Need help choosing a university!!!

[jai6638]

Hey!

Need to decide on a undergrad university. I'm really confused atm and need help deciding.. I plan to major in mechanical engineering ( I might switch to business if I dont like engineering so I want to kepe that option open ) .. I have shortlisted my acceptances to the following:

1) University of Michigan:

Has a great program and reputation. However, I just feel that its too spread out and is not "cosy" due to its huge campus.. Even though the food is great in Ann Arbor, I'm not sure since transferring to Ross might be hard in sophomore year since admission is competitive. On the other hand, if I do wanna switch between programs, they are all in the top 10... The students who go to Michigan seem to be coming from great schools and with great backgrounds ( found a few fellow Indians coming from prestigious schools back home )

2) Northeastern Honors Program ( $10k/yr scholarship )

Great urban setting and actually has a campus enclosed within the city... The Co-Op program is great and gives me real world experienec exposing me to Engineering and allowing me to find out if the field of engineering is actually for me.. Its in the city of Boston which I like very much. Not sure about the students at NU. Since its not as competitive as Michigan, the students might not be as diverse, intellectual,etc relatively speaking. The scholarship money is a nice bonus and reduces the financial burden to a certain extent. Cost is not a major factor though so thats not my primary filter.


3) Penn State Schreyers Honors College ($3.5k/year scholarsrhip ) :

Big state school with a relatively diverse campus. Well ranked programs are a big plus. Problem is that its location in the middle of Pa's farmlands is not very attractive... Its not very close to a major city and does not seem to be as good as Ann Arbor from a collegetown standpoint. However, the Schreyers honors program seems to be really great from what I hear with small classes of not more than 30 students... Also, they are offering a $3500/yr sfcholarship

Please Help!!

 

[minime72706]

I am just finishing my first year at Northeastern as a mechanical engineer and I absolutely love it. Having an actual campus is really nice, and the farthest walk being like 5 minutes is awesome. I found that the students don't fit the typical engineer stereotype, there not as nerdy as I would have thought, which is kind of nice, but most of them are still very smart. Of course co-op is the big draw, I haven't started that yet, but my friends who have like it a lot. A few of them have offers pending approval of security clearances, which is kind of cool. My friends in business like that program so far, and its a very good program, even though they laugh at the engineers for having to do actual work. I can't say anything about the other schools, but everyone I meet at NU like it.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Wha state do you live in now? Consider Purdue?

 

[aswedc]

From a purely academic standpoint, there's just no reason to choose Northeastern. Even with the scholarship, that's going to come in about the same as Penn State assuming you're an out of state student.

What you want out of your college experience? Because having gone to both urban schools and true college towns, I can tell you there is an enormous difference. At Northeastern, you're going to be living in Boston and going to school at Northeastern. At Penn State (and I'd assume Michigan, although I'm not close to anyone who goes there) you live at Penn State. Your life is Penn State. Period. There's obviously benefits and drawbacks to both.

What are your specific concerns about State College? I can try to answer any questions you have about the town.

 

[jai6638]

I live in Connecticut now... Got into Purdue but not sure if I wanna go to Indiana *cough*.

Hey minime, do you think the courses are challenging? I took an online economics course at northeastern and it was pathetic to say the least. I got an easy A and I dont think I learnt much so not sure if thats representative of the school??? Also, what is your biggest class in freshman year?

Aswedc, what would penn state stdents do over the weekend? The fact that State College is in the boonies is a concern.. ..

he thing that really attracts me towards Michigan are 1) highly ranked program 2) prestige 3) the employment opportunities after graduating from Michigan...However, the campus and the fact that its in the midwest, in general does not appeal. I'm not sure if compromising on this for a good education is a good idea or not. After all, while college atmosphere is important, going to college is primarily to get a good education .. not sure

Any advice? Would I get the same opportunities from Penn State/Nu?


thanks a lot for your help guys.. Truly appreciate it!

 

[xanis]

Even with the scholarships, the tuitions should be roughly the same. Go visit each of the schools and see which one you like best. Penn State is an experience in and of itself. Last I checked there are ~37,500 students up there. The place is basically a small city in the middle of nowhere. If you're considering Penn State, then you might as well look at Drexel. It's in Philly, but Drexel has an excellent and reputed engineering program.

