Chemical Engineering SUmmer Lab Question

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
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<p>I also do not have an engineering student but I politely disagree with Montegut. If there is no industry in your own area that has internships then you Must stretch your search area. If necessary, you look everywhere…what will the student do once he/she graduates, just look for work in a nearby locale? No, they will have to find a job anywhere and then relocate. Saying that internships are not available locally gives permission to slack off. In today’s economy (unfortunately) one does not necessarily get a choice after graduation. I have a niece who graduated with a BFA and teaching credentials and has just moved across the country for a teaching position. She continued her educational goals and has almost completed her masters and held a sub position for two years in three school districts. She is no slacker and still had to leave family and friends to relocate for a job. That is today’s reality. You have to have an open mind and be a " go getter ".</p>

<p>I agree with m2ck that this course can be a financial burden to the OOS students especially those on scholarships Yes, engineering majors do receive the extra $2500 a year, but so do all the engineering majors including the ones who are instate. If they cannot incorporate this class into the spring semester than creative financing needs to be found. No other major requires a course like that to graduate.</p>

<p>I don’t think that you can equate a real world job with any school course. I would not list it as so on a resume. I would have questioned that when I was hiring people. Could you define the class more fully, sure, but it is not a job.</p>

<p>Students need real world working experience and I think any job beats sitting at home watching TV. An employer is looking for dedication, determination, reliability, experience and a work ethic. Any job looks better on a resume than no job.</p>

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<p>Nursing students have an additional required semester not covered by the Presidential scholarship. It’s either 10 credits for summer promotion or 12 credits if not promoted until the fall…9 required semesters without the $2,500 Engineering gives.</p>

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<p>i agree with you, robotbldmom, about having to look for internships out of your area. we happen to live in an area where there are plenty of opportunities for chemical engineers, but we have looked in our area and elsewhere for opportunities. </p>

<p>the tough thing with a lot of the internships is that they recruit for a lot of them in the fall semester. i know the business school had a fall internship fair. i do not know if they do the same thing for engineering. my impression has been that they really push co-ops and do not push internships. when i emailed the career center, they said that this is not the case, but i hear differently from students.</p>

<p>one of my beefs with the summer lab is that … other engineering schools do not require this type of class or summer commitment, so i am not sure that it really needs to ba handled in this way (summer class). i am sure it is a good and valuable class, but the opportunity cost is too great when a student has to give up the possibility of a summer internship, both for job experience and also a foot in the door after graduation. that cost is HUGE!</p>

<p>aside from that, the COST! there is the cost of the class and living in tuscaloosa (5-6K) and also the money not earned from a summer internship. the summer internship that my daughter was lined up for came with a great salary, so not only would we have to pay 5 - 6K, but she will miss out on that great salary for the summer.</p>

<p>hopefully she will be able to line up a different internship. if not, she may take summer school classes here at home and/or use the time for MCAT/GRE study.</p>

<p>those of you interested in internships (montegut), start looking NOW! lots of companies have already filled their internship slots, but i am sure there are many more that have not. look NOW! do not wait until spring or late spring to start looking.</p>

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<p>Good points, mike and robot. I’m sorry I did not express myself well with some points, but I’ll try to be clearer. </p>

<p>As for the class on a resume, somehow point out on your resume that you spent the summer taking a REQUIRED COURSE. This is not just a situation where you decided to take a course you could take during the year, but since you want to relax this summer, you decide to just take a short summer class and not look for an internship which would require you to commit most of your summer. This is a REQUIRED COURSE! </p>

<p>As for internships and location, I’m sorry I wasn’t clear. Many students pick a college OOS because there is no industry in their area, or at least not of interest to them. Those students have to make connections through career fairs, professors, etc. They do not have the luxury of a local relative or neighbor who can give them an edge over the thousands of online resumes that these companies receive every day. Although I do believe that hard work and a well rounded resume can give you an edge, it is not a guarantee at a job. True, that does not give you an excuse to slack off, but one would be naive to think that even looking early will guarantee you a spot. </p>

<p>But, I’m getting off the point here, so let me get back to a point bamagirls made. Back in my day, many health majors, like nursing, med tech, required students to do an unpaid internship term. OOS students not only had to pay for housing, but also get transportation, in many cases, having to buy a car when one was not needed before, and even sometimes had to pay tuition for the credits earned in this intern class. So, the chem eng major is not unique in this case, and luckily, you guys did know going in that it was a requirement for the major, and were lucky enough to get the extra engineering scholarship to help fund this.</p>

<p>Mike makes a good point about the cost not only being for the tuition and housing, but the loss of potential income earned from an internship. Couple that with the timing of the class, the summer before senior year, where you’re trying to line up an internship with a potential employer post graduation, it does make it a problematic situation. </p>

<p>Perhaps if the class does need to be done during the summer, it might be better put after the second year in the program, provided the student meets the necessary prerequisites. This might backfire, though, in that a student may have to take summer classes in the previous summer to get those prerequisites in. </p>

