<p>My daughter loved her visit to Elon and is interested in the 3-2 dual degree engineering program; however, one concern her mother and I have is how difficult it is to actually go through with leaving after 3 years when all of your friends are staying on for their senior year. My cousin's daughter was looking at something similar at Fordham but talked to a student in the program who brought that up as a problem -- that he didn't want to leave after his 3rd year. </p>
<p>Are there any current students or graduates or parents with experience in the program who can comment? </p>
<p>Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>--K9Leader</p>
<p>A lot of my close friends are engineering majors. The sense I get from them is that the degree you'd get from Elon is basically worthless and it is the degree from the partner school that is important. You'd almost be better off just majoring in physics or something and getting a graduate degree somewhere else. The biggest advantage from the program is the ability to get into difficult undergraduate programs that you might not be able to get into otherwise (ie Columbia). Most of my friends are planning on staying a 4th year, although for the majority of them it is because of extracurriculars or because it means that the course load is lighter, not because of the social life. The only reason my best friend is staying an engineering major is because of the scholarship money they are giving him. He is going to switch to Physics before he graduates.</p>
<p>Like most 17 year olds, my D is not 100% sure what she wants to do or study, and, of course, many of those who are 100% sure at 17 change their minds by the time they are 18, and again by 20. She is interested in communications/journalism, and likes what Elon offers in that area. She is very strong in math and science, likes physics, likes creating things, solving problems, and putting things together and seeing them work, therefore, the possibility of engineering. But she doesn't think she wants to commit to a real tech engineering school (although she likes RPI), so a 3/2 program might be a good start for her. </p>
<p>When we visited Elon, we did talk with an admissions officer about the possibility of double-majoring in the engineering and communications, acknowledging that it would probably mean at least four years at Elon instead of three. It also seems that a "create your own" 4/2 program, perhaps a BS in physics then an MS in engineering, might be a possibility.</p>
<p>She is signed up for a women in engineering summer program at the University of Maryland, so may have a better idea whether she wants to go the engineering route and, if so, what type of engineering (she's talked about environmental or electrical/alternative energy). So it is possible she will want a more hard core engineering program, so RPI or Georgia Tech might be back on the list. </p>
<p>On the other hand, she really liked Elon head and shoulders above any other school she has seen . . .</p>
<p>I think that if she likes Elon that much more than any other schools, she could certainly major in Physics and Communications in 4 years and then go to grad-school (or whatever) afterwards. The reason Elon has the 3-2 program is because Elon itself does not have an Engineering major, so you get a degree in something else at an accelerated pace (in 3 years instead of 4) and then take all the Engineering courses somewhere else. You could do this on your own anyway and the extra degree from Elon doesn't have a lot of value in comparison to the Engineering degree from the other school.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that if your daughter was really set on getting her Engineering degree, I would tell you Elon is not for her. Since she has other interests, however, she can come to Elon and explore her options through the broad liberal arts requirements here. If she decides she wants to get her Engineering degree, she has the option to transfer and do this, through the Elon program or on her own.</p>