Would appreciate suggestions for mechanical engineering programs that skew more to a collaborative than competitive environment.
She has unweighted gpa of 4.0 and expected ACT in the 33/35 range.
Other preferences: around 5/6k student body- or smaller.
More serious students than partiers.
Prefer western U.S. but will consider others.
Thank you!
A non-competitive environment would be where there is not a competitive secondary admission process to get into or continue in the major after enrolling.
I wouldn’t nix a school just because they have a secondary transition to major process. That isn’t impacting the collaborative nature of classes or cooperation between students at my dd’s school.
It doesn’t meet your other parameters for size or location, nor do any of the schools my dd looked at, so hopefully others will give suggestions.
I should be more clear. I’m not referring to a secondary admission process. I’m referring to the collaborative nature of the school.
Thank you!
Northeastern and Case Western are two pretty collaborative environments with solid engineering programs that would be a match for your daughter.
This seems to be a persistent myth, that engineering majors are competitive. Maybe pre-med is because there are only so many spots in med school and you need a high gpa to be a strong candidate.
By contrast engineers find all the challenge they can handle in their classes. Engineers form study groups to get the homework done and review the tons of material they are expected to learn. They are happy to share notes with someone who misses a class. They have honors societies that provide tutoring for lower-division students. They pass on internship tips to their friends, and turn in resumes for them. Everyone has enough work just to get thru without having to throw a log in front of someone else.
Most engineering programs are at public colleges which may have a large number of total students but engineering enrollment tends to be much smaller. At a large public like UCLA (24K undergrads) only 3,000 undergrad students are in engineering. Elites such as MIT, Caltech, as well as some private colleges may have a total student body in the range you seek.
@mikemac has it exactly right, engineering students are all in the same foxhole, trying to make it to the end of the semester (hopefully with a B or better in the class). The first and most important key to success is to form study groups, and that’s a lesson learned early on…
Rice fits the bill on all counts.
An open, friendly, collaborative atmosphere–both socially and academically–is one of its signature calling cards.
If your daughter is able to score on the upper end of her projected ACT range, she should be a very viable candidate for admission. Moreover, I suspect that her status as a female pursuing ME would be something of an advantage in the admissions process.
I’d suggest Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, MA. It is very hands-on and project-oriented. Students take 3 classes at a time on the quarter system. Many classes are group projects or internship-type situations. Freshmen most often do a year-long project like Water for the World, Feeding the World. It’s the size you are looking for. School has a beautiful campus in a nice area of Worcester. It’s a little over an hour, I believe, on the commuter train to downtown Boston. We visited lots and lots of schools and thought it had the best campus vibe. The school has been actively recruiting women, and seems to give female students generous merit aid, and the last few classes been fairly close to gender balanced. The school president is a dynamic female leader. U Mass med school is in Worcester, which is, believe it or not, the 2nd or 3rd largest city in New England.
You might not know WPI well on the West Coast but check it out in USNWR national university rankings. Also, students earn starting salaries higher than all but a few schools.
https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/wpi-plan
https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/global-project-program
Also, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU, “Crew”) in Cleveland. More of a traditional academic, STEM focus. Outstanding academics. In a nice area of Cleveland, in the neighborhood that is home to most of the major cultural institutions in the city. Also the right size and top-notch academics. Campus is okay, actually two (old Case Institute and Western Reserve College, which combined), with Euclid Avenue splitting them. CWRU has a med school and a research hospital immediately adjacent to campus.
Both schools are very cold in the winter. WPI does have skiing nearby.
Good luck!
Seconding WPI.
If she’d consider a bigger school, Cal Poly. It feels like a much smaller school than the 20,000 would suggest. Classes are all small and they do not use TAs to teach labs or discussions. WPI narrowly lost out to Cal Poly when my son was choosing. There’s a lot to like there. It wouldn’t qualify as very west coast though. 
She will find serious students and partiers at every school out there. She will find her own peeps.
I’m going to side with @ucbalumnus on the competitive thing. Sure, it’s not pre-med, but when only the top get their choices of major, there’s less incentive to help the competition.
In itself, engineering is collaborative. But the other part of this is she’ll need to show her own collaborative experiences to get into some of the colleges with competitive admissions. That’s in math and/or science.
Take a look a the Harvey Mudd College engineering program. HMC is located in Claremont CA. It’s a small school (850) but part of the Claremont Consortium which falls with the 5-7k size range. To quote from their description of the core curriculum: “The Core is demanding, but Harvey Mudd fosters collaboration, not competition—students work in teams and learn together. The hands-on, project-based courses in the Core foster a love for collaboration, communication skills and leadership ability.” The engineering department also stresses collaboration. HMC offers a general engineering degree, and does not offer specialties, but their students have no problems getting jobs. HMC does well with payscale (I know, many caveats here), and with placements in grad schools.
The school is a reach for anyone.
Oregon tech does well on Payscale too. That’s not to say the education is nearly as good as it would be at HMC, but ALL primarily tech schools do well on Payscale. That said, HMC, for the right person, is probably a good fit. HMC itself though is very small. Regardless of the affiliation with the CC, students spend the bulk of their time on the Mudd campus.
If she’d consider an even smaller school, not on the west coast, Olin is worth a look.
Colorado Mines could be a fit, particularly if she would like a beautiful outdoor environment in addition to a STEM focus. Under 5K students, many cool traditions, definitely a studious/“nerdy” vibe, and MechE is a particular strength. On the expensive side for out-of-state, but definitely a unique undergrad experience that seems like it might align with what your d is seeking.
Agreed that Rice, CWRU, Mudd, and WPI all sound like good possibilities as well.
She visited Mines when in CO for a tournament last spring and really liked it there- especially liked the lack of humanities! Thanks!
Lots of good suggestions… Rice, Harvey Mudd, WPI. I would add checking out Olin College as well. My daughter deemed it way too small for her liking but I love the project based curriculum.
Asymmetric M:F ratios aren’t as bad if your are the minority gender.
Humanities like courses (art, history, social sciences) are required for ABET accreditation, so I’m sure they sneak them in there somehow. @ucbalumnus is more versed with the ABET specifics.
https://catalog.mines.edu/undergraduate/undergraduateinformation/distributedcore/
Colorado School of Mines requires 19 credits of humanities and social studies. These include 3 specified courses (4, 3, 3 credits), 2 mid-level (2xx or 3xx course numbers) courses, and 1 4xx course number course.
ABET requires accredited programs to have a general education requirement, but does not specify too much about it. A college like Brown includes some humanities and social studies requirements for ABET-accredited majors, even though it has no general education requirements for other majors.
L/G students may prefer to be in the majority gender.