Small engineering school for a fairly decent student

Sijit22
Sat, 08 Feb 2014 03:37:03 +0000

Hi! I went to undergrad at Purdue, obviously a larger school, but I studied aero, which is a pretty male dominated major. And the truth is: you get all kinds. Yes, there’s the traditional masculine, frat guy type, but I’d say general geekiness prevails.

I don’t know all your reasons for wanting to go to a small school, but it might be worth it to think about what you have against a big school. At my school, people were often insulated by major (and aeros were probably the worst for this), so even though there were lots of people and a large campus, I didn’t get that “lost in the crowds” feeling. Also, there’s a lot more activities to chose from. And a larger school typically means wider variety of majors, so the gender ratio thing tends to be a little less obvious.

When my sister was in senior year of HS, she swore up and down she wanted a small LAC in the city. She’d make fun of me for my “in the middle of a cornfield” school (not an unfair description I suppose). Not a month after she started attending a small school in Chicago, she started complaining. She’d come to visit me every weekend pretty much and she loved being at my school.

The point of my anecdote really is just to say that it’s important to to a.) get a feel for each of the schools you’re interested in and b.) not make assumptions about what you won’t like.

That being said, if you’ve looked at large schools and didn’t like the atmosphere, I think the suggestions on this thread (Harvey Mudd, Rice, etc.) are excellent.