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I posted this on the PR board, and figured I should copy it here.

My son and I just returned from an overnight visit to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, an 1,800-student college - overwhelmingly engineering majors - in Terre Haute, Indiana (also home to Indiana State University).

We got there Sunday evening. My son met his dorm host, and I headed to a nearby bed & breakfast. Son found life in the freshman dorm to be pleasant and the people friendly, but apparently it fell somewhat short of his imagined stereotype of "all fun, all the time"... this being his first overnight at a college. He went out with a bunch of guys to Wallmart(!) and an ice cream place, and then came back and watched a movie (Scarface).

I found the dorms to be really nice when I came through the next day. By tradition, everyone keeps their doors open, including when they're at class... except when they're asleep. Security seems to be a non-issue. Almost every dorm room I saw had custom lofts and lots of appliances and electronics (refrigerators are supplied). Students get to repaint the walls in their rooms, subject to very permissive permission. In addition to an upper-class RA in each building, there are two SAs (sophomore assistants) on each freshman floor who don't enforce rules but serve as mentors and help out with homework.

The food was excellent, with a good variety. All-you-can-eat meal plan.

Son went to two classes with his host - physics and calculus - and both were a bit over his head, even though he's currently taking AP courses in both.

From 1:00 until 4:30, there was a special "visitor's day" program, with remarks from the dean of admissions, the assistant dean, the college president, head of residential life, head of the financial aid office, head of the placement office, and a couple profs. Half-way through the program they had a tour with a ton of student tour guides, so there were no more than 5 or 6 people in each group. (Looked like about 3 or 4 dozen visiting families in all.) At the end of the program, they broke us out by intended major to talk to a prof in that subject area. The Mechanical Engineering prof that we spoke to sounded like he'd be a very entertaining teacher.

Among the things that stuck with me after listening to the various speakers were:

- Rose stresses hands-on, group-project situations... about 25 - 30 group projects in engineering by the time you graduate. Freshmen engineers find themselves doing metalwork on lathes, etc.

- Graduation in 4 years is by far the norm unless you do a co-op or change majors late in the game, and the retention rate is way-high for engineering (85% vs the national average of 45%).

- There's a lot of help offered if you need it... tutoring (including drop-in help), all-day office hours for profs, getting the home phone numbers of all your profs.

- The placement office seems to do a great job on internships, co-ops, and jobs after graduation. Placement for the 2003 graduating class - those not going to grad school - was 85% at graduation, 99% now, about 6 months out. (In mechanical engineering, it was something like 98% at graduation.) Average starting salary for the class of 03 is just shy of $52,000.

- They use rolling admission, with an answer in 3 weeks but no need to commit until Spring. No fee for application if submitted by December 1. No essay required.

- Everyone gets a loaded laptop at the beginning of freshman year, and the campus is incredibly wired.

One thing that struck me during the tour was that all the hallways of all the academic buildings, including the basements outside labs and workshops, had original art on the walls and in display cases.

Very pleasant campus, if not exactly "beautiful". The dorms surround some decent-size lakes with fountains, and there are no ugly buildings. It was a stunningly nice Fall day, and contrary to what I've read in at least one college guidebook, there was no aroma of a paper mill in the air.

They are absolute fanatics about their #1 ranking in US News (in undergrad engineering at a non-doctoral college) and their "hot college" designation by Newsweek/Kaplan. Banners proclaiming both hang from every lamp post! I found it overplayed and a bit obnoxious.

Overall, however, Son and I were quite impressed.

By Freak4korn72 (Freak4korn72) on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 01:28 pm: Edit

Thats good! I was looking into Rose-Hulman as a college of choice, but the only thing I didnt like is the going out to walmart and ice cream thing. Is the city its in big or have a lot to do for entertainment/dining?

I am under the thought that if the place doesnt have good dorms/city/male-female ratio I wont want to go because im gonna be there for so long im going to want to enjoy everything. Obviously you answered my question about good dorms. So how about the city and the student body.

