Help my nephew pick a college.

[sputnik]

My nephew is researching colleges. He is a cool kid and can probably get into any school he wants - national merit scholar, perfect grades, top AP credits, high SAT and ACT scores, etc. etc. He is also a musician, private pilot, and a good athlete (skiing, hockey, tennis).

He is interested in physics and robotics and wants to pursue an appropriate engineering degree. He already has a nice offer from Rensselaer. He's just starting his search. So far he's looking at Stanford, Harvey Mudd, MIT, Cal Tech, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, and Yale. He was also looking at my undergraduate school - I was touched but it wouldn't be a good fit for him. I'm suggesting that he also look at Princeton, Cornell, U of Illinois - Champaign/Urbana, and UC Berkeley. I think that it would be a privilege to go to any of these schools. I'm thinking that maybe a degree in Engineering Science might be a good choice. Also a small undergraduate school like Harvey Mudd might be a great choice for a quality undergraduate education.

I know that there are alot of hi- tech people here. Does anyone have any experience with these colleges or other suggestions? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[meuge]

I think that he should definitely add UC Berkeley to the list. I am not familiar with Harvey Mudd, but the usual suspects for engineering are all there - Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech...

[Tom Adams]

My advice, being an engineer, would be....

RUN FORREST RUN!!!!!!

Seriously though, while Engineering can garner you a decent starting salary, one can quickly top out unless you move into a management role or pursue a Masters/Doctorate. The PhD is nice, but really limits you. A Masters degree seems to provide more options.

Personally, if I had to do it all over, I'd have gone into the medical field.

If he's dead set on Engineering, have him look at Georgia Tech. It's a tough but very good school with excellent placement.

Good luck to your nephew. Sounds like good kid.

Tom

[rplace]

Look to the Big 10 schools! University of Michigan and Purdue. The winters suck in Michigan, but if he is a skier then there is snow. I might be a bit biased being a UofM grad, but it not a coincidence Michigan is one of the most expensive public schools, difficult to get into and often referred to as the "Harvard of public schools".

[Colin]

What state is he in?

Are his SATs high enough for a full ride?

1. He should pick 2-3 majors he loves

2. He should apply to 4 schools

3. He should pick the best 1-2 schools with those majors (Business Week and other magazines rate the schools). Most of the best undergraduate majors are at universities with graduate schools in the subject.

4. He should pick 1 school where he wants to live

5. He should pick 1 school in state

6. He should decide between the school he loves and the one that gives him the best deal

[sunnysal]

You´ve got a good list to start with, they are all top schools. I would add cornell and columbia, both have excellent engineering schools.

At that level it all really hinges on life style and major, where do you want to live during college and what do you think you want to focus on?

All the top schools have different ambiances and each can point out a few areas of strength. Columbia, for example is excellent for someone who wants to study in an urban environment with access to all the amenities of a big city, it also happens to be the best choice IMHO for operations research engineering. Each has its strengths and weakneeses from a personal point of view.

Have the student sit down and imagine an environment (urban, rural, suburban), size, potential areas for focus as a major and then narrow down choices based on that.

I have a very personal preference for a broad-based undergraduate education with the real focus coming only in grad school.

warm regards, tony

[sputnik]

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On 8/8/2005 9:32:37 AM Colin wrote:

What state is he in?

Are his SATs high enough for a full ride?

..........

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Thanks for the responses so far. He lives in South Dakota, so there aren't too many options there. His SATs are quite high but I don't know the exact score. On the basis of his National Merit status he already has been offered a full scholarship plus $15,000 per year at Rensselaer. Financing isn't really a problem anyway - his parents are well prepared for college expenses.

Normally, I'd advise a year or two at the College of Hard Knocks but in this case I think he should go for it while the iron is hot. Any other thoughts?

[colterphoto1]

All top names there. If I could throw my Dad's alma matter in the pile, how about Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana) for Engineering Degree? Don't know it's status nowdays, but it was a biggie in the 50's-70's. Neil Armstrong went there, can't be bad. I think Rplace mentioned it as well.

Michael

[Amy]

Purdue is still an excellent engineering school...a lot of our engineers at Klipsch have studied there.

[DRBILL]

A member of my family has bachelors and masters degrees from one of the most prestigious engineering schools in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />North America. The boy is ignorant. And it comes as no surprise. You should see his transcript. It is bereft of humanities. He attended an extremely rigorous and expensive trade school.

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Dont let that happen to your scholar. Equip him for life, not just for work. Send him to a top notch liberal arts university and have him major in math or one of the sciences. Make sure he gets a large dose of humanities and a language or two. There will still be time for him to gain his engineering credentials. It will be much easier for him because he will have learned the discipline of critical thinking.

