Indeed. I don’t mean to imply one should not be aware of secondary admissions or progression requirements. But lots of people drop out of engineering programs regardless. They are not easy programs, and they can’t be because of the required content and the pace you need to set to do it in four years.
At CMU in the 1980s (back when they were trying to fail out the bottom 20% on engineers) I knew a lot of guys who rode the bus from more difficult to less challenging majors. It often looked like this: EE > MechE > CivE > Chem or Physics > Econ. I think in many cases, students did not know what was in store for them when they applied for engineering.
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Progression or weed-out requirements involving GPA / grades higher than 2.0 / C, or secondary admission, are not universal features in engineering major degree programs.
It has always been a work hard(Sun-Fri)/party hard (Fri-Sat) school. My nephew is a sophomore there now, on the hockey team (which he just loves) and I think he’d say the same. He figured out housing last spring with some hockey friends, one who has a sister who had a house, so 3 guys moved in with 3 girls. My daughter went to a similar school in another state and the students had the same deal with kids from the same teams/interests moving into housing being vacated by teammates graduating. A friend’s daughter graduated from Mines a few years ago and she always found housing in Golden. Some kids do live in neighboring towns, but they aren’t far (5 miles, which is biking distance in Colorado, or there is light rail that goes very close to the school).
Students also commute to CU, and there is an east campus for engineering too, so some engineering student live closer to that than the main campus. Again, not too far apart but any large university is going to have some students hiking a fair distance to get to the right classroom. I lived closer to engineering while in Boulder but of course was a social science major so had to hike all the way to the other end of campus (uphill both ways, in the rain and snow, hauling 45 pounds of books…poor me) Oh, and housing is Boulder is EXPENSIVE! Ten years ago my sister had me review my nephew’s lease agreement - 5 guys sharing a basement of a house (‘garden level’) and it was $50k! They could pay it all at once or, for an extra fee, pay monthly. And there was little hope of getting the security deposit back That’s why some students live farther from campus.
Colo State is another engineering school, although has different specialties than CU (mech and aero), Mines (petroleum), but all have solid engineering. Colorado Mesa engineering students receive a CU diploma.
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Thanks, all. Lots to consider. List is still evolving. I think at the moment it includes:
LACs w/out engineering: Kenyon, St. Olaf*, Carleton (reachy McReacherson), Oberlin, Macalester*, Occidental (for all of these the game plan would be to major in physics or math and look for summer research opportunities)
Smaller engineering-centric schools: Colorado School of Mines*, WPI*, RPI, Lehigh
LACs with engineering: Union*, Lafayette
State schools: UDub*, CU Boulder*, UW Madison*, Purdue*, Minnesota*, Oregon State*.
Other: Brandeis, Rochester, CWU*
*=due in the next month. It’s going to be a rough one.
At this point I would expect at least a couple of the LACs to fall off the list. I’m hoping not to add anything additional – every large state school is mentally going head to head w/ Minnesota/Oregon State/CU, which seem like likely admits for the kid (of course getting into/staying in engineering will be its own challenge, but that’s his life, and historically he’s been able to level up his study skills just in time to do what’s required and not a minute before. If he fails, he learns, right?) That said – and the topic of this thread notwithstanding – for my son’s personality I’m most bullish on Brandeis, WPI, and Lafayette – also, weirdly, Macalester (which offers robust physics/pre-engineering partnership w/ U Minn). I’ll report back on where he lands. First we have to get through the massive gauntlet of application season.
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I predict some tough choices among very different colleges, which is a good thing.
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Quote of the day!
Looks like a great list. It appears your family already knows this, but starting off with physics then eventually settling on engineering work can take more time but also can confer valuable insights and technical differentiation. It’s probably a path best suited to those trying to work on something fundamentally different. I think it’s an intriguing approach when circumstances permit.
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