Hello! I am currently way early into my college selection process as I am a junior, but I can’t stop thinking about which out of WPI and Clark I should ED to.
For some background, I am extremely interested in pursuing a career in film creature animatronics and props (special effects). I have had multiple internships and volunteering opportunities in STEM educational programs. I’m also one of the leaders of my FRC team, having put over 250+ hours this season. I’ve been making my own fully-functional BB-8 droid for the past two years and love making props.
Clark offers the 3-2 engineering program at Columbia where i’d do Mechanical Engineering and then major in some art program. WPI then offers Mechanical Engineering with no art-related classes involved in their program.
For one, I’ve heard that WPI has a stress heavy curriculum while Clark’s program is a little bit laxer, especially since their classes have usually 20ish people.
I’d like to gauge your opinion on which one I should consider EDing to.
WPI does not have ED, just EA. WPI does require humanities and art is an option. The curriculum is quite creative. Also, there are a LOT of FIRST alum there. Have you considered robotics engineering as a path to animatronics? You will build robots in your first year as part of your courses if you take or even try out Robotics engineering (RBE)
Why limit yourself to these two? Have you considered Cooper Union in NYC? Somewhere else to throw into the mix might be Olin College of Engineering in Needham.
It’s not that I want to limit myself persay, but these schools that you listed are definitely reaches for me. My weighted GPA is a 3.6 and I frankly am just god awful at the ACT so I am going to take the test and get over with it.
It is easy to double major at WPI - for robotics the easy double options are mechanical, electrical computer, or computer science as the robotics major is a combination of these 3 areas. We are big Disney fans & animatronics is robotics more than just mechanical.
I do appreciate that perspective! I have heard from others that the course rigor is quite difficult although you said it was easy. And are you saying you’d recommend doing robotics engineering instead of double majoring, correct?
As a general rule I don’t like the 3/2 programs. Here are a few reasons.
–It can be very difficult to meet the requirements to do the transfer. Be sure you understand exactly what courses have to be taken, what GPA has to be met etc. to make the switch to Columbia for the engineering portion of the program.
–Many people decide they are very happy at their first school and want to graduate with their class so don’t pursue the transfer to the engineering portion of the 3/2 program.
–You would need to pay an extra year of tuition/room/board for a BS degree. How will you finance that fifth year? Are you sure what the finances would look like for the last two years at a different college?
–In general it can be difficult to transfer. Most social connections are made freshman year, you would be walking into a new school with different expectations after 3 years as an undergrad when most of your peers would already be settled in. It can be done but it is not easy.
–Columbia in particular has a very large core curriculum. I imagine you would need to meet all of the requirements for graduation so it is something to be aware of.
It sounds like there might be other schools that may better fit what you want. Perhaps RIT is worth a look?
That’s a very fresh perspective, and that has definitely swayed me towards WPI. The main reason why I was hesitant at first was not that I disliked the program, in fact, I really liked WPI’s program. My main concern was the social scene. I am not a party or greek life person at all. Of course, I don’t have to participate at all, but just a thought. Also, considering its focus is STEM, I’ve heard that I would not be getting as much career diversity other than STEM.
I do recognize that WPI is only like a 5 min drive from Clark. So if I really wanted to socialize elsewhere, I could do it at Clark
You could do a double major of Robotics engineering and Mechanical engineering. Many students do double majors and still graduate in 4 years.
I would say it is challenging but definitely doable. WPI is not a weed out college and there are many supports in place and the expectation that students engage with their faculty and and TAs. Most if not all classes are taught by PhD professors, the TAs are support, not primary instructors.
If you’re worried about a four-year engineering program at WPI being too intense, cramming all of the engineering into the last two years of a 3:2 program is not a good solution. (In addition to the other downsides of 3:2 that were already cited above.)
Go somewhere that you can spread the STEM content out over 4 years (or possibly more if a dual degree), and combine it with the art and animation stuff. WPI is probably not a bad choice for this, especially given the Robotics major, but RIT might be better since they have a whole college of art and design with a wide variety of specialties. At RIT, you could combine art with engineering, but you could also do a relatively technical art major without a full-blown engineering degree, if you decided against the STEM-intensity of an engineering major. (There’s also a Robotics minor at RIT, but I’m not clear as to whether it’s open to non-engineers.) Clark, to me, seems worst of both worlds since you couldn’t pursue either of your areas of focus to the fullest extent through Clark’s programs alone. (They do have a studio art major, but it leans more toward traditional media than toward tech-related.)
Drexel could also be worth a look. And potentially VCU. (For example, the Sculpture major at VCUArts includes robotics and 3D digital modeling as potential areas of focus… and there are other majors like Kinetic Imaging… and VCU has a full-blown engineering school as well.)
But on the whole, look for somewhere that you could complete your whole degree program, without transferring, and have room to refine your focus as you experience what the different types of coursework are like.
I did a little more digging and found some other opinions. Some people say that double majoring in Mechanical and Robotics Engineering is one solution and others say that it would be better to BS/MS in just Mechanical.
What are your thoughts on the difference between these two options?
I think it’s nice to have both options. If both are available, it’s probably not something you need to decide up-front, since the foundational coursework will be the same either way and you’ll have a lot more insight once you’ve gotten your feet wet.
With a weighted gpa of 3.6 WPI should be considered a reach. Clark would likely give some good merit for that gpa, but I agree with a previous poster that the 3:2 engineering programs are not ideal.
Are you local to WPI/Clark and not wanting to venture farther away? I agree that WPI is pretty reachy for a weighted 3.6.
What about UMass Lowell? It’s an up-and-coming STEM school (with a robotics minor in addition to the mainstream engineering/CS majors) that also has art BFA and minor programs with concentrations appropriate to your interests (animation/interactive media, etc).
(As mentioned before, if you’re willing to go farther from MA, VCU and Drexel could be great targets; RIT is a little tougher to get into but same ballpark as WPI I believe.)
A weighted GPA of 3.6 is not the same as an unweighted GPA. The average unweighted GPA of the last few years has been 3.89 with the weighted somewhere above 4. Make sure you know which ranking system you are dealing with when you are using comparisons with prior applicants. RIT may be a good option to keep in mind.
Great to hear that WPI now has ED! Thanks for the news!
I agree with “happy1” (#7 above) regrading 3/2 programs.
Robotics at WPI has very solid job placement. It is not necessary to have an ME degree based on recent history, but Corona virus could impact that. If so, the cost effective BS/MS program could also be an option. It is a cost effective option with the challenges our economy may be facing. You can also double major in other related fields such as CS and EE.