 

[evident]

Originally posted by: Xanis
Even with the scholarships, the tuitions should be roughly the same. Go visit each of the schools and see which one you like best. Penn State is an experience in and of itself. Last I checked there are ~37,500 students up there. The place is basically a small city in the middle of nowhere. If you're considering Penn State, then you might as well look at Drexel. It's in Philly, but Drexel has an excellent and reputed engineering program.

While Drexel may have a decent engineering program, the campus is not pretty at all, it's basically a city block. I've heard horror stories about the majority of the engineering professors there not being able to speak english well either.

Personally I had to choose between Villanova or Drexel to go to for computer engineering, I'm at nova right now and it has a stellar and underrated engineering school. It is very reputable and the people are I am really glad that i chose it over drexel. It's got enough extracurriculars for you to do outside of your coursework so you don't go insane and kill yourself, and Philadelphia is just a 15 minute train ride away.
There are about 80-100 mechanical engineering students each year, so the school is small, and the classes don't get any bigger than 20 students. Your peers aren't out to get you, so everyone is always tutoring each other and helping each other out academic-wise.

The atmosphere caters to learning and the people here are very friendly. It's also a cozy (to use your words), beautiful campus with alot of girls (which you will NEVER see at drexel It will be a little bit pricey if you don't get grants or scholarships though. most importantly, the networking that can be done at this school is phenomenal. if you play your cards right, you may not even have to go to a career fair to land a job.

Out of your three choices though, I think Penn state would be the best bang for your buck, if that's what you're concerned about.
Penn state is a hardcore party school, if you know how to balance your work and your play, it's also a decent place to go to as well

 

[rocadelpunk]

I would go with that school up north.

 

[Gibson486]

I am just about to graduate from Northeastern as an EE. Truthfully, if they had no coop program, that school would suck. That said, i really did enjoy my time there.

 

[Parasitic]

If you want competitive, go to Michigan. I'd say classes and peers are going to be cutthroat.
At least that's what it's like here in Berkeley.

One important thing about college is your peers. At Michigan most of people around you are going to be the top 10% of their class, possibly even top 1-5%. These are the people who will go on and do great things, whether it be the industry or academia.

While from time to time I did wish I'd chosen a smaller school with a more intimate setting, I still believe that unless you're 100% dedicated to what you want to do (i.e. having your mind set on med school since the day you came out of your mother's womb), you should go to a big school with tons of majors and opportunities.

edit: leave the specialties later. You have four to five years of undergrad to figure out what you really want to do, then grad school to do what you really should be doing.

 

[aswedc]

On the weekends 30,000 people leave the campus and go to town. As you can probably imagine, it gets busy.

Every couple seconds you'll pass someone on the sidewalk that's a student. Every store or restaurant is filled with students. Every house or apartment has students having parties. You can literally attend more than a dozen parties in a night just by following random people around. That's not something you're going to experience in a city.

There's going to be drinking, more drinking, and drinking games (and damn are they fun). The cops will turn a blind eye and ignore the crowds of fifteen freshmen walking into a frat to get wasted. They'll also ignore people dumping beer off their balconies, as long as it doesn't get too serious.

I'm not going to play around here like university PR will and tell you activities other than drinking are popular. Cause they're not. Sure, you can do other stuff, but if that's what you're looking for what the hell are you doing in the middle of nowhere? Get to a city where those other activities will be that much better.

 

[aswedc]

Oh, I forgot something very important. Football Saturdays in the fall. There is nothing like rockin in the student section with everyone on their feet screaming at the opponent's offense, doing the We Are chant, and 100,000 other students and alumni in the house. Professional sports in the US can't even come close. Even if you don't end up going to a big time football college like Penn State or Michigan, you have to make it to a game.

 

[SirStev0]

Originally posted by: jai6638
Hey!

Need to decide on a undergrad university. I'm really confused atm and need help deciding.. I plan to major in mechanical engineering ( I might switch to business if I dont like engineering so I want to kepe that option open ) .. I have shortlisted my acceptances to the following:

1) University of Michigan:

Has a great program and reputation. However, I just feel that its too spread out and is not "cosy" due to its huge campus.. Even though the food is great in Ann Arbor, I'm not sure since transferring to Ross might be hard in sophomore year since admission is competitive. On the other hand, if I do wanna switch between programs, they are all in the top 10... The students who go to Michigan seem to be coming from great schools and with great backgrounds ( found a few fellow Indians coming from prestigious schools back home )

2) Northeastern Honors Program ( $10k/yr scholarship )

Great urban setting and actually has a campus enclosed within the city... The Co-Op program is great and gives me real world experienec exposing me to Engineering and allowing me to find out if the field of engineering is actually for me.. Its in the city of Boston which I like very much. Not sure about the students at NU. Since its not as competitive as Michigan, the students might not be as diverse, intellectual,etc relatively speaking. The scholarship money is a nice bonus and reduces the financial burden to a certain extent. Cost is not a major factor though so thats not my primary filter.


