Engineering Schools Fare Poorly Again

The Princeton Review released its yearly college lists today, and engineering colleges again fared poorly in student happiness.

Seven schools with high percentages of engineering students ended up on Princeton Review’s list of “least happy students.” The New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology, United States Merchant Marine Academy, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Illinois Institute of Technology, Clarkson University (47% engineering, according to U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges, also released this week), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Case Western Reserve all ended up on the list, which contained the 20 “least happy” schools. (To see the lists, you need to register at The Princeton Review. Registration is free, however.)

In contrast, no engineering schools landed on the “happiest students” list. To be sure, there were several universities (Brown, Stanford, Princeton, Yale) with notable engineering departments on the “happy” list, but there were no schools with very high percentages of engineers.

Engineering schools also did poorly when The Princeton Review examined the physical appearances of the campuses. Six schools with large engineering populations – New Jersey Institute of Technology, Illinois Institute of Technology, MIT, Harvey Mudd College (37% engineers), Clarkson University and Rochester Institute of Technology) ended up on the 20-school list titled “campus is tiny, unsightly or both.”

The results come at a time when U.S. government agencies and large corporations have expressed concern over dwindling numbers of engineering students, particularly among American-born teens.

The results mirrored past surveys done by The Princeton Review. Experts have suggested in past years that engineering students are less happy because they have heavier workloads. Other factors – such as a predominance of older urban campuses among technical schools — might also play a role.

Why do engineering schools fare poorly in student happiness? Share your thoughts here.