Our daughter had “pleasing weather” as one of her four college choice criteria. She went to Santa Clara University.
Please look carefully at Lehigh and the party culture there. YES, there are parties at all colleges, but we know grads who clearly said the weekends revolved around…parties.
Great engineering program, however.
Both my kids went to school far-ish from home (drivable but a LONG drive; one 7 hrs and one 11 hrs). They did not come home all that often, and when they did, sometimes they carpooled with someone who lived nearby. IMO kids don’t come home as often as they think they will. Typically holidays and end of the year, and sometimes not even then ---------
I know the “pleasing weather” feeling. The following weekend after my son went to Case Western for a visit, we went to Nashville to see Vanderbilt…made him forget all about Cleveland lol
You should have taken him to Vandy in July🤣
@happy1 Here is that study abroad program(s) for engineering linked at the bottom.
@nycmjkfan - confused. UR at $15K and is a short drive from SU which is $19K - and surely you can get to Cleveland for less than $2K annually - you say CRWRU is $17K. I get he doesn’t love Cleveland - but UR is cheaper than SU and barely farther.
So if you eliminated those two on money, how could you consider Lehigh or SU which cost more?
Lehigh is less than a 2hr drive from home.
Syracuse is 4hr drive and Rochester is 6hrs, but having gone to college in WNY myself, getting transport to NYC is going to be a lot easier from Syracuse because of the number of kids that live in the NYC area that go to school there.
At this point, it is basically splitting hairs I guess to get to one choice
SU is not two hours from UR (it’s less) but it’s ok.
Yes, there will be more drivers (bigger school and more NY focused) - but when I used to interview in NYC, I took the train from SU to NYC.
For MechEs, engineering-related clubs and activities often contribute significantly to the quality of their college experience. Does your son have particular interests in this sphere? Comparing what’s available at the different schools may help to bring a preference forward.
This is an ECS page, but the clubs have a lot of overlap: Clubs and Organizations - ECS – Syracuse University
Good suggestion, @aquapt. @nycmjkfan check out Engineers Without Borders. I would think most, if not all , should have a chapter, but its an excellent program. One of my s’s travelled with them both as a student and when he was first working after college.
We just visited Case, Lafayette, and Rochester. Son is interested in MechE and has gotten into all three. (He wasn’t as interested in Lehigh or Syracuse, probably for cultural reasons.)
Case and Rochester seemed culturally similar – smart kids who are serious about school, medium-sized private universities, strong engineering but also opportunities to study other things, more flexible around curriculum and admissions to major than some of the public schools he’s considering. He liked the urban campus setting of Case – great restaurants and museums within walking distance, that maker space, the interesting architecture, etc. – a bit more than Rochester. He had applied to Lafayette and Union due to their LAC+engineering opportunity but didn’t quite gel w/ either campus. My sense is that either would be a terrific school for someone who really wanted/needed to go to a smaller college and still study engineering. But I’m not sure I’d pick Lafayette over Case or Rochester (or even Lehigh) absent that desire for a smaller school (unless the $10K/year difference is significant for your family – and it’s not chump change!) If $$ is a factor, Lafayette would be fine. Great, even.
I wouldn’t be quite so quick to take Case off the table – unless he’s resonating with the vibes at Lehigh and Syracuse more than the vibes at Case and Rochester.
My son goes to Lehigh and is not in Greek life there and doesn’t party or drink. MOST students are not in fraternities or sororities at Lehigh. There is PLENTY to do for students who are not bent on Greek life and partying. My son says he loves Lehigh so much “I live in a castle with all of my friends.”
My son goes there now (Lehigh) and hasn’t mentioned much about the partying there. I don’t know that it’s much different from any other school. My kid is not a partier and he and all his friends have plenty to do on the weekends without Greek parties.