Any thing to do around Troy NY?

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

Several of my ex-husbands classmates at RPI are now doctors and dentists. Actually it's really true. And RPI had a special arrangement with Albany Med to let the kids finish college and med school in 6 years. I don't know whether the program still exists. Several of ex's frat brothers were in the program.

But he really needs to do what he would like to do "when he grows up". Have any of us grown up yet?

Sue

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

Hi Frank,
I don't remember hearing a final decision. Where is your son going to school?

Sue

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Hi Frank,
I don't remember hearing a final decision. Where is your son going to school?

Sue

We are still up in the air but the list right now is

Stevens
RPI
Villa Nova
and believe it or not he has a shot at making MIT.

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

Well, having lived in the Boston area for 5 years now, I can certainly say that I love being here and there is just so much exciting stuff to do here - and MIT isn't anything to sneeze at either. You may never get him to move back to NY if he comes here to MIT, though.

I wish him the best.

Sue

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

They're all good schools, but MIT would be great! We went to an MIT presentation and it was so wonderful I wanted to go there myself. But I think they'd be unlikely to take me....

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

: You may never get him to move back to NY if he comes here to MIT, though.

I wish him the best.

Sue

Don't worry Frank, both my kids went to school in the Boston area and they both found their way home!

[davhu1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close davhu1]

We are still up in the air but the list right now is

Stevens
RPI
Villa Nova
and believe it or not he has a shot at making MIT.

Frank,

Happy for you to have such a bright young man. I think you should take him to look at other larger universities for comparison. We went thru the same thing last year for my older son. During spring break on his junior year, I took him to see different size college and locations so that he has a feel and can make a better decision. The more he sees, the more he changed his mind.

My son wants to study engineering also. But I think he would do better in law or business. I sort of convinced him to apply to a larger university where he could be exposed to other people and disciplines (diversity). If he changes his mind about engineering, it would be easier for him to transfer to another major. Even in big universities, the engineer school is pretty much on its own after the first year.

Majoring in Computer engineering, I think he should look at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. Case Western in Ohio in also good and offer good scholarship. I like University of Michigan a lot but it farther and colder. Yeah, I know mom wants your son to be near home but I think a large university would offer better college experience than the technical schools. Mom will learn to let go.

Of the three technical schools you listed, I would pick RPI, Stevens, then Polytech in order of academic strength. You also need to look at job placement after graduation and not be blinded by scholarship offers. I graduated from Stevens. In my senior year more than 130 companies recruited at Stevens compared to about 60 in Brooklyn Polytech. NJIT also had about 60 recuiters. When the job market gets tight, the better school has a big advantage in getting a job offer. I think Stevens still brags about the have the highest percentage of graduate getting jobs.

One of the reason I went to Stevens was it was close to home and could go home on weekend (Elmhurst, right around the corner from you). The campus almost deserted on weekend because most of the students at the time were from NY, NJ and Philly. I did not visit any colleges while in high school, if I were to do it again today; I would not pick Stevens as my top choice.

School like RPI and Stevens are more practical. Most of the graduate will begin working after graduation. In comparison, gradate from schools like MIT and Carnegie Mellon to go into master or PhD. Given today’s global economy and outsourcing, are graduates from the four years of college able to compete and will job be available (Check the US Department of Labor for job outlook of each of the engineering declines). Granted the graduates on top of their class will likely land jobs but a lot of architect/engineering firm are outsourcing their work to places like India and China. I was chatting with one of the professors about this topic during a campus visit. He recognized the problem and said the way to become marketable upon graduation is to either be a leader in the research and development (likely more post graduate study) or manage those people where the work has been outsourced (do a minor or double major).

Start looking at the college applications and think about the essay questions. IMO they play a large part of being accepted. College admission are so competitive and there are some many applicant with similar good qualification, unless you really stand out, I think the essay is where it makes a difference.

Look luck in you college search.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Frank,

Happy for you to have such a bright young man. I think you should take him to look at other larger universities for comparison. We went thru the same thing last year for my older son. During spring break on his junior year, I took him to see different size college and locations so that he has a feel and can make a better decision. The more he sees, the more he changed his mind.

My son wants to study engineering also. But I think he would do better in law or business. I sort of convinced him to apply to a larger university where he could be exposed to other people and disciplines (diversity). If he changes his mind about engineering, it would be easier for him to transfer to another major. Even in big universities, the engineer school is pretty much on its own after the first year.

Majoring in Computer engineering, I think he should look at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. Case Western in Ohio in also good and offer good scholarship. I like University of Michigan a lot but it farther and colder. Yeah, I know mom wants your son to be near home but I think a large university would offer better college experience than the technical schools. Mom will learn to let go.

