<p>I am a longtime lurker, my ds is a sophomore at IU Bloomington (very happy) and my dd is a senior. We are on the college tours, apps, etc. She is a “b” student, and I spend a lot of time following the 3.0-3.3 thread. We are from so cal, and are looking at many different schools across the country.
My dh and dd took a trip in August and visited Springfield College (she did not like) umass Amherst (she did not like) and Quinnipiac U. Dd Loved Quinnipiac! They have her major , she liked the feel of it and is very interested in going there.<br>
Here are my questions…is this a suitcase school? Coming from SoCal, this concerns me if many kids go home on the weekend. Can anyone tell me about this school? Hard to get good info. My dd loves sports and wants to go to a D1 school. This school doesn’t have all the sports (football) but she still seems to really like it. Thanks for any info you can give me.</p>
<p>@fran my D just got back from visiting a friend who started as Quinnipiac this fall. She said it seemed like a lot of kids go home for the weekend also the campus is not near anything and unless you have a car you have to rely on the shuttle service which doesn’t run very frequently. The shuttle takes about 30 min to get from Quinnipiac to New Haven. The shuttle also runs to Hamden her impression of Hamden is it is mostly strip shopping centers.</p>
<p>@champs having a hard time seeing a kid who likes city schools at Quinnipiac.</p>
<p>chocchip - I have told my S not to be anxious to get it over with. He says this is not his motivation, but somehow I wonder if it is. I should remind him that he liked Pitt a lot, this may be a case of “out of sight/out of mind”. Also, northeastern would be good, but don’t think S could get in.
pamom - thanks for the info. on Quinnipiac. Didn’t realize that lots of kids go home on weekends. S has a friend who just started there this year and is thrilled! But now it’s the “honeymoon” phase, so I thought it would be good to get a feeling how he’s doing around Thanksgiving. Also, yes, S wants a city school, but mom wants him to be a little open-minded to non-city schools, since I believe he would do best in a smaller school. I’m not forcing, just suggesting.</p>
<p>@champs what state are you from? Have you looked at Drexel? It is a little easier admit than Northeastern but offers a similar program (coop). Drexel would be a “match” for your son and he might get a merit award based on his high ACT score. (my D2 got $12K merit at Drexel and her SAT was about 1900). Drexel fits the bill of city school it is also a little smaller than Pitt. Drexel is easier to travel to from the Northeast than Pitt which is practically in Ohio LOL.</p>
<p>Whoa!</p>
<p>I just looked up Quinnipiac and discovered they do have Engineering and Computer Info. Systems! I didn’t know that! :eek:</p>
<p>We’ll have to look into it a bit more now…does anyone have info. about Quinnipiac that would be helpful to me, and Champs (maybe) and New poster Fran…welcome Fran! :)</p>
<p>Does anyone have any other schools in New England that they can recommend for Engineering/Technical/Computers for “B” Jewish students?</p>
<p>I wasn’t sure about visitng Union in NY because they didn’t offer Master’s degrees, but that is now on the list as so many Engineering grads work for awhile before going on for a Master’s, often paid for by the employer!</p>
<p>@chocochip I recently learned that some liberal arts schools offer 3-2 engineering programs for instance there is one at Goucher College that is partnered with Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>[Goucher</a> College: Science & Engineering](<a href=“http://www.goucher.edu/x6377.xml]Goucher”>http://www.goucher.edu/x6377.xml)</p>
<p>My two cents regarding 3-2 programs: I called a few schools which offer this (including Clark in Worcester, MA), and the feedback I got was not very encouraging. By this I mean that very few students actually complete the second part of the program. They get used to the school they are in, they have a social life, etc., and they lose their motivation to transfer schools in what would be their Senior year. Initially this idea seemed like the solution for my S as we were looking for a small school with engineering, however further research made us eliminate this option. Obviously consider this if you feel it sounds like a good option for your S, but do keep this in mind, and I would suggest asking this very question: What percentage of students in this program complete the program?</p>
