Looking for a Large engineering school with laidback students

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1

I’m looking for a large college (10000+ although medium sized would be ok if a college is a good fit) with a great engineering department and a generally laid-back student body.

For purposes of this discussion, just assume I could get into every school in the country (even though this obviously isn’t the case).

2

With your statement “just assume I could get into every school in the country”… Is this based on your stats/qualifications or do you have unlimited amount of money to spend on college?

What type of Engineering?
Any Engineering related EC’s?

You need to give some guidelines other than a medium sized laid back college.

3

Use the supermatch tool on the left (under find a college).

4

I’m undecided on the type of engineering. My stats are very good, but the purpose of this question is just to find a list of colleges that I can look into and then decide which to apply to. That’s why i say assume I can get into any college - not because I necessarily can get into or pay for anything, but just because I want to come up with a list to look into. (i n other words, I’m trying to start broad so I can narrow it down in a few weeks).

Also,
Are the students laid back at these schools ( applying to all of them for engineering)

UMaryland
UMichigan
UIllinios Urbana
UFlorida
UMiami (florida)
USC
UCLA
UCSB
UC Berkeley
NC state
Ohio state
Washington (seattle)
GA TECH
UVA
Rutgers

I know these are small, but:
Stevens
Cooper union

5

I will only comment on the California colleges: UCLA/UCB and USC have very competitive academics overall and Engineering is definitely not a laid back major nor do they have a laid back student body. Only UCSB would probably fit your general description but again Engineering is not a laid back major at any school.

6

Okay, I’ll play Jeopardy:

The answer is:

Engineering and laid-back student body?
What is an oxymoron?

Speaking strictly on the California schools, these have very strong students, who would like to be laid back, but can’t be because of the work involved in the major. I’m assuming you don’t understand how difficult the engineering major is such that you won’t have time to be part of the “laid-back” study body.

Can you afford the public universities?
If you are not an instate resident of the public universities, you will be paying huge tuition costs.

7

Alright, alright. I understand engineering is not going to be the most laidback major. Trust me, I understand how much work it will be. But I mean, I work extremely hard at school and on everything I do, but most people still tell me that I always seem laidback. Engineering and a laidback personality are not mutually exclusive.

8

Well, you have a shot at all of them, but you keep asking about scholarships. Many of those don’t give scholarships to OOS students, or they are extremely competitive with very low probability. I would imagine since those schools are all Div 1 sports and in major conferences that they will have lots of fun things going on and there will be a laid back student body.

9

Yeah. I posted a whole bunch of times about scholarships and figured out that my chances are limited at big state schools and limited but better at large private schools. Thanks “erins dad” though for your help. I guess I should have been able to figure that out though.

10

You have good chances at the California schools for admission, but the public UCs will cost you $55K per year as there is no financial aid for OOS students.

You have a good chance at USC for private scholarships. Their fees are ~$72K per year but you could probably knock that off by about $20K if you are NM winner.

11

I would think University of MissouriS&T would fit that description. May not be a prestigious as some but it is a nationally recognized engineering school. And the small town Midwest location seems to attract more laid back kids.

12

Generally speaking, laid back students won’t survive an engineering program at one of the better engineering unis.

13

I know lots of engineering students at Michigan, but they are smart, organized and clear headed and know when to go for help. I would call them ‘unflappable’ rather than laid back. Heavy partiers generally don’t survive engineering.

14

High school kiddo here, so take this with a grain of salt:

I want to suggest Purdue university; it’s relatively inexpensive, not so difficult to get into, geographically near IU-B, and offers many alternative majors in case you get a little too laid-back for engineering. Students I’ve met suggest the workload is intense, but they seem to have a sense of humor.

What seems common wisdom on this thread agrees with what I’ve heard: engineering is intense. I don’t have first-hand experience, but from my interactions with engineers their major classes seem difficult and fast-paced. Actually, my academic dual-enrollment adviser once mentioned that engineering sequence classes are often compressed so the engineers can get through everything in four years. While this statement’s accuracy depends on the school and your previous experience, would that be something you’re comfortable with?

15

UCSB, yes. There are some less-competitive schools with good engineering departments that have a laid-back atmosphere, especially in the West and South. I think Arizona, Arizona State, Montana State, Colorado State, Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, and Auburn might be worth a look.

16

U of Alabama offers great scholarships and the student body is much more collaborative. The students I’ve met are very laid back. My son chose here over U of Southern California. He has had great success in doing research and obtaining co-ops.

As we are looking for DS2 now, we have also found Pitt to be a more “laid-back” student vs Penn State and Boston U.

These are just our impressions. YMMV

Other schools my sons considered:
Tulsa
Maryland
WPI
RIT
U Rochester
Trinity University
Lehigh
Union College
Ohio State

17

If you want “less competitive”, you may want to prioritize colleges in this order:

  1. Colleges where your desired engineering major is not impacted, so that there is no need to compete for admission to the major after enrolling, and you can change major easily.
  2. Colleges where you get direct frosh admission to your desired engineering major, and do not have to maintain a high GPA to stay in the major. (But if you are undecided which engineering major, then some of these schools may be difficult to change major in.)
  3. Colleges where you do not have direct frosh admission to your desired engineering major, but must compete by GPA (and sometimes application essays) for admission to your desired engineering major later. Note: Purdue, as suggested earlier in this thread, is in this category.

However, you must also consider factors like affordability.

18

I’ll also chime in with an up vote for Purdue. Two of my son’s friends are going to Purdue engineering. Both are serious, hardworking, and talented students but both are also “laid back” in terms of their personalities. (In these cases, I’m defining “laid back” to mean: quiet, friendly, and unassuming.)

19

It’s not 10,000 plus, but both my D and H got that impression of UA-Huntsville. They’re serious about engineering, but more collaborative than competitive.

Maryland engineering is the opposite of laidback. Ditto for UIUC. Purdue may be ok, but the bit about not being a direct admit would make me think twice.

1 Like
20

OP, maybe you need to define what you mean that the student body are “laid back”. And do you mean the Eng students or overall atmosphere of the uni?