Clarkson University — Local services in Town of Potsdam

Degree Received: B.A. Mechanical Engineering with conc. in Advanced Manufacturing Engineering ‘21

Overview: Unfortunately, the college seems more concerned about the hockey team and facilities than providing a top-notch education and quality laboratories. I transferred into Clarkson expecting big things but was very disappointed overall, especially considering the price to attend. Shouldn’t a “top” engineering school have top laboratories and classes for students? They had the money for new landscaping and a costly hockey arena revamp but apparently not the mechanical engineering lab equipment that is 30+ years old, inaccurate, and nearly inoperable. See my photos for the condition one of the ‘CAMP Center’ computer labs. It was really fun trying to run ANSYS sims on the school computers while crossing my fingers, hoping computer would not crash the program due to limited processing power.

Education: Some really great professors like Kevin Fite but some horrific (who will remained unnamed). They should really put more emphasis industry applicable education or examples to supplement the theoretics. For example, it’s hard to understand or care about solving partial differential equations when we never see them in a context related to anything industry related or tangible. Even showing physical models in fluid mechanics etc. that were related to real-world use, in class would have been great. Understandably, the curriculum is limited in its scope due to compliance with ABET Accreditation. For example, we received very little education on GD&T which is HUGEEE for industrial/design related engineering and subsequent manufacture. Luckily, they have a decent machine, welding, and fabrication shop that you can access as an extracurricular which I loved! I took the “MT” classes which covered intro to manual endmill, lathe, mig, stick, and tig welding, Mastercam, and CNC endmill and lathe.

Social Environment: Though a limited selection, they have mostly great professors! The students are down to earth and are easy to work with. Plenty of opportunity for clubs, SPEED Teams, ROTC and Greek life. I was in the scuba club, flight club, rocketry club etc. which were all great.

Surrounding Area: Unfortunately, the town has died off in the last 10-15 years. Many vacant store fronts on main street which is sad to see. The weather is also brutal considering it is 30-40 minutes from Canada.

Cost/Value: Absurd. The value and education provided relative to the cost made my time at Clarkson simply not...

I only visited this school when growing up. I sat through a recruiting trip with the Men's lacrosse Head coach. He seemed generally interested in accepting me as a student, and I my application was accepted. They were originally my first choice of school, I was generally impressed. It wasn't the only engineering school I looked at, RPI Engineers, completely overwhelming. I ended up going elsewhere because of their differences in majors, schools and what I already knew I wanted to study. My commitment just wasn't enough for me because of the coursework, and so I don't regret graduating from another school. If they have the exact major I was looking for I would've committed to this school no...

My son graduated from Clarkson in May 2017. I sent him to Clarkson all the way from India, for undergrad in Computer Science. We are grateful to Clarkson for being there for him every time he had a challenge! Their attitude was always 'how can we help you help yourself'. He learnt lot more than academics at Clarkson. His experience there was a blessing! He is back in Clarkson to get his Master's Degree in Data Analytics. Proud of my son. Grateful for his wonderful experience at...