I’ve heard a lot of people more knowledgeable than I on STEM fields who have been really impressed with the Speed School of Engineering at the U. of Louisville in Kentucky. The university has an overall admission rate of 81% and the requirements for a direct-admit to the engineering program are below (source):
The Speed program is based on the learn-by-doing model of Cal Poly SLO and students are required to have at least one co-op. The website boasts that 97% of Speed graduates are employed within 90 days, a shorter timeline than most colleges share (which is usually 6 months). There are many different ABET-accredited fields and many engineering-related clubs (including Formula and Baja SAE and a NASA rocketry club).
There’s a lot of enthusiasm for the school’s athletic teams (it gets an A+ on Niche for college athletics and ranks #29 of 1332 based on survey responses). But Louisville has a lot more to offer than that. It’s an affordable city, was rated #9 by Travel + Leisure as a food city, and the campus is within walking distance of Old Louisville and within biking/public transportation distance of downtown and the Riverwalk (3+ miles). Additionally, the city of Louisville has earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index every year since 2015. (Source for some of the info on life in Louisville.)
The university also makes significant efforts to be financially accessible and transparent, with tables of generous merit scholarships for out-of-state students to know their likely costs prior to applying.
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I’’m going to elaborate on my earlier post, suggesting Manhattan University. Manhattan is a small college of about 3000 students, but it’s School of Engineering has a robust 900 students, which is a size typical of larger universities and which is big enough for them to offer 5 engineering majors with the breadth of course work needed to support that many majors.
A few years ago, Money Magazine named Manhattan the #1 most transformative college in the country, meaning that Manhattan graduates students at a significantly higher rate than would be expected by their academic standing in high school and by their socioeconomic background. A later Money Magazine study continued to rate them as top 10 in this category. In one study, Manhattan graduated students at a 37% higher rate than similar students at other colleges and in another study at a 25% higher rate. The college attributes this outcome to its Office of Academic Success, which connects with students at the first sign that they are struggling in a course and works with the student to help them succeed.
Manhattan also talks about its focus on career preparation as a factor in students’ post graduation success. through its School of Engineering, the Business School, the Teacher Preparation program, and its health careers programs. These career goals are facilitated by internship opportunities resulting from their New York City location and alumni network.
These outcomes are consistent with the university’s mission which has always been to provide higher education opportunities for students who are the first generation in their families to attend college. But getting them to graduation is only half the goal. Providing them with earning power after graduation is the other half. According to Payscale, Manhattan’s graduates rank among the top 50 colleges in the country in return on investment, based on the salaries earned by Manhattan alumni.
Located in the affluent Fieldston/Riverdale neighborhood in the Northwest Bronx, the attractive campus is a relatively compact 23 acres. But directly across Broadway from the front entrance of the Horan Hall dorm is 1100 acre Van Cortlandt Park, providing immediate access to a large expanse of additional open space, complete with a golf course.
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