My daughter is interested in pursuing a chem engineering degree. She has high stats (4.0 UW, 12 APs by graduation including BC calc and Physics C, 34 ACT and likely nat’l merit once released given high PSAT). She has decent ECs: 2 varsity sports, unique volunteering and leadership in engineering club. No major awards. Expect LOR will be really good, has very close ties to teachers. She attends a large, well regarded public high school in the Midwest. Tuition cost is not an issue given well-funded 529. No hooks.
She has visited a number of schools and seems to have a common theme / interest:
Mid to larger size campus
Beautiful campus with access to green space
Flexibility to take classes outside of engineering (especially business)
Desire to be at a school overall highly ranked if she ends up not liking engineering (she came to engineering later in high school after loving chemistry but lacks the depth of interest of many classmates that have been deep in robotics, etc for years)
Decent social life
Supportive, collaborative environment for engineers overall
Focused on schools offering ED 1 / ED 2, as she wants to find a couple of options she would be thrilled to attend and give it her best shot to be accepted on the early side (still knowing how competitive everything is)
Her favorites so far have been Wash U, Northeastern, Vanderbilt and UVA.
Couple requests from this amazing community:
Any engineering students out there that can comment on quality of experience? Or if based on your experience you think these schools are NOT aligned with the priorities she is looking for in a college?
Any schools she should consider that we have left off?
Thanks in advance!
I read this and first thought Delaware, Wisconsin and Minnesota - perhaps because of the Chem E part. But they are strong in other areas too. And you noted mid/large.
Did she visit Cornell, Rice, Northwestern or Purdue (not an ED school but a great one)? If she likes Northeastern then maybe Tufts but not sure it has enough green.
Take note that at many schools her major will determine her chances of admission to the school and engineering has a rigid curriculum. A double major may or may not happen but a minor is likely feasible.
Given her interest in business too, schools like Lehigh, Purdue, Ga Tech and more have programs to combine her interests albeit not with an ABET accredited degree. They won’t be Chem focused but can likely supplement with courses.
Have you visited Carnegie Mellon? Great for engineering, also famous for it’s business program. Small campus in a city setting but IMO has a very suburban vibe with beautiful campus.
Thanks for this! She is not 100% on Chem E…I should have noted that. She likes the idea of a school where you apply as general engineering and then have your first year to decide where to focus. So unfortunately can’t use the engineering major as a way to further sort options.
She didn’t like Cornell’s location/ campus, doesn’t love the deep south (no Rice), and heard Northwestern had a very competitive culture in engineering. Purdue is too heavy on engineering for her and not pretty enough. She has lots of opinions! She liked Tufts, but not as much as the others when considering ED. She also really like Lehigh. But like Tufts, felt like the other schools offered more depth of engineering and had more vibrant campuses.
We were both pleasantly surprised by the amount of green space and beautiful new buildings for a campus in the middle of a city. The weather definitely helped - beautiful sunny day.
So this is for the reach school - it may be there on her list already. And depending on what she studies it may impact her chances but also her experience. .
Let’s say she wants UVA and Commerce - it’s competitive secondary admission…does that matter ? Vandy doesn’t offer an undergraduate business major or minor although they offer a ‘business experience’ program. So it doesn’t seem to fit on paper.
I know you’ve heard it a zillion times but find the right school - whether ED or not. A Pitt or Syracuse may be right but a Vandy that doesn’t offer business may not be, no matter the ‘prestige’ if it doesn’t have areas of interest or access to those areas.
Ps living in Nashville, it’s 100% Deep South…far more than Houston (where I go for work).
I would say this is very strange list for Engineering… Maybe I am missing something.
If Engineering I would consider:
Case
Virginia Tech
UIUC
Purdue
etc.
However, some such schools have secondary admission to major that is difficult or competitive. Be careful to check on whether this is the case, or is the case for some majors of possible interest.
I concur with @tsbna44’s suggestions about Delaware, Minnesota, Lehigh, and Georgia Tech (although I don’t know whether Atlanta qualifies as Deep South). Also, Miami of Ohio has a College of Engineering and Computing, and might be an option.
That’s what I wonder. OP is looking for an ED school but it’s deeper than that in reality because that ED school may not be the right school - so I get the student’s desire for a big name but if they want flexibility or business perhaps ED isn’t a good option here.
My son is a recent Northeastern grad, but not in engineering. Most of his friends were computer science majors and one is a current fourth year civil engineering student in a five year program. Overall, he found the students friendly and collaborative rather than competitive and cut-throat. His social life included a lot of exploring Boston, on foot and by bike.
I think the school checks a lot of your boxes. For an urban school, NU has really amped up its green space, including Centennial Common
where students hang out in hammocks, although it does not have as much green space as some of the others mentioned. The new engineering building, ISEC is beautiful and there is a newer building too. NU makes it easy to do combined majors or take minors in other colleges and to take short-term classes abroad, so there is flexibility. If your D is coming in with AP credits, that gives more flexibility. They have “Husky Ambassador” students your D could talk to. Here is some info about student experiences.
ED can be unpredictable even for a strong student. But by the time your student has that result they may end up scrambling, having missed many other good opportunities.
Ohio State is direct entry for Chemical Engineering. But like a lot of publics meeting the EA deadline is required for merit and the best chance of admission to an engineering major (which has limited seats).
Take the time to identify one or two good predictable (at least in the EA round like Ohio State) schools for her application list.
Has she thought about Villanova? It’s mid-sized with about 7k undergrads and ABET-accredited for several engineering fields, including enginering. It also has an undergraduate business school. I believe that she could float freely amongst the majors/schools there, so she could switch from engineering to business to CS and not have any issues.