<p>Also thank you all for help regarding my S’s BU early decision application. At this point I told him we’ll do some visits in the next two months, so that he can see schools with his “Senior” eyes. He agrees with me that perhaps his visits from so long ago are not on his mind. If he still chooses BU as ED, I think I’ll feel better knowing that he had a chance to consider other options as well.</p>
<p>Here’s an article I just got in my email to share with your D/S who is feeling the pain of writing college essays.</p>
<p>[The</a> 7 habits of highly effective writers | Articles | Home](<a href=“Community relations isn’t just about good press - PR Daily”>Community relations isn’t just about good press - PR Daily)</p>
<p>Maybe something here will resonate. If you are feeling the pain like I am, anything is worth a try.</p>
<p>@chocochip …on the other hand a 3-2 program like Goucher’s offers a “B” student the chance to complete his/her engineering day at an “A” student school like Johns Hopkins…something to consider! <a href=“http://www.goucher.edu/x6392.xml[/url]”>http://www.goucher.edu/x6392.xml</a></p>
<p>There may be various reasons why students do not go on to complete the “2” portion of the program …such as deciding to change majors or not maintaining the required GPA (and I read somewhere that up to 50% of engineering majors drop out of their programs due to not succeeding in the program…it is tough to become an engineer). </p>
<p>also- the experience of 3-2 students at Clark should probably not be generalized to the experience of all students in 3-2 engineering programs…</p>
<p>As to leaving their comfortable school, I actually think many students by their senior year may really be ready for something different (especially if they have been at a small college for 3 years…) Goucher’s program in particular seems interesting because the transfer is the Hopkins which is in the same geographical area so a student would not necessarily become disconnected from their classmates.</p>
<p>I’m of the opinion its great to have many options to consider at decision time (assuming that one is not applying ED) so I would not be so quick to rule out 3-2 programs.</p>
<p>@champs I don’t know if you saw my post about Drexel that could be a great option for your son to have as you don’t currently have any coop type schools on your list. Since your son likes city schools, wondered why that was not on his list?</p>
<p>here’s a link that gives a really good description of the pros and cons of 3-2 engineering programs
[3-2</a> Dual Degree Engineering/Liberal Arts Programs | College Admissions Counselor in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley](<a href=“http://www.audreykahane.com/articles/college-search-selection/3-2-dual-degree-engineeringliberal-arts-programs/]3-2”>http://www.audreykahane.com/articles/college-search-selection/3-2-dual-degree-engineeringliberal-arts-programs/)</p>
<p>Any ideas for my younger son who is A- student but not great standardized test taker? Older son is at Oberlin, so possible but would prefer closer to home in Baltimore.</p>
<p>@nervedoctor- what is your son interested in studying? Does he was small school/big school? urban/suburban? Greek life or none? And I’m assuming that Jewish life is important if you posted here? any other criteria for your search?</p>
<p>Hi ya pamom:</p>
<p>Honestly I’m not a fan of 3-2 schools for all the reasons champs mentioned and more. We have plenty of choices on our list but now we have to go visit them and narrow it down.</p>
<p>Of the kids we’ve known at Quinnipiac, I never heard that many kids go home on the weekends! I’ll have to do more investigating on that issue…</p>
<p>Linymom! I’ve been thinking of you and wondering how the apps. are coming along! ;)</p>
<p>Welcome nervedoctor…this post has been sending many kids to Elon. There’s also Univ. of Richmond or other VA schools maybe? Tell us more @interests, major, likes, dislikes…</p>
<p>@chocochip- the 3-2 engineering program was news to me (but then again, neither of my girls was interested in engineering) but I thought it sounded pretty cool for a kind of kid who was looking for both engineering and a small school environment. I actually heard about it from a B student parent whose kid wants to do engineering and they like the 3-2 idea for just those reasons. I don’t really know much more about it than what I’ve posted, but it sounds like you have already investigated them so you are way ahead of me. Reading your last your post I thought you were looking for more recommendations for B student engineering school and sorry if I misread :)</p>
