Don't want to pay any tuition? Are you great at and dedicated to engineering, fine art or architecture, and want to live in the heart of New York City? This is the school for you. You have to pay for housing, which can be pricey in NYC, but financial assistance is available if needed.

This was 5 years ago -- I was at CU for 2 years as a mechanical engineering major, until I decided I didn't like it enough to make a career out of it. The problem with changing majors is you only have 3 choices: art, architecture or engineering. If you change your mind, you will likely have to look for another school, though I did know of one student who switched from civil engineering to architecture.

It's a tiny school. About 100 engineering majors per year, with about half electrical engineering majors, ~70 art majors and ~20 architecture majors. Almost all are undergraduate, except for a few engineering graduate students. Engineering majors don't have much school based interaction with the art/architecture majors, other than a few required humanities courses, and occasional school social activities. The engineering school is located in a separate building.

By acceptance percentage the art and architecture school are extremely difficult to get into. I believe the acceptance rate for those schools is under 10%, harder than Harvard ;-). The engineering school has an acceptence rate of about 20-30%.

The engineering school has a party oriented crowd. I seem to remember 2 fraternities and 1 sorority. It's only about 1/4 mile from NYU, so if you desire a large school social environment, you can hang out there. Continuing (adult) enrichment courses at Cooper building (I forgot the official name of the program) for the general public are available to students for free. Most of these classes are art and literature oriented.

The school is located near NYU, in the middle of the east Village, at the head of St. Marks place. CU students have NYU library privileges. When I was there you had the option of taking NYU courses, for free! But, there was talk about this program being scaled back, so ask about it if you think you might be interested.

Hmm.. Course load, I don't know about the art/architecture school, other than those kids where always doodling in english and history class. Engineering's load is quite heavy, 18 to 21 credits (6 or 7 courses), with labs, and a schedule to graduate with a B.E. degree in 4-years. There are very limited summer courses. I did know a girl who loved learning, she took about 30 credits a semester. eek!

Engineering professors are very dedicated to teaching, since it's and undergraduate oriented schools. Many have PhD from very prestigious universities, or distinguished professional backgrounds (in addition to PhDs), and work on their own research on the side. Undergrads have great opportunity to play key research roles and interact with professors.



Recommended: Yes