Any experience with Clarkson U or Quinnipiac U?

[whitestavern]

S will be majoring in civil engineering. He has narrowed it down to two colleges, Clarkson and Quinnipiac. They are the same price. He is having a very hard time committing. Here are his pros and cons (in no particular order):

Clarkson
Pros:
-outing club
-preorientation trips
-long history of great outcomes
-past and current students we know rave about it
-location (S is a ski buff)
-seems to have a strong alumni network
-lower min gpa to keep merit scholarship (2.0)

Cons:
-large intro classes (S has attention issues, does well in more intimate classes)
-mostly "boring" core classes fresh & sophomore year
-S perceives student body to be serious, introverted, more "nerdy" (mostly based on FB class of 2024 page. Anecdotally I have joined the parent FB pages of both schools and communicated with several parents. Clarkson parents aren't as enthusiastic as those at QU and descriptions of their kids kind of jive with S's experience)
-curiously low rating on Moody's (my con)

Quinnipiac
Pros:
-small class sizes (limited to less than 25, even core intro classes)
-small program, hard to get lost/fall through the cracks
-no TAs
-curriculum flow is more appealing (mix of engineering and intro science/math courses starting freshman year)
-no environmental (he's not really interested in this and he'd have to take some env courses at Clarkson)
-has been communicating with professors and they seem great and are very responsive to questions/concerns
-student body overall seems more social; college has a lot of school spirit
-close (my pro)
-parents very enthusiastic about program, literally gush when they speak about it (my pro)
-if he decides engineering isn't for him, there's a wide variety of other majors

Cons:
-small program (pro and con - worried he won't find his peeps)
-party school rep/spoiled and privileged student rep/lots of students that don't seem to care about academics rep
-new program, though outcomes seem great
-higher min gpa to keep merit scholarship (2.5)
-no outing club, though there is a hiking club and Sleeping Giant is across the street

I think he's leaning towards QU because he feels he has a better chance of success there with the small class sizes and chance of knowing his professors better. And socially he feels he'll fit better there. I think Clarkson was always where he intended to go, so he is having a hard time letting go of that. It has a long history of great outcomes and we've never heard anything but accolades. I think he is scared of making the wrong choice. Anyone here have experience with either college and could provide feedback to help him? We haven't been much help.

[RootAnn]

4 hours ago, whitestavern said:

preorientation trips

No experience with either but I wouldn't bet on this happening this year.

From reading through the pros, it is clear which one is likely better for him. If the privileged/spoiled kids aren't too much of a problem for him, QU seems like the clear winner. Good luck to him!

[whitestavern]

I'm wondering the same thing, though the school is moving forward, allowing students to register. 

[whitestavern]

Thank you, HeighHo. This is a great list of things for him to consider and I will share it with him. 

[whitestavern]

Being close isn't an important pro for me. My d went 5+ hours away, and I truly would be happy to see him at Clarkson if that is what he chooses. If he attends QU, it'd be great to be able to see him more often, he'd be able to come home for dr/dentist/events much easier, and it would be fun to go see some hockey games 🙂 Both my kids played and we are all big hockey lovers. Coincidentally his two final choices have strong hockey programs, though it wasn't a consideration at all when he was looking! Proximity to home is not important to S though. 

ETA that someone on another forum shared a list of schools with the most unhappy students, and surprisingly Clarkson was on the list for 5 years running (2012-2017 I believe was the most recent data). It surprised me very much as that has not been the experience we've heard from grads. Then again, we only know a handful of grads. Not sure if I should share this with S. I'm leaning towards not. I do believe if he had been able to do accepted students day at Clarkson, it may have swayed him one way or the other. He did attend QU's because it was prior to CV shutdowns. 

Edited May 6, 2020 by whitestavern

[Starr]

It's my local understanding that the large classes at Clarkson will be online. The universities, four in the area,  are still uncertain of exact requirements to open. They are all hopeful and have different senerios being worked out. Personally I would plan on a gap year if I had a student that couldn't easily flip to online course work in case whatever school he's in has to close the campus as they all did this spring. Professor friends from all the colleges here are working on online classes in case they go that route at any time during the semester. All the universities are concerned about an uptake in Covid 19  this fall and how that might impact education, dorms, food and all of college life.      So much planning going on. I really don't see how they social distance students at a university but they are going to try.

[katilac]

I'm kind of 😄 at an engineering major worrying about the nerdiness level of the school 🙃

I'm just going to think out loud for a minute. 

Quinnipiac has an overall wealthier student body. It actually has a decent number of Pell Grant recipients, 17% vs the 22% at Clarkson, which roughly equates to those families making less than $50,000.  They are both money schools, but Q certainly has more money.The median family income is $147,000 at Q vs $100,000 at Clarkson.  Q has 66% of families in the top 20% of income and C has 45%. 

Neither of them are ethnically diverse. 

Their admission stats look pretty similar, no big difference in ACT/SAT range. 

Clarkson is half the size of Quinnipiac, more of a small school, with Q more midsized at about 7,400 students. 

Almost everyone at C lives in the dorms, 97%, but Q has 80% so certainly tons of people on campus. 

Q is large suburban, C is small town, that can make a big difference.

Has he looked to see which companies recruit at each school? 

Both schools should be readily able to answer questions like: Do you have co-op agreements with any companies; if so, which ones? How many civil engineering students get internships each year? How many students have a job before graduating? And so on. Because he's so torn, I'd pick the school that has either a slight advantage in numbers or more variety in the companies that recruit there.