Drexel's Business and Engineering Major - Unique and Prestigious

Colleges and Universities A-Z Drexel University
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<p>I've had a lot of questions about this program so I figure I'd post it into a new thread.</p>

<p>Drexel's Business and Engineering Program (B&E) is one of the most unique undergraduate programs in the United States. It’s one degree that combines aspects of both Business and Engineering. You take all the coursework that a business administration student takes, and take all the basic coursework that an engineer takes, as well as you take a broad range of engineering electives, and choose a business concentration such as accounting, finance, operations management, marketing, legal studies, MIS, entrepreneurship, economics etc.</p>

<p>Graduates of this program have much higher salaries than other majors when it comes to co-op jobs or jobs after graduation. The program has been around since the 1920s (once known as commerce and engineering) and has produces many, many, many successful alumni including multimillionaires and CEOs. You can go into anything from pure engineering to pure business, to anything in between. Either way, you'll have the quantitative and qualitative skills that will allow you to do your job superbly and rise in management. There are some programs from companies that recruit students exclusively from this major (such as johnson and johnson's elite GOLD program) The program is also big for entrepreneurial mindsets.</p>

<p>The curriculum is very math based; in fact, you'd be taking more math than engineers and physics majors. Calc I, II, III, IV, Linear Algebra, Statistical inference I and II. (its very easy to get a math minor with the program) Therefore, you'd probably want to have taken calc in high school, physics and chem will also help. It also goes hand in hand with operations management and operations research with an almost built in Operations Management concentration. </p>

<p>I will warn you however that this major is highly competitive and very hard but it is very rewarding and respected. There are tons of B&Es that drop down to regular business when they start wondering why they are working their ass off taking weed-out calculus, physics, and chemistry that engineers take. You'll be working much harder than regular business majors, and you'll get a much more broad sense of life than engineering majors who concentrate in such a specific area of engineering. There is also almost no room for free electives, so while it's definitely possible to minor in random unrelated things like political science or criminal justice, you'll be taking 20 credits a term and end up with more classes than you need for graduation. Typically, an average B&E student also has a lower GPA than an equivalent Business Administration student, but everyone knows these days what you do in school is less about GPA and more about your coursework, experience, and leadership, and many employers will take and have taken a B&E student with a 2.7 GPA over a Busn Admin student with a 3.7 GPA.</p>

<p>I’m in the major and can probably answer most of your questions so feel free to post. Also here are a few links:</p>

<p>LeBow</a> : Prospective Students : Undergraduates : Undergraduate Programs: Business and Engineering :
About</a> the Business and Engineering Major
NOBE</a> - Drexel University <== this is Drexel's Business and Engineering student group</p>

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<p>hi, zackdudde. Is this program more engineering related or business related? I noticed that the program is under LeBow which is the business department, so will I get enough engineering courses if I decide to work as an engineer after I graduate?
You also mentioned about the program is very competitive, I was accepted by Drexel as an engineering major, how can i get into this program?
thx</p>

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<p>Correct, every major has to have a college that sponsors it. There are many engineering majors that are not in the college of engineering.</p>

<p>For example: Applied Engineering Technology (another flavor of engineering) is in the Goodwin College (more info go here: [Goodwin</a> College: Applied Engineering Technology](<a href=“http://www.drexel.edu/Goodwin/programs/aet/default.asp]Goodwin”>http://www.drexel.edu/Goodwin/programs/aet/default.asp)). Biomedical Engineering is in the Biomedical Engineering College (more info go here: [Drexel</a> BIOMED Website](<a href=“http://www.biomed.drexel.edu/new04/]Drexel”>http://www.biomed.drexel.edu/new04/)). </p>

<p>In either case you’d have to transfer from college to college to switch major. Therefore, if you were accepted into the engineering college, you’d need to switch into the business college. However, you don’t have to start before freshman year in the business college if it makes you nervous. Plenty of engineering majors figure out that they’d rather have a business and management background and concentrate in a business field, instead of going in depth into an engineering discipline. Some switch into the major halfway during freshman year, or even sophomore year and above.</p>

<p>Plenty of B&Es get engineering jobs. In my case, I’m trying to get accepted in the navy’s prestigious nuclear power school to become a nuclear engineer (see: [Naval</a> Nuclear Power School - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Nuclear_Power_School]Naval”>Nuclear Power School - Wikipedia)).</p>

<p>So yes you can become an engineer after you graduate, although I’ll tell you many more students go into management and leadership roles - the ones who are engineer’s bosses instead of the typical engineer. There are many students with the engineering background who choose to go into accounting, finance, or marketing as well and use their quantitative skills to get into the top jobs.</p>

