I wasn’t doubting you, just wasn’t sure which post you were responding to and thus which school.
From CDS. Doesn’t make it not a great school. I just remembered the comment.
It has a very low yield amongst similar schools. Not sure why.
I would think all schools have to teach theory/concepts no matter what.
I know the maker space is top rated and perhaps that’s where the theory vs project at any school comes in.
What about Pennsylvania schools?
I’m having a harder time finding the non-examples, I think because I don’t know what language those schools use to talk about themselves.
ABET lists 30 schools in the state - some duplicative - for ME.
I assume by PA you mean the publics.
You can reach out to investigate.
My guess is most are more similar than different.
Institutions
30 result(s)
EXPORT
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Erie, Pennsylvania, United States
Grove City, Pennsylvania, United States
Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, United States
Easton, Pennsylvania, United States
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States
- Former Institution Name
Messiah College
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, United States
Renamed Messiah University on Jun 30, 2020
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, United States
Formerly Messiah College before Jul 1, 2020
Erie, Pennsylvania, United States
Reading, Pennsylvania, United States
Formerly Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus, Berks-Lehigh Valley College before Jan 1, 2005
- Former Institution Name
Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus
Reading, Pennsylvania, United States
Renamed Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus on Dec 31, 2000
- Former Institution Name
Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus, Berks-Lehigh Valley College
Reading, Pennsylvania, United States
Formerly Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus before Jan 1, 2001
Renamed Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus on Dec 31, 2004
Middletown, Pennsylvania, United States
University Park, Pennsylvania, United States
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Former Institution Name
Philadelphia University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Renamed Thomas Jefferson University on May 1, 2017
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, United States
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
- Former Institution Name
Point Park College
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Renamed Point Park University on Dec 31, 2004
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Formerly Point Park College before Jan 1, 2005
Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, United States
Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, United States
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Formerly Philadelphia University before Jul 1, 2017
Villanova, Pennsylvania, United States
Chester, Pennsylvania, United States
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, United States
York, Pennsylvania, United States
What kind of engineering is he interested in? Does he know yet?
What sort of insight (for UMich, I assume)
Another factor you want to pay attention to is ETAM vs Direct Admit to Major. To S24, this is a more deciding factor comparing with project base vs theorical. Specially if your child wants to major in popular Engineering majors such as Mechanical, Aerospace, Biomedical and Computer. Good Luck.
I am not specifically asking about private or public. I am just wondering about schools in areas we are visiting for other reasons.
I am specifically looking for schools that don’t have a reputation for being project based so that we can visit and compare. Probably smaller schools because I feel like if we visit Olin and Penn State any difference in philosophy will be overwhelmed by the difference in size.
Civil.
18 for Civil. Btw Olin doesn’t offer Civil, at least looking through their webpage. Could Cooper Union be a sub ?
Not sure which side of the state. You might also look in Delaware, Maryland, NJ, NY, WV or Ohio depending where you’ll be.
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, United States
Easton, Pennsylvania, United States
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States
- Former Institution Name
Messiah College
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, United States
Renamed Messiah University on Jun 30, 2020
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, United States
Formerly Messiah College before Jul 1, 2020
Middletown, Pennsylvania, United States
University Park, Pennsylvania, United States
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, United States
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, United States
Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, United States
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Villanova, Pennsylvania, United States
Chester, Pennsylvania, United States
York, Pennsylvania, United States
For any school actually. At University of Chicago he wanted to know how math was taught when talking to the math department head. But be careful what you ask for. Lol. He didn’t notice the blackboard right next to him so the professor gave him a calculus problem right there and then on the chalk board. My son was in Calc 3 so he solved it but still… Totally wasn’t expecting that. Lol. He said he will be careful what he asks next time 
.
At Michigan where he went to he was actually applying to Actuarial Science but still wanted to pursue engineering. (how are 17 year olds supposed to know what they want to do? ).
