Not sure if this is true but I heard that the attrition rate for female students at aerospace engineering programs in particular is low, as the environment can be unsupportive of women. What are the most women friendly aerospace/mechanical engineering schools in US? Thanks
Do you mean a high attrition rate?
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Oooops! Yes, it should be high attrition rate. Not sure how to edit.
Look for ones with robust SWE chapters. Off the top of my head Purdue, Cal Poly and WashU are strong in that regard. I’m sure there are many others. What other attributes are you looking for? Budget? Do you want AE or ME? You can enter the industry from either.
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My daughter found there to be many supports for female engineering students across the many schools we toured. Almost all have SWE chapters on campus and most schools do a good job of making sure that they support all their engineers and have them graduate on time.
My daughter, a chem e, went to Purdue which has the oldest continuous SWE chapter and has more than 600 members. My daughter, now an alumna, still does mentoring with current students.
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Thank you!
This might help you - it’s not a who’s most supportive but % of grads that are women in a few majors - scroll to the bottom.
I should add that some reports show the overall attrition in engineering is approximately 50% - so depending on the program, there are high levels of attrition overall, regardless of gender.
America’s Best and Worst Colleges for Women in STEM | Washington Monthly
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Rice has a strong SWE chapter and a lot of female engineering majors. In my daughter’s concentration is was about 50/50 male to female but it will vary by concentration. However, there is not an aerospace concentration there. Those interested in aerospace major in other types of engineering - usually mechanical - and still get jobs in aerospace. NASA is in Houston so it’s got connections with Rice and once of my daughter’s friends works at SpaceX.
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We know tons of female WPI grads, in all majors, that have been very happy. It’s a very collaborative school, with almost no “bro” culture.
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Attrition is generally higher at less selective colleges and universities, for what should be obvious reasons.
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and we know nothing about the student other than gender - so we don’t know said level of college they would get admitted to.
The student’s academic credentials and interests, along with financial capability relative to college costs, will likely be the best predictor of the student’s individual likelihood of retention versus attrition, regardless of how selective the college attended is.
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True but the OP has brought up the student is female and they have concerns about unsupportive environments for females.
So while I don’t dispute what you are saying, the OP has expressed concerns related to gender. And you aren’t including that in your list.
Now, perhaps it doesn’t belong and it, in and of itself, shouldn’t be a concern - I don’t know.
But obviously to OP it is a concern.
Not saying that it shouldn’t be a concern – but it is important to consider the baseline reasons behind retention versus attrition rates.
For example, a low retention rate for women may not be a sex or gender related characteristic if it were similar to the overall retention rate (though if the overall retention rate were lower than expected for admission selectivity and student financial capability relative to cost, that could be a different concern). But if the retention rate for women were significantly lower than the overall, that could be a concern specific to sex or gender.
We had a young woman post here a few years ago from California who turned down Cal Poly SLO for Worcester Tech. She then posted again a year later to say how much she loved it and how pleased she was with her decision.
RPI is another one worth looking at. Like most engineering programs, RPI is heavily male, but they value women students and have set a goal to achieve a 50:50 male:female enrollment by 2030.
Both WPI and RPI have active chapters of SWE.
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They are similar in many ways, but different in many ways too. They were my son’s final two options. He chose CP due to the weather. @HPuck35 has an alum from both. He can certainly speak to how women are treated at WPI. From what I understand quite well. We both had boys at CP, but my son had a bunch of female friends in the CENG. I didn’t get the idea that they were marginalized in any way. In fact, with SWE, they had earlier internship opportunities.
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For more information about Purdue you can email the women in engineering program with your questions: wiep@purdue.edu
Purdue reports a slightly higher graduation rate for women in engineering than men (by 2% points).
Another vote for RPI having good supports as well!
I will caution you and your daughter that the disparities continue into the work place. My daughter is often the only woman in the room. She’s one of two female engineers at her entire site (over 500 employees and a sizable engineering team).
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This includes percentage of bachelor’s degrees awarded to women and percentage of working engineers who are women in the various engineering fields. Note that the former is higher than the latter, suggesting that women in engineering work are more likely to be more recently out of school than men.
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University of Maryland!
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USC Viterbi
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