3) Penn State Schreyers Honors College ($3.5k/year scholarsrhip ) :

Big state school with a relatively diverse campus. Well ranked programs are a big plus. Problem is that its location in the middle of Pa's farmlands is not very attractive... Its not very close to a major city and does not seem to be as good as Ann Arbor from a collegetown standpoint. However, the Schreyers honors program seems to be really great from what I hear with small classes of not more than 30 students... Also, they are offering a $3500/yr sfcholarship

Please Help!!

I am a senior at Penn State. PM me for some more info if you want. Oh, and sorry but you are very off about PSU. We aren't diverse (compared to other schools) and we are ranked pretty high is some things. We aren't by a major town; we are a major town. If you want a party school, Penn State is probably the best college town around. I've been out in Ann Arbor, it is nothing. Penn State is massive. We have 400000 undergrads and in my science classes (a majority of what I take, I'm premed) we have usually about 75 kids. My intro chem classes were over 200, and I have had no class with under 50 students in a class except non-science. I know a lot of honors kids and I have been in classes that had honors kids (they usually had to give a lame presentation at the end of the semester to get their "H'). I'll give you the run down in PM if you want. If you are out of state, that 3500 will mean absolutely nothing.
One more thing. Chad Henne is a traitorous sellout, also there is a nasty story that he caught the HIV, hence running off to Michigan to keep it a secret.

 

[SirStev0]

Also, I can PM you more anti-Michigan propaganda. Also any other Big Ten schools. Did I mention we have a football team?

 

[jai6638]

hmm gotta think about it... Its between Penn State and NU now since I just didnt like Michigan's campus /location at all.. Also, the whole "competitive" atmosphere doesnt help since if I find out that I dont like Engineering, the low grades would really screw my chances of getting into Ross!

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: evident

Originally posted by: Xanis
Even with the scholarships, the tuitions should be roughly the same. Go visit each of the schools and see which one you like best. Penn State is an experience in and of itself. Last I checked there are ~37,500 students up there. The place is basically a small city in the middle of nowhere. If you're considering Penn State, then you might as well look at Drexel. It's in Philly, but Drexel has an excellent and reputed engineering program.

While Drexel may have a decent engineering program, the campus is not pretty at all, it's basically a city block. I've heard horror stories about the majority of the engineering professors there not being able to speak english well either.

Personally I had to choose between Villanova or Drexel to go to for computer engineering, I'm at nova right now and it has a stellar and underrated engineering school. It is very reputable and the people are I am really glad that i chose it over drexel. It's got enough extracurriculars for you to do outside of your coursework so you don't go insane and kill yourself, and Philadelphia is just a 15 minute train ride away.
There are about 80-100 mechanical engineering students each year, so the school is small, and the classes don't get any bigger than 20 students. Your peers aren't out to get you, so everyone is always tutoring each other and helping each other out academic-wise.

The atmosphere caters to learning and the people here are very friendly. It's also a cozy (to use your words), beautiful campus with alot of girls (which you will NEVER see at drexel It will be a little bit pricey if you don't get grants or scholarships though. most importantly, the networking that can be done at this school is phenomenal. if you play your cards right, you may not even have to go to a career fair to land a job.

Out of your three choices though, I think Penn state would be the best bang for your buck, if that's what you're concerned about.
Penn state is a hardcore party school, if you know how to balance your work and your play, it's also a decent place to go to as well

do not be bustin my campus, we're the #1 ugliest in the nation, booya!!!

i'm a current student at drexel (though on co-op), but the city look doesn't bother me at all. and by city, i MEAN city, not like Upenn glorified city, but "heart of a major city" city. i like it and can't wait to get back to engineering. I'm not sure about are mechanical engineering program, I imagine it's pretty good - but we have one of the top materials engineering programs in the nation (in the top 50 i think).

<--- materials science and engineering major

edit - i've seen some engineering hotties (they do exist, believe or not) and during the summer, all the CoMAD (college of media, arts, design) students are back = high concentration of females

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: Parasitic
If you want competitive, go to Michigan. I'd say classes and peers are going to be cutthroat.
At least that's what it's like here in Berkeley.

