<p>How effective is a 3-2 Engineering program given all the competition in the engineering field?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>IMO, 3-2 Engineering programs aren't worth the extra year it takes to graduate. If you get a high GPA, which is very difficult to do in Engineering, and get some summer internships, you should be competitive for jobs after graduation. The problem with 3-2 programs is that you only have 2 years to complete all your Engineering requirements, which is tough to do.</p>
<p>well, i'm already in the program. is there any +ve sides on the (magnetic) field of electric engineering in a 3-2 program that bring a smile on my face? </p>
<p>as i appears to me, it gives a liberal arts background for 3 years and then the mathematical and analytical skills build up to produce an engineer (possibly) in two more years. That's all i know about it.</p>
<p>Is there anyone who can tell me if a 3-2 has any advantages given that you have a liberal arts background(during the 3 yrs period i plan to major in management, too) in this 3! year period? </p>
<p>What is the demand (let's ignore the outsourcing for a while here) like in the workfield for graduate students? What do they look at? What do you really need being an engineer when you are at work? Does anyone know/think if a chinese language background/ major/minor would help even if you were to be a part of the outsourcing instead? Can 3-2 give be a better edge on all this? (seriously, there isn't an engineering faculty on-campus that'd b able to answer these questions)</p>
<p>well, i just spilled a bunch of questions in my head...i would appreciate an answer for any/all of the questions.</p>
<p>Thanks, again!</p>
<p>I, too, am interested in a 3-2 program (possibly). I plan to apply early to either Cornell or Dartmouth (Thayer), but if I don't get accepted into one of those, there are just a ton of top-notch (just below Ivy level) liberal arts colleges in the Northeast that I could probably get into such as Bowdoin, Colby, and Bates, all of which feed to Dartmouth (or Columbia/Caltech) w/ their official 3-2 programs, but, if for whatever reason I do really well at one of those schools, applying to transfer into MIT's 3-2 CompE program would be awesome.</p>
<p>I mean, the 3-2 program, the way I understand it, basically can give you a second shot at some of the top-notch engineering schools if you don't get into them originally.</p>
<p>Also, I'd imagine some people do them as 2-2 w/ so much AP credit for liberal arts now.</p>
<p>what is a 3-2 program?</p>
<p>At liberal arts schools, you take 3 years to study physics or chemistry or whatever is behind the type of engineering you'd like to pursue, then you transfer out after your jr. year to take the engineering courses. I think many people actually earn their Master's in engineering in these 5 years, as there's a 2-1-1 (2 years of generals, 1 year away w/ engineering, then 1 year back to graduate) to earn an undergraduate engineering degree.</p>
<p>There's a link w/ info about it at Bowdoin.</p>
<p>I do agree with you (live) on the idea of transferring to a top notch as a second shot instead. I know a lot of friends who did just the same. </p>
<p>I did check the link to Bowdoin and wow! that sounds quite interesting. It just made me wonder if the place for last 2 yrs of 3-2 can be decided by the student himself instead of the regular deal between campuses? Does anyone have any idea about this? I like that from my college, penn state unv. is an option but i would like to have more options, if that's possible at all. Any ideazzz?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I do agree with you (live) on the idea of transferring to a top notch as a second shot instead. I know a lot of friends who did just the same. </p>
<p>I did check the link to Bowdoin and wow! that sounds quite interesting. It just made me wonder if the place for last 2 yrs of 3-2 can be decided by the student himself instead of the regular deal between campuses? Does anyone have any idea about this? I like that from my college, penn state unv. is an option but i would like to have more options, if that's possible at all. Any ideazzz?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>A few thoughts:</p>
<p>Believe it or not, it can be incredibly helpful to be a good writer if you want to be an engineer. If you work in R&D, you'll spend a lot of time writing proposals for funding; the best writers are the ones who get the most funding and are ultimately the most successful. With normal engineering curricula, you won't have the opportunity to take many liberal arts classes and work on your writing skills. At the very least, consider taking liberal arts courses which will teach you how to write well.</p>
<p>You can get an engineering masters or Ph.D. without an engineering degree undergrad; mostly, people who do this did physics or chem for thier bachelors.</p>
<p>There is something to be said for not transferring schools. You'll meet a lot of amazing friends in college, and most people probably wouldn't want to leave them after junior year.</p>
<p>There is something to be said for not taking all engineering courses. It's hard to imagine in high school (actually, until you've done it - I swore that I would be happy taking nothing but math & engin.), but nothing but equations all day, every day, really tears you apart. A 3-2 might force you to do that. A semester is miserable enough. Don't try two years of it.</p>
<p>Finally - if you are going for five years anyway, why not stay at the same school and do a double-degree programme? It's possible that you could do both liberal arts and engineering in four (which I did) or four and a half, which would save tuition.</p>