<p>as to Quinnipiac- it is not very well known here in PA. My D’s friend is going there for a 5 year OT program so that is the appeal for her. She also liked the campus, I think, and does not particularly care if she is in an urban environment. I know that she got significant “merit” money at QU and apparently the merit money is a big draw for the better students who decide to attend QU. It has somewhat of a “reputation” for being a party school for white upper middle class kids. Although my D’s friend is Jewish, she did not pick QU for the Jewish life and I don’t think there are too many Jews there.</p>
<p>I live near Quinnipiac and can tell you that the party school reputation is well earned. However, for certain programs, they are top shelf. They do have a Hillel <a href=“https://www.quinnipiac.edu/student-life/spiritual-life/hillel[/url]”>https://www.quinnipiac.edu/student-life/spiritual-life/hillel</a> but I can’t say I’ve heard much about their activities.</p>
<p>pamom - thanks for the Drexel suggestion. I have brought it to my S, and we are now investigating.<br>
Also, sorry if I sounded “against” the 3-2 program, based on Clark, didn’t mean to…just wanted to share what I’ve heard. I actually contacted other schools regarding it as well, and received similar feedback.<br>
Welcome nervedoctor!</p>
<p>pamom:</p>
<p>Thanks for the info! 
You read my post correctly…I am looking for schools for my B student interested in Engineering. I think I have done enough research to cover what we’re looking for. However, I was surprised to learn that Quinnipiac does have some Engineering and also some sort of Computer Information Management. It may or may not stay on my list depending on what my S2 majors in. It looks like they only have a few Engineering choices and the one my S2 thinks he wants now (age 16) is not one of those choices. Also, in talking to him today after school, he definitely does not want the Computer Info. Mgmnt, something I needed to ask him about and I got my definitive answer.</p>
<p>There are several small-ish schools on our list, with WPI being at the top. So far. He & I love everything about that school EXCEPT the small Jewish representation and participation. There are ways around that too, I’m discovering, so that may not be a deal breaker and continues to be the school of choice at the moment.</p>
<p>3-2 schools I’ve read a lot about for a few years since this is my second time around in the college app. scene and I’ve known for a long time my S2 would go toward the technical route.</p>
<p>Now that I’ve done all this research (not as much as Linymom tho!), we are ready to begin visiting and narrowing down which ones he’ll apply to. We have to get out the school calendar and start planning our college visits!</p>
<p>Does anyone out there know the difference between RPI and WPI? I know it seems as if RPI is more selective, but how much? Once there, how much more difficult would the curriculum be, I wonder? Guess we need to write down and ask a bunch of questions once we get there…</p>
<p>^^^pamom:</p>
<p>I just re-read my post. I’ll clarify better what I was trying to say…I have a very large list of colleges for S2 to look at between New England and NY. Colleges with Engineering majors for the B student.</p>
<p>However, even with all my research, there are probably still schools in New England & NY I have not come across that offer Engineering as a major. Like Quinnipiac, for example. That school was not on my radar until I think it was Champs who just mentioned it.</p>
<p>I just was asking this group in general for any other school suggestions that meet my criteria that I may not yet have considered. In past posts I’ve listed all the colleges of consideration, but rather then post them all again I would be happy to hear any other suggestions from this group if they come across a school that may not have been brought up or discussed on this thread! Thanks!</p>
<p>@chocchip have you tried the “college search” function here on CC which allows you to search by major, geographic location, etc.? If not, try running that search tool to see of any other engineering schools pop up that you might have missed.</p>
<p>Chocchip - seems like you and I have similar criteria… so here are some schools to consider (although some are reachy for my S, I’m mentioning them as I don’t really know if they are appropriate for your S): UMass Amherst, Northeastern, BU, Syracuse, SUNYs??, URI, Wentworth, UVM, RIT. Are these schools on your list?</p>