<p>From reading some of the threads from this forum, it seems a lot of people hate(d) their undergrad engineering experience with a passion. Are there any schools out there where the situation is better, or are they all fairly poor? Any opinions would be appreciated and thanks in advance!</p>
<p>You will work a lot less than other majors, and therefore will probably have less of a social life. Other than that aspect, I like school so far.</p>
<p>I loved, loved, LOVED my time at Rice as an engineering undergrad.</p>
<p>Sure, it was a lot of work, but Rice has a work hard/play hard thing going on. It’s a great place to be an undergrad.</p>
<p>I’m sure there are other places like Rice that offer a great undergraduate engineering experience, too.</p>
<p>College is really what you make of it. If you let your engineering curriculum drag you down you are going to hate it, but like airbarr alluded to, there is also a work hard play hard mentality at every school. Not everyone is going to have this mentality, but I guarantee that it exists in some form at 98% of schools out there.</p>
<p>I was a math/CS major as an undergrad (engineering as a grad student) and yes, you will have less social time but you will enjoy the time you have with your classmates.</p>
<p>I say classmates because once you get to be a junior/senior, the classes are much smaller and you will see the same folks from course to course. It will develop bonds and you all will play hard when the free time happens.</p>
<p>Ditto to what GlobalTraveler said. There were twelve civs my year at Rice, and we’d frequently go out to dinner and hang out after labs and classes and exams and such.</p>
<p>One of my favorite college memories was of our self-hosted end-of-the-year bash in the civ lab. Through our bonding experiences in various classes, Indiana Jones had come to be more or less our mascot, and we’d frequently end up humming the theme song at random intervals. We all got together on the final Friday night before graduation. No significant others allowed (most of us were more or less shackled to our non-civ boyfriends and girlfriends). We watched the <em>entire</em> trilogy, marathon-style, with pizza and drinks.</p>
<p>For your enjoyment, the Indiana Jones Rice Civ 2004 Drinking Game:</p>
<p>1) Drink every time he saves the girl
2) Drink every time he <em>gets</em> the girl
3) Drink every time he loses his hat
4) Drink every time he miraculously gets his hat back
5) Every time you hear the theme song, sing aloud, then drink.
6) Snakes: drink.</p>
<p>Additionally, every time your significant other calls your cell to harrass you about your spending time with your fellow civs, you have to finish whatever’s in your glass when you hang up, and everyone will loudly mock you for the duration of the phone call.</p>
<p>By the end of the trilogy, we were all incredibly (predictably) smashed, and it was late at night. We linked arms and skipped around campus, loudly singing our theme music.</p>
<p>We still keep in touch. =)</p>
<p>I enjoyed my time as an undergrad at Baylor. Classes are small, and profs know each person in class by name. You can walk into their office without an appointment as long as they are in. </p>
<p>People that spend a lot of time together (sometimes not willingly at first) bond quickly. Such is the case with engineers, who tend to spend a lot of time studying together. A lot of these friendships extend to outside of school, where you’ll start hanging out with a lot of your classmates. </p>
<p>Oh, and the key to staying sane is not to respond to the tiny voices in your head :)</p>