Hi guys,
I accepted into three top ten engineering schools- Calpoly slo, Purdue and Carnegie Mellon but they are all about 50k a year I also got a presidential fellowship and engineering at Bucknell but still very expensive. Basically I got into University of Washington but not the engineering program however it is so much less expensive than the other schools, would it be worth majoring in physics or math and saving money?
Thank you!
Well , can you get into engineering at UW after your freshmen year? why do you want engineering? What do you want to do with said engineering degree? What is the washout rate for engineering majors at Uwash? You got into some great schools so I have to assume your a smart kid, it makes sense to have a little debt as possible from undergrad esp if you think grad school may be in your future. Less debt = more options after undergrad. I work with a engineer who grad form either UT or Texas AM, graduated and got into a good company, ( mech engineer major IIRC) and hated it, after 2 years realized not the career for her, took a huge payout to work for a food manufacturing company doing data marketing and she loves it and is doing a great job, the only way she could have done that is because she had almost no school debt. Go to UW.
Congratulations on your acceptances.
What type of job do you want after graduation? Will a physics or math degree let you get that job?
That might be somewhat of a moot point if the other schools are not affordable…are they out of reach financially?
You didn’t apply to any affordable safeties where you could do engineering?
What can your parents afford? Is Bucknell affordable for them?
Math and Engineering are different - what’s your skillset? Professional goals?
“would it be worth majoring in physics or math and saving money”
“Math and Engineering are different”
Exactly. Math and engineering are not the same thing. They may be the two things that I would have been realistically interested in majoring in, but they do not lead to the same job down the road.
How sure are you that you want to major in engineering?
The University of Washington is a very good university. A degree in mathematics can be used in a lot of ways for a lot of careers. It does not lead to a specific job the way that an engineering degree does. However, at least I have been quite successful with a degree in math, and my understanding is that a lot of other people have also.
Not very easily. Washington recently started admitting by division for engineering (“Direct to College” of Engineering). This means that there is little space for those who enroll outside of the engineering division. https://www.engr.washington.edu/admission/department says that “If you are a UW student and have not been admitted to the College of Engineering, it’s important to note that demand for engineering degrees far exceeds available space in classes; admission is not guaranteed and you should be prepared to pursue an undergraduate major outside of the College of Engineering.”
Before “Direct to College” of Engineering admissions, intended engineering majors were admitted as general undeclared, and had to go through a competitive admission process to get into engineering majors after taking prerequisite courses. Now that most of the space in the engineering majors is reserved for those with “Direct to College” of Engineering frosh admission, there is much less space for other enrolled frosh to get into engineering majors.
First, congratulations on your acceptances!
Now to the tough part. If Cal Poly, Purdue, CMU and Bucknell are not affordable…they are not affordable.
Did you apply ANYWHERE else, WSU for example? If not, you committed a safety school cardinal sin. A safety is a school you know you will get into, but also that you KNOW you can afford. If that’s the case, all you can do now is to plan a strategy to rectify the mistake.
First, there are 5 WUE exchange schools that still are taking applications (Boise State May 15, Nevada Reno May 31, Montana State July 1, New Mexico Tech Aug 1, and Wyoming Aug 20). I searched Mechanical. You’ll need to search the link below to see if they have the major you applied to. You would need to call admissions at each school to see if their WUE deadline is the same as their general application deadline. You would get a good engineering education at any of them.
The next option would be to search WUE for your intended major and to see which ones accept transfers at the WUE rate. You could start in Physics at U Dub, but make sure that you take the classes that will fulfill transfer requirements at the schools that interest you. I would consider WSU among those schools since you are in state.
Lastly, you can summon @xraymancs for some insight on the utility of staying at U Dub all the way through and graduating with a physics degree. He’ll have some insight on the job market with a BS in Physics and what graduate degrees it could parlay into.
Good luck!
Sorry about the delay in responding, I am here but locked down and teaching my classes online. Much more work than the usual way.
I agree that physics is not engineering but if you like it and are willing to be flexible in your job search, then you WILL find a job with a physics degree and UW is very strong. Our physics majors as Illinois Tech either go to very good graduate programs or get good jobs. The kinds of jobs you can get with a B.S. in physics include technician in a high tech company, data scientist, software engineer and there are more. The trick is to include some skills development in your curriculum. One of the best things is to take as much computing as your curriculum will permit and another is to learn all you can about CAD and 3D modeling.
If Bucknell is less expensive than the others, it would be a great choice. They’re very good for engineering. Engineering has good return on investment, so I think it would be well worth the money.
University of Washington may be cheaper, but you’re spending money on something that is not what you want. Even though it’s less money, I don’t see how that’s money well spent.