WPI is friendly, very well known, and may give you some $$ in merit aid with the stats you have. Would be a good match option. RPI, too.
WPI is friendly and fairly well known in the Northeast. Not that well-known outside of the Northeast. You would get merit there, and at RPI (they make a point of trying to attract students outside of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic). Friendly or not, you will work very hard in engineering - there is just no easy way out.
WPI may work harder to attract you than RPI. Women engineering majors are strongly supported and counseled at RPI and the school gets lots of applications from sharp females with stellar stats, meaning that an RPI offer of financial aid can be somewhat unattractive and not a compelling reason to matriculate. On the other hand, WPI is hustling to attract more female applicants.
By the way, large and significant engineering firms on both coasts know about the rigor and quality of an WPI or a RPI diploma. But VMT is right; RPI might provide additional $$$ to attract a high-stat female student from the west coast. As for the workload at RPI, I still remember the effect an RPI Dean’s words had on the assembled high school applicants at the orientation Lake Jr. and I attended a few years ago. About the workload and expectations, he said “…we don’t mess around here.” You could see the faces of more than a few kids turn pale. LOL.
I’m not looking at any easy schools. RPi is on my list because of support in woman in engineering and I’ve considered WPI. Do you know why WPI is ranked so low?
It’s another instance of rankings not being very helpful. WPI alumni do fairly well in securing employment. I and Lake Jr. attended an WPI orientation and every kid we talked to on campus seemed highly capable and intellectual. The USNWR rankings didn’t impact upon their appreciation of their school. Incidentally, the WPI kids we talked to raved about the senior project program. Keep in mind also that Worcester is more of a college town than Troy. Troy gets a bum rap, but the presence of several other colleges right in town keeps student life at WPI “lively.”
If finances are critical, give some thought to South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. Mines is very rigorous and attracts significant employers, mostly from the western and midwestern states. A notable Mines senior just accepted an employment offer from the Ford Company, after having worked there as an intern. Also, last year a female Mines 2014 alumnae accepted a position at Intel in Oregon. You can find these stories in the alumni magazine. Total cost of attendance at Mines is a bargain at approximately $23,000. There are many students from the Pacific Northwest at Mines.
Mines is a university that is making a tremendous effort to attract greater numbers of female applicants. Like of lot of college towns, Rapid City is relatively liberal. RELATIVELY. It’s rather charming, too.
Well maybe I’ll add it to my visit list for that area
Oh, one more thing about Olin. It may be the only tech school in the country with a 50-50 male/female ratio, something they very consciously seek to maintain. That also makes it a bit easier for women to get in, since they get appreciably more applications from men.
Our D attends Purdue for ChemE and one of the reasons she liked it so much was that the students were friendly when she visited. It is a large university, very engineering focused although it has many other majors. Her opinion hasn’t changed since she started attending (she is a junior). As for being cutthroat, if you mean students competing with one another I would say it’s pretty collaborative. If you mean very challenging then yes it can be. She was in the women’s honors dorm her freshman year and they had a big cutout of a bus on the hallway wall, they called it the “struggle bus”. Engineering majors spend a lot of time on the struggle bus I was told
Olins on my list but I’m glad to hear I have a chance of getting in!
I’m also interested in Purdue bexcuse of it’s reputation with aerospace.
University of Alabama Hunstville has an very good engineering program, and its proximity to the government and contractors in Hunstville makes it a prime recruiting locale for companies looking for engineers. You can qualify for a full ride at UAH with your stats.
http://www.al.com/business/index.ssf/2015/11/boeing_seeks_alabama_engineers.html
Many large state schools have top engineering programs and great sense of community, thanks to their sports teams and related school spirit. Engineering employers (including most aerospace companies) don’t care much about “prestige”. They care about what you know and what you have done. Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop, BAE Systems, Textron, etc. are loaded with (and even run by) engineers from “non-prestigious” schools.
Good point @Chardo. State schools tend to have very good engineering departments and are not cut throat. Some of the biggest companies tend to recruit at these schools because they know they will have a large selection of very good engineering students. The company I work for heavily recruits from the BIG 10.
You don’t even need to have companies physically recruiting at your school. Internet searches are easy, and all the major companies require you to apply online anyway. If you apply to any of the major aerospace companies, and you have a solid resume and GPA, you will get interviews regardless of your school.
Ga. Tech is actively seeking female applicants (they’re up to 60/40, but I got the impression that they’d like to get that closer to 50/50). Although they have a rep for working hard, the kids we saw on campus looked just as happy and social as those we saw at Emory. Also, they do appear to encourage collaboration.
Case Western Reserve University.
@elena3142 Would you consider Smith? They have a strong engineering program (they’re very proud of it, but it’s a bit under the radar given that they’re so close geographically to MIT & Olin), and they certainly have prestige and a great alumni network. It is a strongly liberal environment, and they meet 100% of need.
A school would have to be really magnificent for me to consider an all girl school. Girls hate me so I much prefer a coed school but the location of smith is great. i love Massachusetts.
Smith does not have AE. It offers Engineering Science. It is, indeed, a beautiful campus.
I’m sorry you feel girls hate you. I hope that changes in college.
I’m dual enrolled at a community college and still getting bullied.