Hi all, after a mediocre but expected college app season as an intl needing aid, here are my choices:
Purdue, Cooper Union – ~46k
UDelaware Honors – <40k (Unsure of additional scholarship since I got DisScho invitation but didn’t win any specific awards)
UMN Honors – 40-45k
Aalto University – 9-30k, idk what the scholarship amt is until the decision is out.
Other choices: Duke Kunshan – 39k and negotiating aid, Denison University – 30k.
Goals: I plan on studying ChemE (or biochem @LACs) at these schools, though my family thinks I should also have some CS/Finance knowledge. We may need small loans for the >40k schools. Note that Aalto can be significantly cheaper.
I’m not looking for the “entire package” of a traditional American college experience. However, I would definitely not just study and want to go abroad and join special interest clubs. I want to learn to be an engineer that will contribute to the world meaningfully, maybe leading a company that supports sustainability efforts in some ways.
Other considerations: On one hand, my reservation for staying in the US is the difficult immigration law post graduation. On the other hand, Aalto may be harder to integrate into initially because of the language which would take at least 1 year for me to be familiar with. Secondly, the salary after graduation in America would probably be higher than in Finland, although the immigration and visa sponsorship that America requires companies to do may make it slightly harder to find a job, but I think that most of the mentioned schools are reputable and will provide me a good education + experience, especially in engineering. My parents think Purdue is the best choice for me because it’s the only school they’ve heard of (international).
P/S: Should I also consider German universities, specifically the Management & Technology program at TUM?
I’d really appreciate any opinions from anyone, especially those familiar with any program I mentioned. Thank you!
I happen to know someone who teaches engineering at Aalto (although not ChemE). From what I hear, it sounds like a really nice university, innovative and collaborative in character. Your statement about wanting to be “an engineer that will contribute to the world meaningfully, maybe leading a company that supports sustainability efforts” would fit in very well with what I heard about Aalto. But I don’t have any information about how studying in Finland would affect your future career outcomes. Would you be starting from scratch with the language (that sounds like it would be a challenge)?
As far as the US schools you mentioned, I know that Purdue and UMN both have world class programs in ChemE (I don’t know much about the others). Of course, as an international, your concern about post graduation employment in the US is a very valid one, and I can’t advise you there. However, my son was considering UMN (for another engineering major), and our international friends told him that UMN engineering was quite well regarded outside of the US as well.
Yes, I would be starting from scratch with the language. However, from what I’ve heard, most ppl in the area can speak English and the program is also in English, so it’s not too major of a challenge. I think as long as I speak decent Finnish by the time I “finish,” it’d be fine.
I applied to UD as a safety (since it has a t5 ChemE program), and I just know that CU is really reputable in industry circles (not sure ab ChemE tho, I mostly hear ab Elec/Mech) and also is selective, but it doesn’t have a lot of lay prestige.
Now I’m just really confused because all of my choices are good but widely different, and there’s no stand-outs (i.e, Ivies, Caltech and the likes)…
For ChemE, I very much doubt an Ivy would do a lot more for you than the top public universities in the field, although it would be a different college experience. Caltech is a different beast altogether… it is very small, a very different experience from other universities, and REALLY not for everyone (I’ve known some very smart people who were unhappy there). Anyway, I wouldn’t worry for a moment that you are missing out by not going to those places.
Good luck choosing among your good choices, and I hope a true insider comes along to give educated advice!
UMN and UDel ChemE +Honors college is a terrific result as both are world class. I would choose one of the 2 depending on weather and environment preferences (is the cold in MN a deal breaker? Would you rather live in a college town or a metropolis?)
If you want to save some money, Aalto. You’ll have all of the EU to find a job.
While Perdue may be more well known to non-engineers outside of the US, most companies worldwide would be aware of UMN and UDel’s strong engineering programs. UMN would put you in an area with many opportunities for internships (likely accessible from public transportation).
Consider the chemical engineering job market in the country or countries where you have citizenship, residency, or ability to work in (without a lengthy or uncertain work visa process), and how much different universities matter to the employers there.
I’m fine with working anywhere. Probably will not return to my country for a while since engineer salary is like 15k/yr. It seems that US visa is more stringent than Europe.
It’s in another universe. In Europe or the UK, if you graduate from college, you automatically get a work visa.
