Dartmouth vs Middlebury vs Bowdoin

patatty
Thu, 07 Dec 2017 12:55:08 +0000

Very few people do the 3-2 or 3-1-1-1 programs. If you think you might want engineering, you should look at schools that offer a 4 year engineering degree. Why pay for 5 years to get what you can do in 4 at other schools (or in 5 and graduate with a masters)? You mentioned Rice in your first post - that looks like it meets all of your requirements - strong engineering, no fraternities, nice size. Have you done a lot of college visits? If so, I would suggest visiting some schools, particularly those with engineering programs, and talk to the students about their programs and lifestyles. My daughter was undecided until late junior year, when after an amazing tour with an engineer, she decided that was exactly what she wanted. She then shifted her focus to large engineering programs because those programs at the smaller LACs that offered engineering were way less exciting to her. As an example, we visited Lafayette after seeing Cornell and Northwestern. After going through the engineering school on the tour, my D said “That’s it? That’s the whole engineering school? Where is all the cool stuff?” She is now a very happy MechE major at Cornell. I’m going through the same thing with my son, who is a junior now. We just came home from a visit to University of Michigan, which had the most impressive engineering facilities that I have seen so far. His jaw was practically on the floor the whole time. I have a feeling that anything we see from now on will pale in comparison.
Even if you are undecided, you can start as an engineer and switch out pretty easily at most schools. It is tougher to switch in, because the engineering curriculum is set right from the beginning. My D has a friend that started as a biology major and decided halfway through the semester to switch to biomedical engineering. Even though he made the switch early on, missing that first semester in engineering put him behind in math and an engineering class, which he will have to make up at some point, such as in the summer.