Which college for Mechanical Engineering?

College Search & Lists
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Assume the cost is about the same for all after merit except WPI. I am OOS to all.
Purdue Honors, Ohio Honors, Maryland, WPI (cost is 10k more), Northeastern

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These are all similarly excellent schools. Congratulations! Have you visited? Which campus and program do you like best? Do you like the big, spirited environment of Purdue, Ohio, and Maryland? Urban setting of Northeastern? Small school, compact campus at WPI? Do you want to spend four years in the northeast or midwest?

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Boiler up!

JK
 as noted, what are you looking for? You can’t go wrong with any of these schools but they do have different vibes.

NE is co-op mandatory
Purdue is co-op optional but has a well supported program
Not sure of how co-ops work at the other schools or how popular they are.

My D applied to Purdue and UMD, and visited OSU. She wasn’t an OSU fan - felt too big to her so she didn’t apply.

Purdue and UMD have similar vibes but campuses are very different. Are you in honors or scholars at UMD?

WPI seems to be the outlier on your list in terms of size and feel.

I’d spend some time attending the webinars for accepted students (Purdue will have many, not sure about the other schools), reading the social media pages, trying to connect with students, reading the school newspapers, etc


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For engineering, Purdue might be the school to beat here. Nonetheless, I can see value in your strongly considering your other options as well based on personal preferences you may have. In any case, Purdue should make your final two, in my opinion.

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I like Purdue, a lot, but it’s just not that clear cut.

I’d kick Ohio to the curb. I’d probably do the same for Northeastern, because Purdue has a vibrant coop program, but it isn’t mandatory. There’s flexibility. That is unless you want to be in Boston.

Then it’s a tossup between UMD and Purdue based on intangibles for good, big state schools.

The big question is where does WPI fit in on both style and budget. It’s completely different than the rest. In fact, it’s pretty unique among all engineering programs. For better or worse, the terms are very short, 7 weeks. A lot of the lab experience is replaced by team qualifying projects, giving great applied experience. No one does study abroad as well as WPI for engineering either. They have projects all over the world that they drop students into. It’s much, much smaller than the rest.

For me personally it would come down to Purdue and WPI based on stylistic preferences. They are both good, but the experience will be very different.

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I absolutely loved the Purdue campus and I felt like I belonged there. I live very close to NEU and WPI. I did not get honors at UMD. Just Ohio and Purdue. I am actually deferred at NEU.
I love the idea of Purdue coop as the honors college. The Ambassadors on my tour of the Honors College sold me on it. The only negative about Purdue is distance from home and super worried about the ability to get ME 2nd year. I have no idea how difficult it is to get at least a 3.2 in college. I need to set up an appointment with an advisor to figure out which classes I should skip based on my AP tests.
I loved WPI initially but I am kind of turned off by all the required humanities class. It was also just really small. So many kids from my high school will be going there and I kind of want to get away.

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It sounds like you have a decision
go to Purdue. You’ll very likely get ME. You’ll also take plenty of humanities classes. It’s an ABET requirement. Good luck and congrats!

Get the syllabi and old test from classes you’re considering passing over. If you’re terrible on the tests, retake. Breeze through, move ahead. Rusty, spend some time on Kahn this summer, and move ahead.

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8

Now throw Georgia tech in the mix :slight_smile:

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Congrats on the GT acceptance, but why is it in the mix if the above is true? There’s always a certain amount of FOMO when you turn down schools, but if you’ve found a place where you feel like you belong, and you can afford it, the quest is really over.

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I have never been to GT. I need to see the campus. I was told it would be a very small chance I would be admitted.

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Good call. :+1:

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D was accepted to Purdue and MD, visited both, and did plenty of research. Purdue was the easy choice for her. She graduated MechE in May and is now in a great job at a F200 company.

After visits, it was clear that it was just right for her. Do the same research, visit if at all possible, and find what’s right. Everyone is different.

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13

You have to check out GT! The campus is beautiful - lots of green spaces and cool architecture. Not too big, not too small. Atlanta is right there and so accessible, but the campus itself is contained and seems a world away from the city when you’re on it.

The academics, industry connections, and availability of internships, co-ops, and jobs are all top notch. Check out the rankings for the major your’re interested in. They are #1 for several engineering majors.

You can still apply to the Honors LLC if you’re looking for that, too!

Also - we live in NJ, and flights in and out of Atlanta are incredibly cheap ($80 round trip), and when you get to the Atlanta airport, you can take the MARTA(subway) from the airport to right outside of campus for $3. It’s incredibly convenient - about five hours door-to-door from NJ.

There’s so much to do and the student body is so enthusiastic about everything - they have such great spirit and pride in the school - so many cool traditions and fun activities.

If you do go down for a tour, try and find a student in your selected major to show you around outside of the ‘official’ tour. You can ask on Reddit or the Facebook parents page. You’ll learn a lot from the ‘unofficial’ version :slight_smile:

Good luck with your decision!

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If you can, go check out GT. It is very different than Purdue, but may spark something else.

Especially if accepted into the major you want.

The 3.2 first year to get into your major makes me a little nervous at Purdue. Freshman year is a hard transition and you do not need that stress. If you have AP credits that let you move ahead, that is great, but it also means you are taking harder or at least more advanced classes than some of your peers.

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In general these things scare me too, but at Purdue it’s more bark than bite. Over 90% get their first choice.

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That is reassuring! It would be interesting to look at the grades and those who complete degrees in engineering - those trying to transfer into engineering major with a hyper focus v. those initially in their engineering major wondering what they got themselves into :slight_smile:

I know several who worked hard to get in once there and more than a few that graduated in non-STEM majors.

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I heard GT is super hard too. I know a few people who did not make it and transferred out.

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But the percentage may be lower for those requesting majors with capacity limitations (“currently AAE, BME, MDE, and ME”), as opposed to probably 100% for those not falling below C/2.0 and requesting majors which are not capacity-limited.

A student interested in ME may want to ask Purdue engineering directory what admission to ME from FYE is like in terms of college GPA and other factors.

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Both Purdue and GT are very tough schools. GT has a more grind attitude. Talk to students that are there at both to get a sense. If your smart enough to get into these great honor programs then your smart enough to know that you will study and work much harder then your doing now. With like minded in study groups you will be fine.

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