By Baltodad (Baltodad) on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 02:20 pm: Edit

The town seemed OK from what little we saw. On the small side, but it's got a mall and plenty of restaurants. Indiana State University, with 10,000 undergrads, is right in the middle of town (Rose is about 5 miles out), so there are bound to be clubs and bars. But for 18-year-old freshmen on a meal plan, I don't think restaurants and bars are all that viable. And we got there at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, so there wasn't anything happening on campus (at least that my son was made aware of).

The male/female ratio isn't too promising... about 80/20... but there's an all-women's college in town and Indiana State is 48/52, so I guess there are options. A lot of the upper classmen join frats, so if there's party action on campus that's probably where it is.

But remember, just about every student is an engineer... a group not generally known for their lively social life. I grinned when my son expressed reservations about the lack of social options, because he's the quiet studious engineer type himself.

Academically, he thought it was fantastic.

By Kissy (Kissy) on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 05:32 pm: Edit

Baltodad-

Really appreciated reading about your trip to Rose. I've passed it on to my D since she's applying there but has been unable to visit the campus. Thank you!

By Chrisd (Chrisd) on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 09:28 pm: Edit

Do you think that this visit moved Rose Hulman up on your son's list of colleges?

By Baltodad (Baltodad) on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 10:44 pm: Edit

Chrisd -
Oh, definitely. He didn't know much about Rose at all (other than it was a good size for him and highly rated) until we went. As far as learning environment goes, it's at the top of places he's visited. Olin, which he hasn't visited, is #1.

We'll check out Stevens in two weeks.

By Chrisd (Chrisd) on Friday, October 17, 2003 - 06:47 am: Edit

Baltodad--

There's a new issue of Olin's newspaper out today. Definitely worth looking at, some thoughts for serious consideration by a prospective student.

By Baltodad (Baltodad) on Friday, October 17, 2003 - 09:31 am: Edit

Thank, Chrisd.

I wonder if the dissatisfaction expressed in that editorial is very widespread. A lot of engineering students change their minds once they begin actually studying, but the article is food for thought. One thing about a tech school, and Olin in particular, is that a student who changes his mind about engineering is pretty much forced to transfer out.

By Chrisd (Chrisd) on Saturday, October 18, 2003 - 07:54 am: Edit

Yes, I would put the editorial in the "food for thought" category. I don't think the feeling is widespread, but that person is not alone.

By Kjofkw (Kjofkw) on Saturday, October 18, 2003 - 10:28 am: Edit

Chrisd: How can I find a copy of the Olin newspaper? Online? I checked "Newslink", but did not find it. If not online, could you please summarize? Thanks

By Baltodad (Baltodad) on Saturday, October 18, 2003 - 02:44 pm: Edit

Link:
http://projects.olin.edu/newspaper/

(The name of the school paper is "Frankly Speaking", since the college is the Franklin Olin College of Engineering. I did a Google search of "Frankly Speaking Olin".)

By Chrisd (Chrisd) on Sunday, October 19, 2003 - 06:27 pm: Edit

One opinion my daughter expressed was that students who chose to attend primarily because of the scholarship (and these are the kids w/tuition and dorm covered) are unhappy. And, as you mention, those who change their mind about engineering--really, more those who came into it thinking, "Hmm, I'm good at math and science, people tell me to look into engineering, I guess I'll go for that." They have little idea of how much hard work is required in any engineering program. I think kids who have wanted engineering for some time, and maybe applied to other tech schools, eg Rose, CMU, RPI, are pretty satisfied.

On my visit, I saw my daughter's rocket launcher project, and various work rooms and machine shop. But, we spent most of the time off campus, walking all over Boston and Cambridge, as she wanted a break from campus. It's about a 40 minute ride on the commuter rail line into Boston's South Station, then about 15 minutes on the subway to other points, such as Cambridge. We walked around MIT--they were also having family day, so we were able to walk through buildings that were usually not open to the public on Saturdays. We walked up to Harvard Square--a beautiful fall day, lots of people out, numerous street performers, and a big rowing competition on the Charles. Back at Olin, on Saturday night the campus theater group put on a radio play of "Lost in Yonkers," and they did a great job.

Today is a Prospective Student Open House. My daughter is involved as a sort of tour guide in training. These kids need 36 hour days! I'm worn out just from visiting.

By College (College) on Sunday, November 09, 2003 - 12:55 pm: Edit

bump...