Electrical Engineering in Midwest which school has the better program ?

eyemgh
Mon, 19 Feb 2018 23:04:04 +0000

All but Mizzou are their respective state engineering flagships. Mizzou is the anchor campus of the state system, and as a university, will feel similar to the others on the list (large campus, diverse majors and student body, big time athletics, well developed Greek system, etc.). Missouri S&T, with more previous names than Prince, but originally known as Rolla School of Mines and Metallurgy, is the engineering gem of the system. It’s also one of the few schools that offers a degree in explosives engineering. Of those on the list, I’d probably rank Mizzou last. I say that with a heavy heart as a Mizzou alumnus (not engineering). If however he visits Mizzou and falls in love, he’ll still be successful. There’s a pretty broad consensus that any student who puts their nose to the grindstone and makes the most of their opportunities will do fine at any ABET accredited program. Mizzou has substantially upped its engineering game since I was there.

Iowa State has a DOE National Lab, Ames Lab and that certainly sets it apart from the rest. All National Labs do very interesting cutting edge research, affiliated with, but separate from the universities they are aligned with (if they are).

When my uncle, who has a Stanford PhD and spent the bulk of his career in academia as a department chair, was advising my son, now a Senior ME at Cal Poly, he advised he avoid programs like Stanford (using that example because he knew my son had applied there) that are best known for their doctoral research. He suggested he instead focus on programs with good reputations for the undergraduate experience. His reasoning was that a significant amount of the instruction at the major research schools would be done by graduate students and too little of the emphasis was spent on real world engineering. That’s his perspective, and certainly not without detractors, but he has the bona fides to have an opinion worth at least considering. In any case, the first school out of his mouth was…Iowa State.

I don’t know about the other two, but that should not be construed as a negative.

I think that the intangibles after his visit will be very helpful, and that if he goes with his gut, he’ll be fine no matter which one he lands at.