North Dakota State University

I had a good experience at NDSU. My HS counselor showed me a list of EE schools in the Mid West and NDSU was on it. I am from Chicago, IL and NDSU had a booth at the Arlington Park Race Track, so I had to stop by since I was looking for a smaller conservative campus with a 9-10 hour driving distance from home so I wouldn't go home too much. I wanted a recognized Electrical Engineering program, marching band, a fraternity, and Army ROTC. I am surprised I even graduated keeping that busy. The courses were relatively hard (at least for me) and other students complained that they were being weeded-out. I just had to study and remove the distractions. Other schools seemed more selective in admissions, and it was relatively easy to get admitted into Engineering as a freshman at NDSU and be given a chance. But it was clear to me that the faculty size could only support so many upper class students - which makes sense. The faculty was always willing to help, as long as I was willing to ask for it. In the assembly language class, I was ready to fail and just give up, but the professor talked me off the ledge, and helped me with my program at the last minute. I will never forget that!

I can say that I worked pretty hard fitting in coming from such a long distance, and that is something you'll have to do when you get your first job. It was somewhat of a culture shock coming from a big city, but my fraternity brothers (many from rural ND and MN) actually thought I came from Canada. Joining extra-cirricular activities is important and NDSU has plenty, and I hear several co-workers years later say, "I wish they tought office politics in college". They do! In many campus organizations.

Another thing about cources. NDSU offers a wide variety of EE courses, I figure as much as they can to mainain their accreditation. But in my line of work, I use maybe 2 or 3 classes I took? It's about learning how to solve problems and think, and that is hard to spoon-feed. NDSU engineering profs do a good job at this.

5th Year Male -- Class 1991

Education Quality: A, Faculty Accessibility: C