So the head of the department told him about some merits that were not accounced yet and some positive changes in the program and how they were moving forward. Sorta the same with engineering department but they were switching to more CS training even for non cs engineering majors due to industry requests. Plus got a feel for the department as a whole. He enjoyed this so much more than all the rah, rah open house speeches that after you have been to a few of them are all the same. Plus.. Huge plus… It’s something you can add to your essays if you do this before you apply. Strong pro hint.
Thanks.
If it was Computer Engineering, I could speak to that re: at least one of the Ivies, but not Civil.
A more generic term is secondary admission; ETAM is a term specific to Texas A&M. How difficult secondary admission is to various majors depends on the school
But colleges usually do not advertise the existence of secondary admission that well to prospective students, although information can be found by digging around web pages mostly aimed at current students.
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Thank you. Learn something new every day. BTW, ETAM stands for “Entry to A Major”.
I don’t know how project based Northeastern is, but it was a good contrast to WPI for S23. NE felt very pre-professional and focused on internships as job placement while WPI focused on the PBL model of internships.
Very hands-on S23 immediately crossed off NE and WPI moved way up. They were very different in many ways so I can’t say if the contrast was all about PBL vs. theory. We also only took general tours, I’m not sure if he would have felt differently if we had a more personalized tour of NE.
We know kids that have graduated from both with good outcomes, but very different experiences while they were in school.
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At Penn State, they used to be math/physics first/Engineering second but have built a new facility and a new curriculum to go with it where students take Engineering design from the first semester.
Intro classes at UP are very large 300-400, and still in the hundreds junior year. The Honors versions are smaller but the Calc Honors class is really hardcore (proof based calc).
All students at UP are considered premajor. Getting to any major is selective but non competitive: for instance, you can’t major in Communication if you don’t pass Economics and English, you can’t major in Business if you don’t pass Economics, Calculus, Statistics, Accounting… and you can’t major in Engineering if you don’t pass Calculus, Engineering Design, and Physics 1. Then you need a minimum GPA, typically 2.6 for Engineering (including Civil), and up to 3.2 for some majors. However, if you take the required classes, pass them, and have the minimum GPA,you’re in, there’s no interview, second application, clubs&ECs to join, or holistic review.
(It’s not as formalized elsewhere but there’s no Engineering program that will let you major in Engineering if you can’t pass First year Physics and First year Calculus.)
Lafayette, Bucknell, etc. Would have smaller classes but it still means about 40 students, though all other classes would be smaller (15-20 in many cases for gen eds if he likes discussions).
Case is medium (a mix of 40 and 60-80 would be normal in core 1st year classes, but the numbers would typically drop by junior year.)
ETA: obviously communication but still informative
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We live in SE MI and know a mid-career UofM engineering alum who will not hire from UofM largely because the program focuses on theory rather than practical application. Instead, she recruits from Purdue.
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Let me be the first to say something bad about Case: the dorms are horrible. My son’s dorms freshman and sophomore years were built in the 1960s or 70s, and they looked like they had barely been maintained, much less renovated. On the plus side, the school just finished a large dorm, which looks quite nice.
Otherwise, my son is happy and doing well there. The campus is pretty nice, and it is in a good section of Cleveland near almost all the city’s cultural venues. They are flexible with double majors and minors, which was a big attraction (they let him take business classes to fill his humanities requirements so he will have a minor in businees without taking extra classes). Think of it as a down-market CMU.
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That is kind of the early versus late specialization in education that various educational systems choose between. Mostly, this comes up when choosing between schools (K-12 and college/university) in different countries (the US tends to have later specialization than in many other countries, so students can be undecided for longer and not have to guess their optimal path with less information earlier, but can extend the time and cost of education).
But it may be relevant in engineering programs in the following ways:
- Direct-admit-to-major programs can start major-specific course work earlier, although a student who changes major may have more “catch up” on major-specific course work to do.
- Where students are admitted undeclared but declare major later (typically second year), there may be constraints on how much major-specific course work can be required early.
- Where students have a secondary admission process to declare major based on common math and natural science course work, major-specific course work may only be available after passing the secondary admission process (or students may be too focused on competing for grades in the common math and natural science course work before secondary admission).
Great answer but I was just being rhetorical. Lol.