One important thing about college is your peers. At Michigan most of people around you are going to be the top 10% of their class, possibly even top 1-5%. These are the people who will go on and do great things, whether it be the industry or academia.

While from time to time I did wish I'd chosen a smaller school with a more intimate setting, I still believe that unless you're 100% dedicated to what you want to do (i.e. having your mind set on med school since the day you came out of your mother's womb), you should go to a big school with tons of majors and opportunities.

edit: leave the specialties later. You have four to five years of undergrad to figure out what you really want to do, then grad school to do what you really should be doing.

Berkeley is cutthroat if you're an MCB major that wants to go into Pre-Med. IT's also cutthroat when you're a pre-Haashole. It's not so much cutthroat when you're an engineer, although its still competitive. Any other major, don't even come to talk to me about being cutthroat.

I take Michigan. The best thing I did for myself was to go to Cal. Big schools rock.

Also as an Asian, it's all about the name. When it comes to engineering, you want to go to a big name school, meaning they're top ranked amongst engineering schools. Thus, when you throw around names like Wisconsin, Michigan, Cal, UCLA, Stanfurd, MIT, Cornell, CMU, Georgia Tech, you think engineering. Seriously, Northeastern PSU are second tier schools. Don't even bother.

 

[jiggahertz]

I'm biased since I did my undergrad at Michigan, but out of those 3 I think UofM is the best choice. Academically, they're way ahead of NU and PSU. Also, I believe all students apply to Michigan's B school their sophomore year, but it is extremely competitive. That is one drawback at Michigan, if you want to go into Business you won't know until your Junior year if you've been accepted.

 

[LS20]

ann arbor is a better campus than university park

if it was UM and Northwestern id flip a coin.. northeastern??? go ot UM

 

[SirStev0]

Originally posted by: jiggahertz
I'm biased since I did my undergrad at Michigan, but out of those 3 I think UofM is the best choice. Academically, they're way ahead of NU and PSU. Also, I believe all students apply to Michigan's B school their sophomore year, but it is extremely competitive. That is one drawback at Michigan, if you want to go into Business you won't know until your Junior year if you've been accepted.

Depends on what school. Our engineering programs are some of the best in the nation. Nuclear Engineering is #2 right after Annapolis and MechE is top ten. I don't know much about Michigan, only what I saw being there. I wasn't impressed.

Originally posted by: Parasitic
Also as an Asian, it's all about the name. When it comes to engineering, you want to go to a big name school, meaning they're top ranked amongst engineering schools. Thus, when you throw around names like Wisconsin, Michigan, Cal, UCLA, Stanfurd, MIT, Cornell, CMU, Georgia Tech, you think engineering. Seriously, Northeastern PSU are second tier schools. Don't even bother.

Second tier my ass.

Originally posted by: LS20
ann arbor is a better campus than university park

if it was UM and Northwestern id flip a coin.. northeastern??? go ot UM

Ann Arbor is a whore.

EDIT: missed a quote bracket.

 

[QurazyQuisp]

Being a student of Michigan State University, and for the most part disliking UofM quite a bit, I would still, hands down go with UofM. Ann Arbor is an awesome college town, and the school is pretty sweet as well. Do it.

 

[markgm]

I'd pick Drexel, especially for Mechanical Engineering. I think NE is considered their sister school, at any rate, I'd suggest 2. The single best thing you can do is to go to a college with a co-op program. It'll put you years ahead of your classmates at other schools when it comes to a job. That all counts as work experience, which makes it not only easier to get a job after graduation, it also comes into play when negotiating pay and vacation when you have a few jobs under your belt vs. just starting out.

 

[Strk]

If you can get into Michigan, I wouldn't even consider Northeastern. If money is one of your motivations, there are a lot better schools to choose from that cost less.

 

[jai6638]

Damn.. Michigan seems to be a great univ in terms of academics,etc but I just can't see myself in that campus... Too spread out... Are the employment options that Michigan students would have be the same as that of the PSU students? Would Michigan students have better job offers or something?

 

[Acanthus]

Read up on PSU for engineering.

It is very very competitive with reasonable tuition.

You can also dive right into grad school at PSU, and they are *VERY* reputable for engineering grads.

Edit: also...

PSU is top 10 overall engineering, top 3 computer engineering. (Cornell #1 and MIT #2, which i find hard to believe however, since MIT has 5x the professors in the field)