Of the three technical schools you listed, I would pick RPI, Stevens, then Polytech in order of academic strength. You also need to look at job placement after graduation and not be blinded by scholarship offers. I graduated from Stevens. In my senior year more than 130 companies recruited at Stevens compared to about 60 in Brooklyn Polytech. NJIT also had about 60 recuiters. When the job market gets tight, the better school has a big advantage in getting a job offer. I think Stevens still brags about the have the highest percentage of graduate getting jobs.

One of the reason I went to Stevens was it was close to home and could go home on weekend (Elmhurst, right around the corner from you). The campus almost deserted on weekend because most of the students at the time were from NY, NJ and Philly. I did not visit any colleges while in high school, if I were to do it again today; I would not pick Stevens as my top choice.

School like RPI and Stevens are more practical. Most of the graduate will begin working after graduation. In comparison, gradate from schools like MIT and Carnegie Mellon to go into master or PhD. Given today’s global economy and outsourcing, are graduates from the four years of college able to compete and will job be available (Check the US Department of Labor for job outlook of each of the engineering declines). Granted the graduates on top of their class will likely land jobs but a lot of architect/engineering firm are outsourcing their work to places like India and China. I was chatting with one of the professors about this topic during a campus visit. He recognized the problem and said the way to become marketable upon graduation is to either be a leader in the research and development (likely more post graduate study) or manage those people where the work has been outsourced (do a minor or double major).

Start looking at the college applications and think about the essay questions. IMO they play a large part of being accepted. College admission are so competitive and there are some many applicant with similar good qualification, unless you really stand out, I think the essay is where it makes a difference.

Look luck in you college search.

Thank you for your post. I was reading it at the perfect time. My son walked into the room as I was reading it. So I sat him down to read your post. He has looked into most of the Schools you mentioned but I believe he said that he heard about Michigan recently and may be looking into it as well. I will keep you posted.

[davhu1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close davhu1]

... I believe he said that he heard about Michigan recently and may be looking into it as well. I will keep you posted.

Frank,

If you son is considering Michigan, he should apply as early as possible (unless he wants to take additional SAT/ACT tests). Michigan has rolling admission, first come first serve. Case Western has early action (non-binding), uses common application, and no application fee if applied online. So it does not hurt to submit an application if he like the school.

Michigan has a very large campus and Ann Arbor is a nice town. The engineering school is on top of the hill, almost like campus on its own. Most of the buildings and lab in the engineering school are new. Good facility and research program. Students may take a couple of courses in the main campus the first year. After that, they have most of their classes in the engineering school, unless they take a second major or minor in other schools. Michigan is rank #3 among public universities in the USNew. Only thing I dislike, the cold winter. My son did not mind the cold and it was on top of his college choices.

Make note of the application deadlines, many of them have different dates.
If he is sure of a school, consider early decision. The drawback of early decision is the decision is binding and lesser chance of scholarship, but it is a great feeling to be accepted early. It take the pressure from all the application deadlines and essays, plus the regular school work load. You can sit back a little while everyone is still working hard and waiting for their college acceptance letters.

My son, as with many kids, was very lax in college searches. We did most of the leg work. If you need more suggestions let me know.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

My son, as with many kids, was very lax in college searches. We did most of the leg work. If you need more suggestions let me know.

Well I guess it is the same all over. It seems we mostly my wife was doing all the leg work. We have now stopped until your post came up. We told him if he wants it he has to make the time to go look at the Schools and do the leg work, He uses up all his free time on War craft and with the release of Halo 3 out today I hope he gets his Priorities down. I will post here when we hear something. I do believe we are visiting Stevens again with in the next 2 weeks.
I also know he wants to see Villa Nova and some other School in Maryland.

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

Well I guess it is the same all over. It seems we mostly my wife was doing all the leg work. We have now stopped until your post came up. We told him if he wants it he has to make the time to go look at the Schools and do the leg work, He uses up all his free time on War craft and with the release of Halo 3 out today I hope he gets his Priorities down. I will post here when we hear something. I do believe we are visiting Stevens again with in the next 2 weeks.
I also know he wants to see Villa Nova and some other School in Maryland.

I am so relieved to hear this. DD is supposed to do her RPI application and the Candidate's Choice app has ONE 250-word essay. She has ground to a complete halt on it. I'm hoping her guidance counselor can knock some sense into her.

Frank, if you're okay with your DS going farther away, other good big schools might be Purdue in Indiana and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Closer in, we went to a Lafayette presentation the other day and I thought they looked great. They're in Easton, PA. We're also going to a Lehigh presentation next week.

BTW, at the Lafayette presentation, the admissions rep asked, "How many of you have started to receive applications in the mail?" Of course all the kids raised their hands. Then she said, "And how many of you have already finished an application?" Complete silence, not a single hand in the air. So we're not alone!