Schools like Cal Poly SLO?

eyemgh
Sat, 11 Nov 2017 18:10:00 +0000

WPI does is more differently that any school out there.

Cal Poly has laboratories for everything. The ME fluids lab has 5 wind tunnels and Aero has its own fluids lab that includes a Mach speed tunnel. That’s not so uncommon, but others like the vibrations lab and the rotational dynamics lab are semi-unique. Vibrations at most schools is just a math class because they don’t have the facilities to see it in practice. They also have extensive machine shop and lab space that does nothing but support individual and club projects. All of the clubs and all of the MS level research (they don’t offer PhD) is student driven. All in all, there are more than 80 laboratories in the College of Engineering alone. That’s their “doing” angle.

WPI has a project based curriculum. Most schools have a capstone project, but WPI also has one during junior year and even one freshman year of a student chooses that option. Unlike the Senior Project or Capstone at most schools that is important, but just pasted on at the end of it all, WPI uses the projects as vehicles for learning. Poly uses labs that function as stand alone test experiments, WPI has projects that incorporate the lecture material students are working on at the time into a unifying thing. Instead of thermo lab, dynamics lab, etc. WPI incorporates that into a single thing, like say a CubeSat or a robot with a unique function or a solar trashcan.

WPI is also completely unique when it comes to study abroad. At most schools you can only take GEs while abroad. At a few, if you’re lucky, you can take tech classes. At WPI students go and do meaningful work on an ongoing project. It’s more like an internship, but one that could be remote from MA in the US or in Venice or South America.

I can’t think of a school that takes “practical” to the level that WPI does. It’s a great little school in a great location. Students all seemed very happy when we visited.

The knock against “practical” schools like Cal Poly, Olin and WPI is that they are lacking in theory. I can’t speak for the others, but I have not seen that in my son’s experience at CP. MEs take the same math that math majors take through Linear Algebra. There’s no softer, this s good enough, non-proof based engineering sequence for math. He’ll even take courses in Advanced Numerical Methods and Tensor Calculus before he finishes. Nothing I’ve seen leads me to believe they skimp on theory. My experience is limited though with n=1.

Good luck in your quest!