I just had a question that I wanted to run past some other engineering students/alumni. Is there any significant advantage to getting a(n) (engineering) degree in 3 years as opposed to for. I am attending MSU in the fall to study computer engineering and when I look at my degree requirements, I am going to have completed 67 of the 128 required credits by the end of my freshman year. I got the credits through AP tests and transfer credits so I was wondering if I should make a plan to get the remaining 61 credits in 2 years (on average about 15 credits for 4 semesters) or take my time with my degree requirements and take non major courses that interest me/would be beneficial skills to have and give me an additional year to getting internship/research experience. Would the cost of 2 additional semesters be worth this?
Also as the title suggests, is there any advantage to getting my degree in 3 years? Will future employers see me as more capable than other applicants if I got my degree in shorter time? Or will they assume I have less experience/bs’ed my way though my degree.
It might be good to extra time for more courses, opportunities for internships/co-ops etc. Also sometimes it can be hard to make all the course requirements align. But if that extra year of cost is a big burden to your parents, then try plotting it out to see if feasible.
To complete your degree in 3 years you would have to pay very close attention to scheduling and prerequisites. Very tough to do. I’ve kown a few who have tried and I can’t recall any that actually succeeded without taking classes during the summer.
You don’t say which classes you have credit for. Typically those prior credits are for the non-engineering classes which means you’d be taking a challenging course load of engineering classes. Maintaining a good GPA is critical to finding a good job or grad school after your BS.
Unless money is a big issue, I’d recommend taking a 4 year approach.
As others have said, it’s the path and not the hours per se, that can create the challenge. Start at Senior Project and work your way backwards through the prerequisites to plot the flow. You can then mock up quarters/semesters to see if it’s doable.
So, let’s say that the chronicity of the courses doesn’t allow you to graduate early, what do you do with your time? First, there will likely be a class or two that is very workload intensive. It’s nice take less hours when you have those back breaker subjects and/or instructors. It’s also nice to be able to broaden and/or deepen your education. You can do that by taking more classes and walking out with more experience than your peers. Lastly, there are several MSUs, so I’m not sure if your schools offers it or not, but if you have a 4+1 BS/MS option, that’s a possibility. I’m not sure it would have the utility of say an MS in ME, but it’s a thought.
Thinking on this more, there certainly are a lot more things that can be done online these days. But glad to hear there are still true meetings with advisors too
Getting a degree in 3 years with a high GPA is one of the things that impressed my current employer (doing “fake” engineering work for the government).
As far as internships… IMO the best thing you could have to secure one is being able to answer behavioral questions really well and be a heavy networker (this is better than having 4+ years to internship hunt as people with these traits land internships after their first year). A lot of internship interviews don’t ask heavy technical questions and that’s where I’ve been screwed over by not being well suited for he behaviorals. Prepare your scenarios for STAR questions.
Also, it’s more difficult to get an internship in 3 years of schooling because you might only qualify after your second year and you have one summer to land one… If you finish school in 3 years you can go to graduate school and find internships there… But being in graduate school it seems that companies will reject you for their entry level / trainee positions and expect you to apply to internships…
While you are looking into the flow of classes, if you find yourself with an empty or near empty quarter/semester, consider doing a co-op. It ends up being a sort of internship/part-time job hybrid where you’d work for a company during the school year on a part-time basis but they’d consider you an intern.