<p>Oh, how frustrating. Been there, done that. Had to spend a lot of money for son to take chemistry between freshman and sophomore year because it was a prereq for his sophomore engineering courses. No cheap community colleges in our town, so we paid a pretty penny for that course. Plus, as Mike pointed out, he couldn’t get a full time summer job because he had to be in class and lab five days a week, eight hours a day, for most of the summer.</p>

<p>One can only hope that after the kids put in so much time and effort and money into their education, they will at least be able to get a good job with their degrees. Other majors are not so fortunate.</p>

<p>Good luck to y’all, and I really do hope it works out for you.</p>

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<p>^^You’re right, Montegut, we all knew this going in. That’s why I wanted to point out that this is not unique…not complaining.:)</p>

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<p>yeah, we knew this going in … sort of. my daughter started in undecided engineering. never in my wildest dreams did i guess that she would choose ChemE. haha. jokes on me!</p>

<p>while the cost of the class and the loss of potential income kind of sucks, i think having to dedicate the last summer before graduation to the summer lab puts students at a real disadvantage when it comes to landing a job upon graduation.</p>

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<p>Is there a schedule for the offered Chem summer class? I know that it’s offered at different times during the summer. Is it offered in May or is the first session in June? </p>

<p>I wonder what the UC kids do…they go to school til near the end of June every year. That must always interfere with REUs and internships.</p>

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<p>by looking at last summer’s offerings, i have found that the summer lab is offered two times, in summer session I and summer session II. a UA student does have 8 weeks to work if they start the first monday after school is out and work until the last friday before summer II starts. then the challenge is finding an internship that will work with that schedule.</p>

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<p>Mike, my advice to your daughter would be the take the internship this year and to take your chances with summer lab next summer. My friend on the advisory board says the outlook for the summer lab lasting in its current format is dim, so you may not to worry about this at all. </p>

<p>The absolute worst that will happen is that your daughter will not graduate until August. (Do medical schools require the bachelor’s degree be issued before matriculation?) However, I’m fairly confident you would be able to petition to allow her to walk and graduate in May before taking the lab.</p>

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<p>she had already told them her availability of the two months (may 6 - june 28). they said they would see if that would work, but apparently it didn’t and they moved forward with someone else.</p>

<p>she updated her availability in case a position becomes available, and she will continue to apply for other opportunities.</p>

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<p>Being a current Chemical Engineering student at UA, the summer lab has been a difficult situation for me. I love UA, and love the direction of the engineering department. However, the summer lab is ridiculous. I had an internship last summer, and got offered another one. This internship would have been with the same company. It would have involved a pay increase (one of the highest intern pays I’ve ever heard of from other companies and my friends in ChemE and other majors), a new location, and a better relationship with the company. I had to politely decline, so I could take the summer lab and graduate. Thankfully, the company understands and I look to have a full time job there after I take the summer lab and graduate. I’m still disappointed. Even being in state and having an apartment, the summer lab will still cost around $2500, plus the pay I would have lost having accepted the consecutive internship offer. I’m sure others aren’t as fortunate. Even more disappointing to me is that UA doesn’t seem to advertise the experience and difficulty they’re students undertake in the summer lab. If I am having to miss out on internship opportunities for this class, and if the class is so involved, educating, and difficult, then why isn’t that shown in UA’s ChemE rankings? Why aren’t employers drooling over this? It is a practically a difficult internship in itself. If the school is going to do this, then the employers should should know about it. They should copy the MIS department, for example. They do their “Capstone Project” and employers love it. They love it because it is hard, challenging, and the MIS department makes sure they know that their students did it. They build relationships with the employers, and the employers hire a great number of UA’s graduates due to this. Why can’t ChemE do this also? Our ChemE department should either do away with the program, or advertise it better to future employers and other schools. The summer lab is extremely difficult, so I’ve heard. Students should be awarded for it. Employers should know about it. If not, there shouldn’t be a summer lab. Other ChemE programs, top ones, don’t have anything similar to my knowledge. Sorry about the soap box. I only hope UA’s engineering department continues its tremendous growth in enrollment, research, and prestige. Roll Tide.</p>

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<p>dixiedelight - what is your classification?</p>

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<p>Mike, I’m currently a senior. I still have one fall ChemE class left to take, so I should graduate the december of 2013.</p>

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<p>dixiedelight: To help with some of the costs, maybe you could look for a student who is not going to be in T-Town and use his or her apartment. That student may have a lease and be paying rent while not there, and you would be helping him/her out. </p>

<p>As for internships, I can offer a suggestion based on something I have done for years. Because I teach, I spend a lot of time helping students with their research. Often, students ask if I can help them locate scholarship money. Now, our guidance department does an awesome job with this, but sometimes, I find a scholarship that they did not know existed … and my students are eligible for it. That said, I would suggest that your student spend time looking at the departments at other universities to see if they have something that may hold his interest. Then, see if that university will allow him to participate. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The worst thing is that he is not eligible for a program or scholarship. A little investigating only costs you a few minutes but could pay big dividends.</p>