Women-friendly engineering program

[Melalvai]

Last year I asked for college recommendations for my daughter who wanted to go into politics. But, not surprisingly, she's changed her mind. She's interested in math, engineering, or computer science. And she wants to go into disaster relief. I sort of want to recommend the state college (Missouri University of Science & Tech) that has a good engineering program to her-- but I've heard it does a terrible job of recruiting and retaining women. As do certain prestigious schools, like MIT.

Anyone know of a university that has a good math, engineering or comp sci program AND has a good reputation for recruiting & retaining women into the program? Some women (like me) thrive on adversity while others (like my daughter) can put up with it if they have to but would prefer not to have the distraction.

[OakLeaf]

I don't have any suggestions, but I became aware of the Society of Women Engineers many, many years ago when I worked for a female aerospace engineer - back when female engineers were even more of a rarity than they are now. That might be a place to start.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCRRe...eature=related

[bmccasland]

Can't make recommendations, but sounds like a good Civil Engineering program is what will fit for your daughter. Disasters are caused by various reasons - fires, floods, earthquakes, bombs, so the particlar engineering diciplines can change too.

As to universities - some will be better for advanced degrees (come back after you have your Bachelor's) - as I recall that's what my brother was told when he was looking at MIT.

One thing you'll want to ask when you are checking university engineering programs - what's the success rate for your graduates on getting their P.E. (professional engineer certification)? The higher success rate on getting their P.E. will speak a lot on the type of education the students are receiving.

[OakLeaf]

... a quick google shows that my alma mater, The Ohio State University, has a high proportion of women deans and department chairs in the College of Engineering. I only ever knew a few engineering students there and they were all male, but they seemed happy with the education they were getting.

[indysteel]

I don't have any personal experience, but you might check out Purdue's Women in Engineering Program: https://engineering.purdue.edu/WIEP

(I gotta plug my home state's renowned engineering school!)

[PamNY]

My information is decades out of date, but one of the worst experiences of my working life was in a company composed largely of engineers that was trying to be "friendly" to women. I'm not an engineer, but my work involved dealing exclusively with engineers, so is relevant.

It was a nightmare because one was expected to conform to this company's idea of what women should be like. It was like going back to the 1950s. At one point I actually begged them to tell me what I was supposed to pretend.

I have an acquaintance who teaches at a major university, and what I hear from her suggests that what I experienced could still be a problem for some women.

[KnottedYet]

I've got a relative who just retired from civil engineering. She was one of the first women (and often the only woman) in a lot of the projects she did.

She went to Michigan Tech for her undergrad, and then to Oklahoma for graduate work.

I'm sure things have changed a lot in the decades since she went to school, but she never said anything negative about her undergrad and grad education.

Sometimes her work environment could be a problem with the male engineers and male construction crews, but she never took any BS. And it helped that she was taller than most of the men!

[owlice]

You might ask over on the College Confidential forums. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/

I'd start with the Parents forum there, but also look at the Engineering major forum. Good luck to her, wherever she goes and whatever she majors in!

[zoom-zoom]

You might ask over on the College Confidential forums. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/

I'd start with the Parents forum there, but also look at the Engineering major forum. Good luck to her, wherever she goes and whatever she majors in!

I think a friend of mine is a moderator on the Parents' forum. She has long raved about CC and it really helped her help her son through choosing a school and his struggles with severe depression issues the first year. It seems like a great place to get some very specific recommendations from parents of students.

[Skierchickie]

I went to Michigan Tech (Michigan Technological University) in the late 1980s. Work there now, but in a non-academic department. Definitely an engineering school. I don't know what the ratio is these days (back then I was one of 1 or 2 women in some of my upper-level Mechanical Engineering classes). I think maybe its 20 - 25% college-wide now? That's just a guess. Engineering just doesn't attract women, so recruiting and retaining is difficult, if girls aren't headed down that path to begin with. It's a small state school - around 6500-7000 students - and very rural. The school about doubles the population of Houghton, and Hancock (across the canal) is about the same or slightly smaller. I loved it - I couldn't have handled Purdue or U of M. Too big. I was a farm kid.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about the recruiting and retention of women. I think wherever she goes those are basically male-dominated fields. If it's what she wants, she'll do fine. She'll stay if she's serious about her studies, and remains interested in it. 25 years ago, I never felt like I didn't belong, or like I wasn't accepted. Maybe some schools are different, but I doubt if things have gotten worse over time.

I think the fault lies in generations of our society acting as if women just aren't capable of understanding science & engineering, and not expecting much of them in math & science growing up. By the time girls are ready for college, the die has been cast.

I guess what I'm saying is that she should find a school that has a good reputation in the field she is interested in, that has a size and environment (and distance from home) that appeals to her. She'll be fine! She doesn't need to "thrive on adversity", because there isn't necessarily any adversity involved. She's going into a field where she will always be outnumbered by men, so she may as well get used to it and be okay with it.

[Grits]

My son just attended a camp in biological engineering at NC State. That particular engineering major there has a high percentage of female students. Don't know about the rest.

[Sylvia]

I'm a Software engineer working in California . There are definitely more men in this industry than women. If you work in the development side (engineers who write the code for the product) it would not be unusual to work in a group that is 80 percent male. However, the QA side (the engineers who test the products) can often have a larger number of women.

As was previously recommended, I'd suggest getting in contact with the Society of Women engineers. Maybe even see if some of the schools she is interested in have a local section.

http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.o...232&Itemid=329

If she really isn't sure what she wants to do yet, perhaps she can take a few classes as part of her general ed requirements and see how well she enjoys it.

[shootingstar]

The closest fit for disaster stuff, I assume for building design for safety would be...fire protection engineering.

There are less than 10 programs in North America that specialize in this area...but that is based on my knowledge over 20 yrs. ago. This area of engineering covers structural, mechanical, electrical but with a fire safety building design focus. Usually the engineer stumbles into it when already they are in 1 of the other engineering areas.

Best programs have a Master's focus because after all the engineer in Canada must become licensed as a professional engineer and then later they can get the SFPE designation ....

Check web site for Society of Fire Protection Engineers.

I worked for a bunch of them for a provincial regulatory body on fire code enforcement and review. (I was responsible for a fire protection engineering library...of which less than 40 llibraries exist world-wide, but that was ages no. And no full-text books on this stuff is not free, not available on the open Internet. It never will be.)

[westtexas]

One of the best engineering schools, IMHO, is the Colorado School of Mines. It's where my brother went many years ago and if your daughter decides to pursue graduate studies, other universities seriously recruit these students. Most state schools will also do a fine job - my alma mater, Texas A&M, for example is one of them.

You should also look on the flip side and have your daughter learn what it is like to be a woman in a female dominated field. As a veterinarian I went to school with 130 others, about 15 of them were male. Not as fun as it sounds and I think a good mix between the two genders is better. At my workplace, it's all women and sometimes I wish they could just stop gossiping for 10 seconds and get their work done.

Either way, if it's something she's really interested in, she should pursue her interests and not worry about the gender gap. After all, we all have to work, might as well like getting up most mornings and going there!

[Reesha]

Union College has a fantastic engineering program and there were plenty of women there. I think the liberal arts college environment creates a more appealing environment for female engineers as there are simply more women on campus to begin with. I have a number of female friends who graduated with engineering degrees from there (I graduated from there with a Geology degree). About 11% of all students are engineering majors, 8% of which are mechanical engineers.

Back when I was there they were very generous with their scholariship and aid packages. I'm not sure what it's like post-economic meltdown, but you should check it out