Hello! I’m about to start my engineering undergraduate curriculum and I am coming to the point where I need to make a big decision… well… kinda big but not really. I am a engineering student at Texas A&M and I was hoping to get some help with two concerns of mine.
First, I recently received enough scholarships to the point that I don’t need to take out loans and I will have a surplus of 1,500 per semester for books and stuff of that nature. Since I have a meal plan and all of my fees are being taken care of , is their any benefit to working a job during college besides to put on my resume? Because right now I don’t have much on it .
Speaking of resumes, number 2) I plan on attending my school’s first career fair (because why not get the experience right?) And I was wondering, what would a company be expecting from a freshman? Like to give them an internship the summer between Freshman and sophomore year? I plan on completing Aggie Invent ( a 48 hour planning, designing, and selling competition at Texas A&M) and I earned a spot on an Aggie E Challenge team (a team that works to solve a multidisciplinary engineering problem facing our society ).
But that would be the only engineering experience I’d have on my resume( by the fall career fair). What else would a recruiter want to see (besides a GPA since I only have my CC Gpa of a 3.6) ? Any advice ?
That depends on the job. I definitely agree with @bodangles that you shouldn’t take on a job for the first semester or two while you get acclimated to college unless you really, really need it. Since you say you have all the expenses covered, I’d say don’t bother with a job. Most jobs aren’t actually going to be much of boon to your resume anyway. The jobs that would look good are things like undergraduate research. They usually don’t pay a ton, but they pay some and it will be actual relevant experience for your resume.
That’s a good plan. Even if you don’t get an internship this time around, you will know what to expect next time when you have a better shot. Best case scenario: you get one this time anyway.
That is going to vary by company. Some companies are going to have a fairly strict policy against hiring freshmen/rising sophomores, and for them, you are pretty much out of luck. For the rest, they are going to know you won’t really have experience so they are going to want good grades (so far), some enthusiasm on your part, and some indication that you have actually researched a little about that company and what they do before showing that enthusiasm.
As a frosh at Texas A&M, your first priority is earning a high GPA. A 3.5 GPA assures admission into your desired engineering major; otherwise, you must compete for admission, applying at least three majors, and may not necessarily get into your first choice.
I agree with everyone else. Especially at A&M, grades are your top priority for now.
That said, a job, paid or not, does something important. As @HPuck35 says, it gives you your “plays well with others” card. It also shows you are a regular person. I probably wouldn’t do something like a food job, but if you can get a technical position AFTER you get your major, that could be useful.
All in all, it’s pretty peripheral relative to other ways you could marshall your energies, especially given that some resume reviewers won’t give a rip about it.
I honestly believe a lot of you guys mountain out of a mole hill when it comes to programs like A&M that have first year engineering programs. There are advantages and disadvantages to that approach and everyone on here treats it only as disadvantageous.
At TAMU, they cite 87% of students ending up in their first choice anyway, 95% ending up in first or second choice (and not all second-rate are involuntary), and 100% of eligible (i.e. haven’t flunked out) students end up in a department.
Engineering curriculums are no joke, so at least for your first semester, I would concentrate on adjusting to college and not worry too much about what to do on the side. That transition from high school is a pretty big step for most people, and not one to overlook. Most people save finding a part time job for the second semester, after they have started to get their lives together, unless finance is really an issue.
Most employers don’t really hire freshmen, since they usually have very little if any engineering experience through coursework. That being said, my school (Umich) often encourages those who wish to have a study abroad experience as a part of their undergraduate experience to do it during the summer between freshman and sophomore year. That will give you something productive to do during that summer, and also something to add to your resume.
As for your resume, don’t just do something for the sake of putting it on your resume. Do something for you, not for your prospective employers. Some employers will go down your resume and ask you to discuss what you put on it during an interview, and you want to be able to have a substantial discussion, not just a one or two sentence response.
