There’s no reason to choose a school with giant lectures if you don’t want to.
I went to a school like that. Yes we had recitations and labs, but they were mostly taught by foreign graduate students, many with heavy accents. It’s certainly on you if this happens, but it’s easier to disengage in that environment.
My son on the other hand went to a medium to large school, but one that caps class sizes. As a result they didn’t have recitations. They didn’t need them. Labs were taught by the class instructor, almost always the professor. They don’t offer doctoral degrees, so they don’t have a large pool for TAs. I was jealous of his experience.
As for support and help, some schools will indeed be more supportive than others. WPI for example doesn’t give failing grades. They told my son (who didn’t ultimately choose the) that they’d shepherd him through the Fulbright process. No one WANTS you to fail though, and as @blossom said, you can get all the help you need at any school if you are proactive.
You can get a good education at lots of schools, but there won’t be any coasting anywhere.
NOTE: This wasn’t meant as a dis on Purdue (I’m a big fan with alumni in my family) or any other large school. It’s about choosing a school that fits what you’re looking for.
FWIW, since @eyemgh mentioned it - for you or any future readers - WPI doesn’t report any grades below a C on a transcript. If you are receiving something below a C, it will be recorded for you as an NR (No Record). And, true to it’s name, there will be no record of it on your transcript. If it’s a class that you needed for your major, then you can take it again later, and that will be the grade of record.
I don’t know if you are interested in MA at all, but if you are, it’s a strong engineering program that you’d be a good candidate for if you are a good candidate at Lafayette, Villanova, or CWRU. Students typically don’t do coops (they have an off campus project their junior year, often international, the school will place you) or work off campus during the school year so proximity to a city (since I saw you note Nova → Philly) isn’t a huge deal, but Worcester is a decent size little city, and Boston is an easy enough commute that students can go into the city with frequency. If you have any interest in the school or program let me know, my son graduated last May, I’d be happy to discuss. (But I also don’t want to blather on if this is totally irrelevant for you.)
In engineering they don’t need “weed-out” classes, the material is hard enough that about half of those entering college majoring in engineering nationwide switch to something else. Each math or science or engineering class is going to take 6-10 hours per week outside of class to do homework, read the chapters, do extra problems for practice. I think most kids that switch could do the work but they see friends in other majors with a lot more free time and enjoying college more.
As has been mentioned, many colleges have a 5-year BS/MS program and I would encourage the OP to do that if 5 years of college is affordable. The extra year lets you really concentrate on learning about the branch(es) of ME you are most interested in.
oh thats very interesting and good to know!! I didn’t know that. I’ve been looking at 5 year master programs definitely will look into at that more the closer I get to freshman year. unfortunately for us Purdue was wiped from our radar because of its out of state price but who knows could be in the mix for my kids, good to know!
good to know, I’ll definitely look into that in regards to case western, and don’t worry I’m not assuming to coast through my degree, excited to put my head down and get to work!
good to know about wpi and didnt know that about about student projects and such (I’m a first gen which might explain some stuff im just unaware of lol) Did look at WPI too but didn’t seem to be a good fit or really have a reason to be on my list at the time, Union college ny kinda beat it to the punch, although wpi does have it when it comes to research, congratulations on his graduation though!
The notion that top engineering schools are not it’s bitsy is completely untrue. Cal Tech has fewer than a thousand students. You can’t get any more top tier than Cal Tech and you can’t get any more itsy bitsy. . . Well you actually can get more itsy bitsy. Olin College of Engineering is a superb school and it has fewer than 400 students. Because you have some concern about cost, you should know that one of those itsy bitsy schools, Cooper Union, automatically awards a half tuition scholarship to all incoming students. They plan to be 100% tuition free for all students in 2 years. They’ve been educating future engineers for 167 years and they do it extremely well.
I don’t know where you got the idea that Union is in a sketchy neighborhood, but that simply isn’t true. In fact, it’s in one of the best neighborhoods in Schenectady. They have been educating future engineers for 180 years. So, they know what they’re doing . Size only matters to the extent that they are big enough to offer a sufficient breadth of courses. With 500 students in the Engineering Division, they are big enough. With half a dozen different engineering majors, their engineering program is comprehensive. Unless you have an interest in a very specific type of engineering that they don’t offer, I see no reason to eliminate them on the basis of size alone.
Excellent engineering programs come in all shapes and sizes. I suggest that you shop around for the one that fits you best and that you can afford rather than eliminating schools simply based on size.
I have visited 2x in last 5 years and agree, not sketchy and campus is also very self- contained.
Also agree amazing engineering schools come in all shapes and sizes.
Olin has INCREDIBLE job outcomes and is consistenly ranked as having best profs, doesn’t it?, as does Harvey Mudd (also tiny). Stevens/WPI also won’t have many grads PER major… .. and while bigger than Olin/Cooper Union of course, will be smaller than UMich or UW or whatever.
Student stated upthread that they found Bucknell too isolated (my D felt the same way). All great schools and it is ok for people to have different personal preferences.
