<p>what is the view of the quality of Dartmouth’s undergrad engineering dept and how many students are enrolled in it?</p>
<p>Last time I checked, Dartmouth had roughly 600 undergrads majoring in Engineering. That’s 15% of the total undergraduate student population, which is significant. At Cal, Cornell and Michigan, which have among the largest Engineering programs in the nation, only 15%-20% of the undergraduate student body are enrolled in Engineering. </p>
<p>In terms of the quality of education, Dartmouth isn’t going to expend any effort in an endeavour unless it is going to master it. You can be sure the quality of instruction and curriculum are going to be good. The only concern I would have with Dartmouth is the lack of variety of Engineering electives and the availlability of high-level, cutting-edge research.</p>
<p>I think 600 undergrads in engineering sounds really high. Anyway, Dartmouth undergrad engineering is strong, but like many Ivies (Harvard, Yale, Brown particularly) most Dartmouth engineers go into finance or consulting rather than working as actual engineers.</p>
<p>I agree that 600 sounds very high. I was surprised myself.</p>
<p><a href=“Dartmouth”>Dartmouth;
<p>If you scroll down to Thayer School of Engineering, it says the following:</p>
<p>“Founded in 1867, Thayer School comprises both the undergraduate Department of Engineering Sciences and a professional school with degrees through the doctorate (BE, MEM, MS, PhD). Forty-five full-time faculty members serve approximately 600 undergraduate students and 180 graduate students. Dean: Joseph J. Helble.”</p>
<p>At any rate, I am sure Dartmouth is a good place to study Engineering, but as I said above, with a faculy of 40, the selection of electives is probably going to be limited.</p>
<p>In 2006 Dartmouth awarded 56 bachelor’s degrees in engineering. </p>
<p>I suspect the 600 figure represented everyone who took a course from Thayer, not just the engineering majors. This includes an impressive set of courses targeted at people who will not major in engineering, but want some introduction to technology. It might double count people who took more than one course in a year.</p>
<p>It may also reflect a large number of people who start out in engineering, and decide that they would get more out of Dartmouth majoring in something else.</p>
<p>According to collegeboard.com, engineering accounts for about 5% of Dartmouth majors. This would be around 50-60 students per class. </p>
<p>A few other points to consider:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>At Dartmouth, it is supposed to take 5 years to earn an ABET-accredited engineering degree (BE). You can graduate with a BA in engineering after 4 years, but the BA degree is not ABET-accredited, and will not be universally accepted as a “real” professional degree. </p></li>
<li><p>Since Dartmouth stretches the ABET curriculum over 5 years, rather than 4, it is probably easier and more common to double-major in engineering and some liberal arts field than at other schools. If you wanted to get dual degrees in (for example) both engineering and economics, or engineering and Chinese, Dartmouth might be an excellent choice.</p></li>
<li><p>Dartmouth is only accredited for “general engineering” by ABET. Engineering majors in different disciplines (electrical, mechanical, etc) will take more shared courses and fewer specialized courses, relative to most large university programs. Ultimately, all engineering majors will graduate with the same “BE” degree; you won’t get a specialized degree like a BSEE or a BSME. If you plan to enter the engineering job market after college, note that some employers might prefer more specialized bachelor’s degrees.</p></li>
<li><p>Electives are going to be more limited than at large universities, and they may be nonexistent in certain engineering fields. Dartmouth might not be the best choice for prospective civil engineers, for example.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I have never looked into Dartmouth’s engineering program but I would be concerned about breadth of offerings, and suggest you investigate this and compare it carefully to what’s available elsewhere.</p>
<p>To restate what I wrote in another recent thread:</p>
<p>If a school is, relatively, deficient in offerings in particular sub-areas of an engineering specialty then it is impossible for its students to get exposure to that area, much less get training. The very engineer you are likely to become may be limited due to lack of offerings/exposure. </p>
<p>Engineering is a broad field. A school may have very capable students, and offer stupendous training in the “vanilla” areas. However, at some point, breadth of offerings makes a difference. Nobody going in knows for certain exactly what they will be coming out. It is far preferable to have your path unfold due to your developing interests, rather than limited exposure to the possibilities. Breadth is important. IMO.</p>
<p>If you plan to be an engineer, I suggest investigating the number of recruiters who visit each campus for specifically engineering jobs.</p>
<p>My guess is that most Dartmouth engineering grads either: </p>
<ul>
<li>go to grad school for specialized engineering study (e.g. MS, PhD), or </li>
<li>go into non-engineering professional schools (e.g. MBA, JD programs), or </li>
<li>go directly into non-engineering jobs (e.g. finance, consulting). </li>
</ul>
<p>I expect the same would also be true for those liberal arts colleges that offer engineering degrees (e.g. Swarthmore, Smith, Trinity). If those options appeal to you, then a “general engineering” degree from one of these small schools may be an excellent choice. </p>
<p>However, it may not be the best choice if you want to enter the traditional engineering job market with a bachelor’s degree. A larger university will offer more exposure to different engineering disciplines and more specialized training within each discipline; the university will also have a much bigger alumni network and better recruiting options.</p>
<p>Corbett is right…Most Dartmouth engineers pursue one of these options (which are often more lucrative). If you want to actually work in a specific field of engineering (like mechanical or chemical) a research intensive school like Michigan or Cal is probably a better option.</p>
<p>According to IPEDS COOL web site, Dartmouth recently graduated 56 students. That would suggest about 220 (56X4) engineering majors, not 600. There is a difference between having 600 students and 600 majors. Maybe there are 600 students who take engineering courses if you include future patent lawyers and so on, but not 600 majors. By comparison, Cornell graduates about 620 engineering majors each year.</p>
<p>Dartmouth offers a degree in General Engineering. You can’t major in Electrical, Computer, Mechanical, and so on.</p>
<p>Dartmouth engineering students are undoubtably very talented and they get a great education I am sure but it is not a classical pre-professional engineering program.</p>