My DD was in a special living and learning community freshman year where they were taught research skills and did research. Employer really liked that type of experience so I think the things you plan on doing are fine. My DD also did some community volunteering with SWE which employers also liked. My DD joined an SAE competition team her second year and that experience opened a lot of doors for her with employers. Like others have suggested, take it easy the first semester of college and only do 12 units. Take the time to figure out how to “do” college including mastering time management which is important in engineering. Some colleges have competion classes which will add to you gaining good experience in engineering.
I agree-go to the college fair your freshman year to learn about the experience, however before you go-visit the career services office at your college and make sure your resume follows the engineering student format. Some of my DD’s friends attend the college fair their freshman year and did walk away with offers for the summer after freshman year. If you were accepted to A&M it shows you are already a smart student since it is tough to get into and employers will recognized it.
I do think doing study abroad after freshman year is a great idea. My DD did it in China and she got 3 engineering classes out of the way which then gave her the time duriing her second year to be on her SAE competition team.
"take it easy the first semester of college and only do 12 units. " - That may work if student has AP credits. But most engineering programs I’ve seen (mine own and those reviewed during my kids’ college research) seem to have at least 15 credits per semester.
From my experience, behavioral (STAR) questions during interviews make or break someone looking for internships. Oftentimes the interviewers for internships ask very fundamental or easy or none at all when it comes to technical questions…
OOC do employers typically care about my prior community college course work or GPA? In my case? Is university going to be that much more rigorous then community college?
@umcoe16 I’d love the idea of using my summer doing something like studying abroad (since I planned on doing that eventually and I’m not too afraid of debt since I’ll be graduating with none. ) But I’m not sure yet if i’m going to take Physics Electrics and Optics over the summer or not.
And I am aware of the GPA requirement and I will give it my best to meet it. Right Now I am between 14 and 15 credits. My schedule is Calculus (4 hr), Physics Mech (4 hr), Engineering Foundations (2 hr), Singers (1 hr), and World Performance (3 hr) . If I did the research it would be with a professor that has a 100% 4.0 rate. And Choir and Performance have 80% 4.0 rates so I’m mainly worrying about 3 classes. And after finishing AP Calc last year I hope that I’m a little prepared for these three courses. So I didn’t think my GPA would be in much danger from doing research.
a. Taking too advanced a course for your prerequisite knowledge.
b. Repeating what one already knows, but then paying too little attention to the course and not getting what one initially assumed would be an “easy A”.
@ucbalumnus
Howdy! I got a three on Calculus AB but I already planned on retaking Calculus 1 (since AP Calc didn’t prepare me for Mat lab and other topics I will be going over) . But on these exams I got 84, 89, and 98, 71(I wrote the wrong answer to the wrong number somewhere but I left it in case that happens in college), and 92 on exams 1a, 1b, 2a , 2b, and 3a respectively. But if I learned anything from AP Calc, its that I have a LOT more to learn!
@lessonwitch2 check with your college about engineering study abroad programs. It is likely that there will be a program which you can take such basic courses (such as your core math and physics courses, or even some introductory engineering courses) abroad and receive transfer credits for them. It will be difficult to find programs which offer transfer credit for upper level engineering courses, so waiting until you are an upperclassman may not be a good idea.
Georgia Tech and Clemson have campuses in France, China and Belgium where you can take both lower division and upper division engineering courses. I think students from other colleges can attend their programs.
@itsv, students from other universities can likely still attend those programs. The question is, whether or not their home institution will award transfer credit, especially for upper level courses. If one wishes to go simply for the abroad experience and is not so concerned about credits, no big deal. If one wishes to knock out degree requirements, then careful consideration must be given.
@umcoe16 I am very familiar with both programs and I know it is tough to get study abroad credit for engineering coursework. Programs from both of the schools I metioned, especially Georgia Tech are geared toward engineering students trying to get engineering course credit through a study abroad program. These programs are specifically focused on completing engineering coursework and since the universities where the programs are offered are rigours, most colleges accept such engieering coursework in my experience.