The Grove School of Engineering - New York, New York

EMK

Do not let this institution tell you that you can't be an engineer. If you need to come here, You're better off paying for another major so you can graduate on time and get to work. The engineering programs here are unstable & disorganized. Classes like EE20500 require you to give it your all and exams worth all your grade average. I only recommend attending CCNY to take engineering classes at affordable tuition and then transfer to a better engineering school. CCNY is an institution that doesn’t care about students and only cares about money to fill their fat pockets. For anyone who wants to major in engineering (and computer science), pick your choices carefully. You might want to consider making a sacrifice of attending a better school in the SUNY system. Classes at CCNY are not offered sufficiently enough and everything meets at the same time (you're only allowed to take one or the other, not both), and some classes are only offered once a year. You have to be headstrong and highly motivated to survive in this school. When it comes time to register for classes, you wonder what will be offered or what in danger of being cancelled. The advising system is a huge issue. Advisors seem uninterested in providing real guidance, and their lack of support has directly impacted my academic progress. With frequent and confusing curriculum changes every semester, I've found myself repeating unnecessary classes and constantly reworking my academic plan. This lack of consistency and communication has set me back considerably. Advisors like are awful, disrespectful, mismanage, waste of students’ money, wrong advise lead students to wrong path. Plus, every semester, Grove changes their curriculum which results in repeating unnecessary classes, and re-write academic plain. This school system will give you nightmares, PTSD, stress and anxiety. This school has no consideration for students all and you can’t even get a decent education here. No wonder why CCNY Grove has a low graduation rate. If I had to do it again, I would have went to SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Maritime or SUNY Farmingdale state instead. If you must come here, plain to stay for at least 6 years.

Ald A.

Mr. Pagan, a so called manager at admissions office is the absolute worse person you can deal in that office. He has no interest of helping students. Will not make the tiniest efforts to listen or even help you navigate in the right direction or speak to the right person. If you are calling the admissions office, you better hope that it’s not him picking up the phone. He will not even transfer you to another person if you ask him to speak with someone else in his office. Just a terrible experience!

Siddharth R.

It’s a decent engineering school. I studied computer engineering and it’s basically a curriculum made up of CS and EE classes. CS professors were much better overall than the EE professors. Every major is designed to get you to graduate in 4 years but unless you are extremely capable, most students will not graduate in that time frame. I rate it higher because of the ROI you will get upon completing your bachelors in this school. Because it’s part of CUNY, it’s extremely cheap if you are a resident in NY and even out of state is quite affordable. If you can do internships during your summers and graduate from here, you can easily make back your losses in one year. I was always skeptical of what companies people get jobs with but truth of the matter is that it is dependent on how you do on company interviews and whether you can accrue internship experience to show for something. Students here typically end up in many different companies Bank of America, JP Morgan, Bloomberg, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman just to name a few.

So clearly there is scope to succeed and most get financial aid so many graduate with little to no debt. However compared to big engineering universities, there aren’t enough clubs to really dive into different areas of engineering so I felt that was something that could be improved. Many clubs also lack in organization and overall projects they work on. The goal of a club is to be able to build some experience so that when applying for internships, it makes you more of a worthy intern. However sadly most of the technical experience I got was really not from any club.

To succeed in this school you really have to put in the work yourself. Many professors don’t really care about your personal issues and that’s something you’re gonna have to deal with. It’s really sad because you will hear professors say what company will hire you if you can’t do well in your classes and this will weed out students from the engineering majors. To succeed you need motivation and discipline. You need to find peers who are committed to passing their classes and are career oriented. I took advantage of everything that was presented to me. Got scholarships, joined clubs, did work study programs, internships with companies and took some interesting courses not part of my curriculum. It took me longer to graduate but I feel like it kept me continuously motivated and accomplished. Don’t be afraid to spend more time in school if you can afford it because that means you can get another internship opportunity and find a job before graduating.

Those who come with an associates degree better start working hard because I think for a lot of them it’s a shock to see that the engineering majors are a bit challenging. It’s really a school you need to commit more time especially if you are full time because it’s quite a lot. One thing I absolutely hated was 1 credit labs giving the work load of a 3 credit course. That is absolutely a joke of a concept.

Good luck. You need grit to survive in these classes. Those who see the end goal which is getting into a good career with opportunity to make high salaries over time will do what it takes. Even if it means spending late nights at the college. For me college was a one stop destination, I ate, attended classes, finished assignments and went to the gym and it was a daily routine so those who really commit to this mentality will also get used to working a full time job in the future.

Ali R.

Oh GSOE, so many memories, so many friendships. I loved my school experience there because it's the best that I could have afforded at that time. There are professors who really care about what and how the students learn. But there are others who solely focus on their research work (which is great) and not focus on teaching well. That's not the motto of a good school. Teaching is an art, so is research - having someone be able to do both efficiently is rare. The building needs serious attention in terms of updating the elevators, classrooms, auditorium, lighting etc. etc. One last thing, students who want to become an engineer treasures this place a lot, I know I did. So, investing time and money in the student projects by AIAA, SAE, ASME, ANS, SWE, NSBE, Concrete Canoe etc. is very very important.

Brian Z.

Professor don’t care about students, can’t teach, show favoritism, and they don’t even bother to make new exams. So, students with old exams can score the highest and kill the grades of students with no connections (most immigrants). Also, in some programs courses are offered once a year not once a semester. Finally, their technology is very weak compared to other schools.
(Other schools have labs for the equipment we see on the textbooks only).

mike S.

It is a subpar academic body. Specially, one required course EE25900 is really an ill-prepared, ill-taught, run down course that makes no sense. The grading distribution in this course is simply haphazard because who teaches it is a total slob. One should avoid this place at all costs. NYIT and Manhattan College are far superior in all engineering fields. Another point to note is that it is simply textbook cramming that ensures an A in all engineering courses-teachers are lazy, incompetent etc etc. Beware.

Rifat S.

Its a wonderful school. Professor pushes you limits by challenging to think as the world advances.
Its also one of the cost effective engineering available in NYC which is ABET approved.

Matthias H.

The school is great but the building urgently needs renovation. There are too many windowless classrooms and leaky ceilings.