Rose Hulman Institute of Technology
College Review by Lisa Bleich
Rose Hulman Institute of Technology is a small campus set in Terra Haute, Indiana. It prides itself on active engaged student body and faculty who are passionate about science, math and technology. While the male to student ratio is 79 to 21, the girls on campus seemed just as happy and engaged.
In fact, when we asked our tour guide how she had changed in the past two years since she came to Rose Hulman, she said she is much more independent and became even more passionate about engineering. (She is a biomedical engineer, which is the most popular major among female students and has a 50:50 Male: Female ratio).
In fact, when she comes home, she can’t stop talking to her parents about everything she is learning on campus and she is excited about school every day!
As we toured the small, brick campus, we saw large clusters of male students congregated together highly engaged in problem solving. The campus encourages hands on, group oriented projects with white boards present in all common areas. The library has several soundproof study rooms where students can hook up their computer to a shared screen and work out various problems or presentations.
RHIT (Rich Husbands In Training as coined by the all women’s college nearby) offers numerous opportunities for students to do engineering related internships. Rose Hulman Ventures provides approximately 20-30 projects right on campus with a dedicated space that serves as a laboratory for companies to present a problem that needs solving by RHIT students.
A past project included developing a dual biopsy probe called the Mico biopsy device to help a young boy who had a tumor on his brain that caused him to laugh uncontrollably. Students also have a large warehouse on campus dedicated to building various cars and projects such as a human powered vehicle.
Student Body
Students are a combination of nerdy (think Big Bang Theory), techy, passionate, engaged, and intellectually curious. About 10% of the students are international coming primarily from Saudi Arabia, India, and China. 30% are from Indiana and 60% from out-of-state.
Admissions
Rose Hulman looks for top math science students and only considers the Math and Critical Reading sections of the SAT and the Math and English sections of the ACT. They will also combine SAT and ACT scores from those sections to get the highest scores. So if a student scores 34 on the English section of the ACT and 750 on the math section of the SAT, they will combine those two scores. The average accepted TOEFL score for international students is 98 and IELTS 6.5-7.
Summary
Rose Hulman is a great school for students who desire a highly personal, hands on learning environment and are not only passionate about STEM majors, but also curious about larger issues. They should also be content in a largely male environment in a rural location.
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
5500 Wabash Avenue
Terre Haute, IN 47803
812-877-1511
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/