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<p>Hi Zack, thanks for this helpful topic. I have some questions. What’s your concentration? What’s your specific jobs during your co-ops? If you don’t mind, plz tell me your co-op salary. have you ever seen anyone major in Busn and Engr completing their study within 4 yrs even they choose 5yr-3co-op ?
Thank.</p>

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<p>Deek, my concentration isn’t actually declared officially yet, but I’ll probably be concentrating in operations management, and if I have time after that, accounting. All B&E majors have a general business concentration already built into them. Students from the B&E major have all different types of jobs for their co-ops, its the biggest variety of any major at Drexel. Some work for engineering companies as engineers, others work on more of a managerial, operations management, or supply chain role, others work more with a job that requires their specific business concentration with quantitative skills, for example an accounting job, finance job, marketing, or legal job. </p>

<p>Have I ever seen anyone major in Business and Engineering complete their studies in 4 years? Yes. I know of a student right now that she’s on the BS/MBA program with BS in Business and Engineering and MBA in Finance all in 5 years, with two co-ops. This is very rare, and in fact I don’t think they even let students do this unless you do some convincing, because you’d have to be a machine, and taking 20 credits a term, every term minimum, and taking classes on co-op. I think maybe she had some transfer or AP credits at the beginning also. So it has been done though, but not an easy task at all.</p>

<p>The B&E Major has some of the highest co-op and job salaries around. During my first six month co-op I earned over $30,000. Don’t think this is the norm though, it’s very rare that co-ops earn that much and the reason I did was because I worked a lot of overtime, traveled all over the country, and was fairly lucky that the job was out there when I applied. (they also hired me part-time after 6 months) However, the reason I got the job was mostly because I was a B&E major and that’s exactly what companies are looking for. I’ve spoken to other co-ops that have even earned more than that. I had the same question when coming into Drexel, I really wanted to know about the co-op salary. I’d say after a couple years though, what’s more important is the actual co-op job. There are plenty of jobs with very high pay but the job just suck. There are plenty of jobs with low pay, but the jobs are amazing and you’ll have the time of your life. There are also jobs that have a high co-op salary, but if you start at them full-time the salary wouldn’t increase that much, where some jobs with a low paying co-op salary have higher starting full-time salaries than the jobs that paid higher co-op jobs (this is usually the dorm for the arts-type majors, eg: film, music, design where sometimes the co-op is unpaid!). On my current co-op, I chose a totally different job from my first one and also took a huge paycut because I’d rather have the experience and expertise of this particular job.</p>

<p>I will tell you however that Business and Engineering majors overall get paid much higher than plain Business Administration Majors, and we get better jobs. I’ve seen many cases where a sophomore B&E major with like a 2.7 GPA beat out a junior Business Administration Major with like a 3.6 for a co-op job. </p>

<p>Don’t just pursue the B&E degree with the promise of great, high paying jobs though. Many try this and drop out after the first quarter because it’s not what they expected. The courses are fast paced and very tough. Look at the curriculum and realize it’s something you’d want to do.</p>

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<p>Zack, thanks for quick reply and helpful information. You are so attentive and enthusiastic. But it makes me more curious. What job did you take that can earn that much? what company? Average b&e 1st co-op earns about $15000 (correct me if i’m wrong). How could you find that job? Traveling all over the country is so interesting huh? Did they teach us how to find job during COOP101 or UNIV101?</p>

<p>I sure choose b&e because I love both chemical engineering and busn but an advisor told me it’s impossible to be double major at Drexel. </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

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<p>it feels like the average B&E co-op makes over $15,000 for their first co-op, but i really don’t have those statistics in front of me so i can’t tell you for sure if you are wrong or not. Average means something, not everything though. The job I got was through Drexel’s internal system. Drexel has their own hotjobs/monster-type website where you can search for jobs and request interviews for co-ops and jobs for those who offer them. Most people, especially for their first co-op, use Drexel’s online system. Its a very efficient process, and you can search thousands of jobs, look at past reviews of that job that other co-ops rated, and other things. They’ll teach you how to use it in Co-op 101. You can also do an independent job search, meaning you can find a job without using the drexel system. So basically, you can co-op wherever you want. I was a quantitative consultant at a big 4 accounting firm. one of the reasons they hired me was specifically because of my major (in fact my manager was a business and engineering major as well). Its very hard to find business majors with a very technical background that have so many different skills.</p>

<p>Just realize that the B&E major won’t make you a “chemical engineering expert”. You WILL though get to take classes that include chemical engineering classes (as engineering electives). For example, you can take the chemical engineering courses of courses like Process Material Balances, Process Energy Balances, Materials, and all your Chemistry Requirements. I actually have a friend who switched from Chemical Engineering to Business and Engineering and he’s concentrating in entrepreneurship since he’d like to start/run his own business.</p>

