Today I drove to Rhode Island and back to visit Brown Engineering School with my son who is a senior in High School and in the process of applying to college.  He is clear about his first choice of school (Olin which is a “reach,” accepting only 80 students, half of which are male), so we are courting other possibilities as well. Brown is also hard to get into, especially since the engineering students are not separated at the admissions level from other liberal arts students, so all 30,000 of those applications are considered en masse.  This is the oldest engineering school in the ivy league, and is very well funded for undergraduate level research purposes. 

The general college grounds and buildings are lovely until you get to the engineering building where aesthetics seem to disappear, as you can see from the windowless rooms and the conduit lined hallways. The advantage of this school for my son is that there are only two or three engineering classes per term with room each semester for one or two electives.  My son has a wide range of interests and abilities, and this would give him room to remain multidimensional, which is attractive. We went to an info session held in the chapel where we joined two bus loads of kids on college tours, one of preppy kids from Indiana, and the other of minority kids from Queens, NYC. Afterwards, having signed up previously with the engineering school via email, we got a one-on-one private tour with a senior who, while a bit lack luster, has had a good experience here.   And don’t overlook the sculpture made of nail clippers…