For years, I sat on the Board of Trustees of The University of the South (better known as Sewanee) which is always mentioned in the top twenty-five liberal arts schools. It has alliances with several engineering schools to offer courses that essentially lop a year or more off of the engineering degree. Im sure that there are many other schools that have similar alliances. At least, encourage him to send for some catalogs.

DR BILL

[boomac]

Carnegie Mellon has a great engineering program and sports a small school atmosphere. It's also in a beautiful part of the country.

[wangdang]

He also sounds like a good candidate for one of the military academies.

[Woodog]

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On 8/8/2005 9:19:09 AM Tom Adams wrote:

My advice, being an engineer, would be....

RUN FORREST RUN!!!!!!

Seriously though, while Engineering can garner you a decent starting salary, one can quickly top out unless you move into a management role or pursue a Masters/Doctorate. The PhD is nice, but really limits you. A Masters degree seems to provide more options.

Personally, if I had to do it all over, I'd have gone into the medical field.

If he's dead set on Engineering, have him look at Georgia Tech. It's a tough but very good school with excellent placement.

Good luck to your nephew. Sounds like good kid.

Tom

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A very good friend of mine got his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech and his masters in Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley. Both are very fine schools. He now works for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Myself, I ran from the engineering field.

Forrest

[Bill H.]

Sput,

Have him look at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT). Ranked #1 in Newsweeks poll of top colleges!..... However, cost wise, he might be better off trying to stay closer to home..........take that into consideration when he's picking out him options/ scholarships.....ect.....

FYI- Carnegie Mellon is a great school, but they aren't big on giving out scholarships/or grants comparied to other schools. (my son went there)!. Good Luck.

[colterphoto1]

Gotta agree with DRBILL on the benefits of a well-rounded education. Make sure little Johnny can spell, read, balance a checkbook, have knowledge of arts as well as science. That will serve him better in the long run. (as merit scholar, he probably has most of these pretty well covered, just mentioning for the casual reader)

I know too many college-educated people who can't read aloud, speak to a group, keep personal finances, plan for the future, etc. But they have plenty of brainpower, good genes, massive incomes and fantastic careers. They are boorish, have no culture, are rude, and go through numerous divorces.

Just my .02, good wishes to the lad, whatever his chosen place of higher education.

Michael

[mandi]

Wangdang you hit it on the head. If interested in military and leadership, he should think about West Point, great well rounded education with a military leadership twist.

I also second Georgia Tech.

If it is a small school, how about Colorado school of mines. Good eng. program.

[updawg]

Virginia Tech is an awesome school for engineering, it's in the beautiful town of blacksburg and has one hell of a football team, most students are down to earth and the college experience there is top notch. Also engineering is a good foundation for law school, becoming a patent lawyer can earn you some big bucks!

[Tom Adams]

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On 8/8/2005 11:06:47 AM colterphoto1 wrote:

Gotta agree with DRBILL on the benefits of a well-rounded education. Make sure little Johnny can spell, read, balance a checkbook, have knowledge of arts as well as science. That will serve him better in the long run. (as merit scholar, he probably has most of these pretty well covered, just mentioning for the casual reader)

I know too many college-educated people who can't read aloud, speak to a group, keep personal finances, plan for the future, etc. But they have plenty of brainpower, good genes, massive incomes and fantastic careers. They are boorish, have no culture, are rude, and go through numerous divorces.

Just my .02, good wishes to the lad, whatever his chosen place of higher education.

Michael

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This is partly why my corporation partnered with Georgia Tech in the establishment of what is called G-Tech here in Savannah. The focus of the school is to provide not only technical book learning, but other in-field training similiar to what engineers go through in the UK and Germany. For folks accepted into the Electrical/Avionics engineering program, Gulfstream (who I work for) pays their way, provides OJT, and guarantees them a job upon graduating. While working here, they get additional training in project management, presentations, and the like. The goal is a well rounded engineer that can hit the ground running, yet has a very versatile skill set which allows him to assume various roles and not be pigeoned holed.

Another option might be a school like the Savannah College of Art and Design. They have an very broad array of studies from pure art to very technical CGI. Anyone who's in the know about art & design schools will tell you that SCAD ranks as one of the best in the world. And that's no hype.

Tom

[TBrennan]

At Illinois the engineering school gets everything, or so my Liberal Arts daughters complained. They recently built a new engineering library that takes up an entire block.

Kids come from all over the world to take engineering at Illinois as is evidenced by the dorm known as "Tokyo Towers".

And Urbana is ony a couple of hours from Chicago so you can run up for an Italian beef sandwich or a corned-beef and pastrami rueben at Manny's.

How's Wisconsin for engineering? Madison is a great town.

[meuge]

I would like to note, however, that when choosing colleges your nephew does not forget that the school's name is an important factor. Ivy League schools, as well as MIT and Cal Tech are universally recognized around the world. In the long run, it'll help with graduate school admissions.