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<p>Zack. I see in another post you are also NROTC. How has this type of major allowed you to manage the needed naval science classes you are required to take. My son is intending to apply for a NROTC scholarship for Fall of 2010 and this program at Drexel sounds like the ideal major for him.</p>

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<p>gamom, the major is actually a perfect major for NROTC. As a Navy Option you are required calculus and calculus based physics classes. The B&E Curriculum is perfect and meets all the requirements for the NROTC program so you don’t have to take any additional classes. (eg: a business administration major does not take calc or physics) There are a couple of us in NROTC that is in this program and I know of a couple even in Army ROTC. Military loves to see the engineering side, and the engineering side is a real positive, even when it comes to the selection of a community or military occupation before commissioning and you still have the business background which is very helpful. The only real downside is the B&E Curriculum is so packed and rigorous that there is virtually no free electives built into it. Some Naval Science classes will be able to transfer into free electives in other curriculum. I know that at least one naval engineering class can transfer in as an engineering elective under the B&E curriculum though. Let me know if you have any other questions at all about ROTC or the B&E program and I’d be happy to help.</p>

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<p>Zack, another question relating to what you just said. I am kinda confused when u wrote of the naval science classes fitting in to your schedule. Are u saying that you have to take more then the normal scheduled hours to be able to fit in your naval science courses? Also, as you may have figured we live in Ga and son would probably not bring a car. How do you travel to UPenn to attend the classes? As time passes and we get further into the process I am sure I will have other questions.We are just beginning investigating the various schools that offer NROTC.</p>

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<p>gamom, i answered these questions in the Drexel ROTC thread. You can feel free to ask more questions there so nobody else will get confused on this thread.</p>

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<p>Hi Zack,</p>

<p>Im a prospective junior looking at both of these programs at drexel. I went to Philadelphia and was just there for a day this past September, but I thought the campus was really nice and the facilities were new. Well, my question is how competitive are these programs at Drexel? I have about a 3.5, 1900 SAT, and fantastic EC’s and essays. Could I expect to be admitted with those stats? Also, I’m from Southern California and was wondering if that could be an advantage for me. The reason I ask these questions is that I’ve been unable to find information about these programs and their admission rates. </p>

<p>Thanks</p>

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<p>You definitely sound very competitive for this program. I would encourage you to take Calc and Physics next year, if you haven’t already. I also think you are right on when it comes to having advantage on being from California. Reason is because Drexel has just started a campus in northern california which is actively expanding and trying to connect Philadelphia students there and actively recruiting california students to come here to philly. In fact, don’t quote me on this, but I believe there may be special scholarships set aside just for good students from california to come here.</p>

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<p>Hey Zach-</p>

<p>I recently got accepted to this B&E program for 4 years. Should i change it to 5 years and do 3 co ops? What do you think? How competitive is the program? 20 Credits every term?
What do you think?</p>

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<p>bud, first of all congrats on the acceptance. second of all switch into 5 years for now. you can always switch to 4 anyways, but it’s better (and easier) to start off as 5 and switch to 4. 20 credits a term? I’ve had a few terms with 20 credits. technically, if you follow the plan you don’t need to have a 20 credit term, but of course nobody does (and you shouldn’t) since you should tailor your academic plan to yourself. most people end up graduating on the 5 year program in less than 5 years anyways, due to taking more credits a term and taking free classes over co-op. post again if you have any other questions</p>

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<p>Thanks man
In general how is Drexel? Im hispanic and college board says they only have 4% hispanic? So what do you think about that?
Also how is the education there?
I have never been to philly is it somewhat related to New York city?
Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p>there is definitely a strong representation of latinos on campus. Not sure if the 4% is right, but it definitely seems like a lot more. There are a number of hispanic student organizations/fraternities/clubs etc. I have a friend who runs a Tango club.</p>

<p>Philly is nice. It’s definitely no New York City, and you’ll see that unlike NYC, Philadelphia actually sleeps. However, it’s the 6th largest city in the United States, with plenty of things to do. Make an attempt to do tourist stuff/sightsee or go to a museum when you visit Drexel so you can get a feel for the city.</p>

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<p>What was the biggest reason why you chose Drexel? What schools did you reject?</p>

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<p>Hi,
I am currently a pre-junior at drexel and I am majoring in chemical engineering. I have completed 2 of my co-ops but I dont want to do the 3rd one. How do i go about dropping it and who do i talk to?
Thanks!</p>

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<p>Hey man. I was really considering going to drexel because of this program. I have read many reviews and feel that Drexel isnt a good school according to them. How is drexel honestly?</p>