In Canada, in addition, that work visa counts towards permanent residency. After 2 or 3 years, if you kept your job and didn’t do anything illegal, you are a permanent resident earning points towards citizenship.
All of that is currently IMPOSSIBLE in the Us (there’s no such pathway.)
In addition, your visa is a STUDENT visa. Your goal must be to STUDY. If during your visa interview you discuss your hopes of finding a job after college and working, your visa will be denied because it’d mean trying to bypass work visa rules.
My daughter graduated last year from Purdue with her degree in chem e. It is a fabulous program but as others have mentioned, not only is there no guarantee that you’ll be able to work and stay in the US after graduation, it’s more difficult for international students to get internships and co-ops as well. Without meaningful work experience, obtaining full time employment is even more difficult.
I would give serious consideration to your European option, especially if the cost means no loans for you and your family.
U Delaware and UMN are world-class in ChemE specifically. However, both programs are known for being pretty brutal. My ChemE major son turned down a full tuition scholarship and honors at Delaware partly because he thought the program might be too intense, but some people thrive on that. Their ChemE programs are well known as being amazing in the US, but they will be really challenging.
Purdue is known for being world-class in engineering in general. Fortunately, the ChemE program does not have such a “brutal” reputation as U Del and UMN.
Engineering is pretty egalitarian and as long as a program is ABET-accredited (all of them except Denison are), the name of the actual school you attend isn’t that important. The more important factors will be how a school fits you as a person, and what you do with the opportunities that are offered to you.
I agree with others that the European option seems like the best. If you really want to come to the US, do NOT go to Denison. You cannot study engineering there and a 3+2 or 4+2 program is not in your best interest. Duke, Purdue, and Cooper Union are all excellent choices and their programs are well respected.
I’m familiar with UDel and know they are highly regarded for that major. It’s a very nice typical US college campus with lawns, bricks, a great Main Street with shops, bars and restaurants. Great school spirit, lots of clubs. You might get a couple of snow incidents but not a lot. It’s easy to get to, Amtrak station on campus and another one with more trains 20 minutes away in Wilmington. It’s a 2 hour drive to Washington DC and NYC, an hour drive to Philadelphia, if that is of interest, less than 2 hours to DE and NJ beaches. It’s 1 - 2 hours away from 4 international airports. My daughter was in honors, very nice honors dorm.
It’s Duke Kunshan, the campus in China, and I think I had better spend a bit more to go to America. Your reasoning is why I didn’t put Denison on the “Strong consideration” list.
I will give you a different take. My son works for a large international company that hires engineers worldwide. He is doing a ELDP program for 3 years. They just increased their program to 4/5 years. You work your first year in your host country, let’s say Finland since they have 2 plants there then in your case you can work the rest of the time in another country including the US. So there are many companies that do this type of investment thing. I am not sure if you can stay in the US but my son does know someone from Finland that is in the US working. If interested PM me.
As far as teaching in Finland your courses should be in English.
I thought that Cooper Union’s main attraction was that once admitted, the school was free (or at least that used to be the case when I worked with a Cooper Union grad in the 1990s). Has that changed, or am I just mistaken?
One factor is rank/reputation. I’m a former head of a chemical engineering group and this is how I would rank the schools. I’m not familiar with the Finnish school.
UDel > Purdue >= Minnesota
However, rank is just one perspective. UDel is know to be a top program. We usually felt hiring decisions were much more about the engineer than the school and we hired from dozens and dozens of schools over the years. So don’t get too hung up about program rank. Good organizations recruit from all of these programs
However, what if you don’t stay with ChemE? What if you don’t stay with engineering? UDel and Minnesota have tons of majors. Many people drop engineering. In that case, I might stay away from Purdue and look carefully at back-up programs. You might want to research how hard it is to transfer into business/finance or comp sci at each school.
There is a growing voice in ChemE that we need to merge in data analytics as a core competency. So I definitely second your families suggested about CS or biz at least as a minor - and it may be hard to do that at some schools. Ask the programs about the best was to do that at each school
What about location? Do you care? Minnesota is built into the city which can be a plus or a minus. UDel and Purdue are in small towns 30-90 minutes from larger cities.
Cooper Union should be giving half tuition off but beyond freshmen year no housing. NYC housing can be expensive. Also, FWIW CU rigor might be hardest - sort of really really hard :(. However, those who know CU know what its alumn are made of and it is rewarded.
