Some are better at electrical, others at civil. You can see the allocations of students, faculty and of course research money. </p>

<p>And then you can put that into your head with size of program, emphasis, etc.</p>

18

<p>The engineering department at University of Hartford is a strong one…DH says it is better than UConn or Trinity for engineering. DH is a U Hart engineering grad so he might be a bit biased. It is worth a look see, and if your son is a strong student, he might qualify for some merit aid there.</p>

<p>DS is a BU grad. It’s an urban campus for sure, but the city of Boston IS the campus. My son absolutely loved his four years at Boston University.</p>

19

<p>Stream of consciousness, IMO, IME, etc:</p>

<p>It can be really hard to see more than one school in a day. The tour times often don’t match up, and the travel forces you to rush around.</p>

<p>RPI->UMass is about a 2 hour drive. That doesn’t leave you much time to look around.</p>

<p>UMass->WPI is about 1 hr 15 minutes.</p>

<p>None of the schools in the original post are big sports schools. RPI does have D1 ice hockey. UMass is D1, but is not in a major conference, and doesn’t even play football games on campus any more.</p>

<p>UMass just opened a new Honors dorm, and the entry requirements for the Honors college are not that high. There are a ton of new buildings going up. The food is really good, considering it’s dining hall food. The Amherst/Northampton area is really nice, it’s the quintessential college town - it would be a shame to just drive through without exploring, but if you do two schools in a day you probably won’t have time.</p>

<p>If your stats and grades are at all decent, both RPI and WPI will likely offer enough scholarship money to get the price down into the mid- to upper-30’s. RPI does require that kids live on-campus for two years now, and their dorms are ridiculously overpriced. Part of the scholarship package will likely be a “housing” scholarship", so if you move off-campus your last two years you will lose some money.</p>

<p>UMass gives some money to many OOS kids, it helps defray the extra that OOS kids pay. Apply EA for your best chance for money.</p>

<p>WPI is on the quarter system, which can be really intense - you take 3 classes every 7 weeks. If you fall even a little behind, you can be in a world of hurt. I am not crazy about the WPI campus, it is small and there’s a lot of car traffic going through the campus. Neither Troy nor Worcester are much to write home about.</p>

<p>Northeastern is a co-op school, meaning it takes most kids 5 years to graduate because you work for one year (you only pay for 4 years). It’s an urban campus, and doesn’t have much in the way of a campus-y feel. Boston can be a lot of fun, and also a huge distraction. Not much for sports.</p>

<p>Tufts and NE are close distance-wise, but it can take an hour if you are driving and traffic is bad. Parking will be a huge challenge, the subway is probably the best bet.</p>

<p>I don’t know much about Tufts.</p>

20

<p>“I don’t think he will consider Syracuse. He’s a big sports fan and not too fond of them, plus he hates Orange. (he’s one of those kids where school colors could be a deal breaker. His sister told him the fire hydrants were painted orange).”</p>

<p>Haha, nj2011 mom! Yes, there is a lot of school spirit there! Just thought I would throw it out there, since you were going to be “close”. My son got a nice scholarship, had a good experience there, and got a great job!</p>