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Unread 21-07-2005, 00:30
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Gui Cavalcanti Gui Cavalcanti is offline
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Re: A call for help from college FIRSTers...

The best advice I've ever heard is visiting the college. If at all possible, take a few weekends off and find colleges that have overnight visit programs. You'll get an "unplugged" feel for the college, you'll interact with many different students, and you won't be given the somewhat fake, shiny, "Look what we can do!" aspect of a lot of admissions tours and official day-time school visits.

Be honest with yourself and decide how involved of a student you will be. FIRST students generally have an advantage over Joe College in that they've experienced project-based engineering, and a lot of them want to continue learning that way. If you really like how FIRST gave you a project-based education, look for project-based schools that offer projects in class, existing competitions outside of class, and the ability to form your own team/project without an absurdly high activation energies. Here's a hint: ask the college's admissions officer if freshman can be trained to work in the college machine shop.

If you're absolutely sure you want to do engineering (and a little crazy), consider Olin (www.olin.edu). We have a student body of 300 (we just got 4 classes, we're only 4 years old), tuition's free (room & board ~ 10k), and I've been working in the Intelligent Vehicles Laboratory and have been on the MiniBaja off-road go-kart team since I stepped foot on campus (I just finished my freshman year). Make sure you're going to be an engineer, however; we only offer Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and General Engineering.
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Gui Cavalcanti

All-Purpose College Mentor with a Mechanical Specialty

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Class of 2008
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