A few visits, focusing on engineering schools:
Wentworth Institute of Technology (Boston). UP. - Both D27 and I really liked it. It gives off a quirky, laid back, cooperative vibe which is what D27 is looking for. I liked the facilities for the most part. They have a very impressive maker space that D27 really focused on. The freshman dorm was not that impressive to me, I thought it was really small compared to what I’ve seen at other places. The non-freshman dorms looked nice, though. The school itself is in near Fenway Park in Boston (the rail system runs right by campus, which is very convenient), and it’s a nice part of town (away from downtown, so not that busy), so there’s not a lot of open-space campus but for an urban campus I thought it was nice and there seemed to me plenty of places to sit outside and sit, read, or do work. Additionally, WIT is part of the Fenway Consortium, and is literally surrounded on all sides by other colleges, four of which are in the FC, so students have access to their facilities, buildings, dining operations, and campus spaces as well. So the “feel” is that you’re at a far larger school since the other FC members are right next door. The fifth school (not in the FC) is Northeastern. I liked WIT’s co-op system for mech-e, seems to me well thought out (four years + 2 summers, with 1 full year of co-op internship). Will definitely apply.
Manhattan College (Bronx, NYC) - DOWN and OFF. Although MC ended up “down and off” this was likely idiosyncratic to D27, so if I were you I’d visit. We both thought that MC’s campus was nice (in Riverdale, Bronx), which is a nice area right off the Hudson River, and if you don’t know the area it’s separated from the parts of the Bronx that might intimidate other students (my other kiddo, D23, attends Fordham, which is in the other part of the Bronx). So, the MC campus is not urban, it’s closed off, and Riverdale is a nice spot with good food, and easy transport to the city via subway or rail. The campus is pretty, and we both liked the freshmen dorms. What D27 didn’t like (and led her to cross MC off the list) was that the engineering building is off the main campus. You have to leave the front gate, and walk down a hill and then up a street, and the building is there. Building was fine, nice labs, and we had a great talk with some MC engineering seniors. No co-op system like at WIT. D27 just couldn’t get over the fact that she’d be spending so much time in a building that’s not really “on” campus. OFF for us, but if this aspect is not a problem, I think MC is worth a look for engineering.
Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, NJ) - UP. Steven is in Hoboken, the campus is right on the Hudson facing lower Manhattan. Easy to get to by PATH from the city. The campus is very pretty, though the central building (which I think is a dorm), which is several stories high and looks like a glass office building, does not match the red-brick old-style architecture of the rest of the school and looks very strange. Really odd. Once you get past that, there’s a lot here that is impressive. For engineering, the lab spaces are quite impressive, as are the maker spaces. There’s a co-op system at Stevens for engineering, which right now requires 5 years but they are adjusting it to make it 4 years + 2 summers, which is what WIT does. D27 liked Stevens, but she thought it seemed less laid back (in comparison with WIT, or even Manhattan College). Felt competitive as a vibe, which she didn’t like. Stevens (at least the day we were there) also didn’t strike us as very diverse. Overall, we liked it (thus the UP) but not her favorite.
Missouri University of Science and Technology (Rolla, MO) - UP. We’re located in MO, so we figured we’d look at the “local” area schools. S&T was far more impressive than I thought it would be. The campus is nice, lots of green space. The dorms were very, very impressive (nicest ones I’ve seen). The amount of resources put into engineering at S&T is really amazing. They have a lot of engineering-majors, and it seemed to me that almost all of them had their own dedicated building. The labs were some of the nicest we’ve seen. Really an impressive school, if you’d dedicated to engineering (they don’t do much else). The three drawback for S&T: (1) it’s in Rolla, MO. Rolla is, well, Rolla. It’s ugly, tiny, and there’s nothing to do. You’re stuck on campus, or you drive to Saint Louis, which is 90 min away. So, you’re isolated. (2) No diversity. S&T is a very white campus. Since it’s engineering, it’s also 80% male. So there are a lot of midwestern white guys. Maybe that’s a plus, maybe a negative. Worth mentioning. (3) The vibe felt “sink or swim” to me. Again, that could be a + or a -, YMMV. It stays on the list, because the facilities for engineering are impressive to say the least.
Cooper Union (Manhattan, NYC) - UP. I’m from NYC, but we live in MO. So, I’m all about the city, and definitely the east village (where Cooper is). D27 is not much of a city-person, but she was very impressed with Cooper, and said she could overcome her dislike of large cities to go there. I can see why. Cooper is a tiny urban campus (just two-three buildings total, housing engineering and art/architecture). The engineering building is very impressive, as were the labs. The campus student guide was amazing - best I’ve seen. No co-op system at Cooper, it’s more focused on research/theory. The vibe felt “hard but collaborative” which D27 was good with. Overall, Cooper is very impressive if your aim is engineering. The main issues that I see with Cooper are (a) there’s no campus at all; if you know the area, it’s literally a few buildings in the east village. You leave a building and you’re in the middle of a NYC street, not “on campus”. For some, a +, for some a -. (b) Cooper has no dining facilities. It only has a coffee shop. This is a big problem, I must admit. You have to find your own food. If your kiddo is good with this, no problem. But if you have a kid who needs regular meals available, it’s a problem because you’re either cooking or eating fast food. (3) After (I believe) freshman year, no guaranteed housing. In NYC, there are plenty of apartments, but not cheap and so this could end up a source of stress.
Saint Louis University (Saint Louis, MO) - UP. St. Louis itself isn’t terribly nice, particularly downtown, but SLU is in “midtown” not downtown, which is a nicer spot. That said, what a beautiful campus it has. SLU has a huge endowment (2 billion) and they are definitely spending $$ on landscaping. It’s an enclosed campus in St Louis (not gated, though), so there are tons of green spaces to sit, read, do work, and it definitely felt plenty safe. The admissions talk was awful (bad presenters), but the campus tour was informative and well done. Dorms are nice, good dining options. We ended up getting a personalized tour of the Engineering buildings by the chair of the department, not as part of the setup, but because we ended up talking to her at a campus fair and she just offered to do it. Which was a great personal touch. She talked to us (and another family) for about an hour, showed us all the labs, talked about the programs, and we were impressed. Vibe: very personalize education, lots of attention, not overly competitive. Lots of diversity on campus. High on D27’s list.
D27 is a rising junior, so we have plenty more visits to go (University of Tulsa next week). At this point, WIT and SLU are probably her favorites, followed by Cooper, and MC is at the bottom, with Stevens next up from the bottom. S&T is in the middle somewhere.