Tufts, Penn State or Illinois for engineering?

mobius911
Sun, 05 Feb 2017 17:07:07 +0000

There’s been a fair amount of discussion in the past 20 years (or more) on how to do a better job with undergraduate engineering. The traditional building block approach has students take foundational math and science classes during the first two yeas, then integrate that learning into engineering classes the last 2 years. This often creates a soul-destroying slog the first 2 years. which are devoid of the things like design and innovation that inspired the kids to pursue engineering in the first place. The result is burnout and high transfer rates to non-engineering majors.

UIUC has made a concerted effort to “re-engineer” engineering education, including adopting some of the courses and methodologies at Olin College. I learned about UIUC’s efforts through my daughter’s interest in Olin, so I’m no expert, but It’s worth checking out how each of the schools is approaching this.