Right, but that still depends on someone wanting to do the kinds of work that “molecular engineers” are likely to do, which is pretty fundamentally different from what most of the people who call themselves “engineers” do. If a kid today says, “I want to be an engineer,” it’s misleading to imply that Chicago’s interesting, nearly unique program that essentially fails to prepare anyone for 99% of the engineering positions available to engineering grads is equivalent to the high-ranking traditional engineering programs for undergraduates at places like Cornell and Penn.
The right answer is, “There are really interesting things going on at Chicago around the cutting edge of chemical engineering at the nano level. However, if you want a traditional engineering program with a full range of options for concentration, and you reasonably expect to be accepted at Penn, Duke, Cornell, and Columbia, any of those places is a safer choice than Chicago. They have full-spectrum, widely respected engineering schools, and they are peers of Chicago in non-engineering academics if you decide engineering isn’t for you.”
The University of Chicago is a great, great university with a wonderful college program that I love. But that doesn’t mean it should be the first choice for every student.