The search begins today; it's my son's search for the perfect engineering college, but he gave me permission to blog about the process from a parent's perspective. If you, my blog readers, respond positively, I'll make this a regular feature of eContent.
- The candidate ... my youngest son, Erik
- High school junior (ACS pre-engineering program)
- 3.8 GPA
- Programs to a varying degree in C, C++, JAVA
- Uses Solidworks
- Five year veteran of S.N.I.P (Super Nerds In Pink)
- YouTube Video Creator:
Cyrus, the Cat, Versus the Lego Synchro Drive Robot
Here are the schools on the early target list:
And now my first comments ... these schools were chosen for a variety of reasons.
Post Update / Insert: see the final post from this series ... Erik is about to graduate from college and has a great full time engineering job offer in hand!
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) made the list because Erik learned via the Lego Mindstorms NXT Blog of their new robotics degree. It shows that smart schools get themselves listed on "non traditional web sites"
- Carnegie Mellon already messed up with many of Minnesota's top engineering students. I know of many families who wanted to visit Carnegie Mellon this week (Spring break). Their admissions department told each family they only wanted to see admitted seniors during the entire month of April ... high school juniors stay away. Given the distance to visit CMU (1,000 miles), using a vacation week is necessary. We had planned on visiting CMU this week. Not!
- Michigan Tech ... the perfect combination of Lake Superior, cross-country skiing, wilderness and engineering?? (not many girls, however).
- Valparaiso ... a nice sized Lutheran college with an engineering degree
Oh yes ... Super 8 motels are clean, inexpensive, and have free wireless at all locations! Off to our morning appointment at Valpo!
The Search Continues - The Second Post in this Series!
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Did you look into University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. One of top Engineering Programs in the country and one of top CS programs as well. Great facilities and very affordable compared to other universities. Also, lots of research money so it's easy to get assistantships.
Posted by: a sanchez | April 09, 2007 at 09:41 AM
Have you considered Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (CA)? It is one of the best engineering schools on the west coast, and their motto is Learn By Doing. They take their motto to heart, as my husband can attest with the number of lab classes he was in for his mechanical engineering degree. Engineers from Cal Poly are often in demand because of all of their practical experience.
It's a public school, so even out-of-state tuition shouldn't be too bad.
Posted by: Keri Morgret | April 05, 2007 at 12:45 PM
This might seem random, I wandered onto your blog while googling "engineering wilderness school". Your son should take a look at Olin College. It's a new engineering school in Needham, MA right outside of Boston. It has an innovative project-based curriculum, is the only engineering school I know of with gender balance, and offers every accepted student a full-tuition scholarship. I'm a freshman there so feel free to email me for more information.
Posted by: Casey Canfield | April 04, 2007 at 03:10 PM