Sorry if this is the wrong forum to ask this in. I’ve expressed interests in biology, psych, and neuroscience on all of my college profile lists (like on Cappex and other sites that hold that information that colleges use to find you) but I get emails and brochures from places like Georgia Tech or Renssaeler Polytechnic. Someone told me that schools with “tech” names are generally for engineering-related fields. If that’s true, I don’t know why these schools would be contacting me, so I feel like there’s more to them. I Googled it and was confused, to be honest. Can someone please explain? I feel like knowing would open me up to other possible schools that might be a good fit.
Georgia Tech and RPI don’t exclusively offer engineering. They have plenty of other majors (chemistry for instance, is fantastic at GTech) although they are arguably best known for their engineering programs.
I wouldn’t read too much into a school contacting you. When I applied to college, a number of evangelical Christian schools sent me emails and brochures. Clearly they needed new marketing teams because they spent money targeting a non religious Jew.
Technical or Polytechnic schools likely specialized in technology, engineering, and possibly natural sciences when they were first founded. Over time, most have expanded their scope, but they still tend to be dominated by STEM/Engineering programs. For example, Georgia Tech now has six colleges, including a highly ranked college of business and a liberal arts college.
A hundred years ago, college was mainly to educate the wealthy in art, literature, philosophy and history. Technical colleges popped up to educate the working class in the technical aspects of practical fields. The names persist - what they teach has changed with the changing world.
By the way, RPI “popped up” in 1824, much more than 100 years ago.
I have applied to mostly tech schools, and I can totally see why they would contact you. They are not just engineering, but lots of basic science and other more practical applications, and a lot of mixed or hybrid majors like biochemistry, bioengineering, etc (I think that’s actually where a lot of activity is in biology right now). My sister is a psych major (going to grad school now) and that sort of bridges the science/humanities.
I guess if I had to explain the difference, the tech schools are science (which is what you want to do) and technology. The other schools are often humanities and business. Honestly, I think you’d be better off at a tech school if you want a BS or MS to go into industry.