<p>I posted a thread about engineering at Bowdoin awhile back but I think it got lost. Anyhow, are there any people here who are in an Engineering program or are planning on getting into Engineering?</p>
<p>If there are people here, what were your experiences? and why did you choose to do 5 years at Bowdoin instead of 4 years at an engineering school?</p>
<p>Do you think you would have been better off going to a 4-yr engineering school?</p>
<p>I know that Bowdoin has an Engineering program where a student spends 3 years at Bowdoin and 2 years at another university. I’m trying to get an idea on what it’s like.</p>
<p>3 years at bowdoin and 2 years at columbia, though i heard it can be done 2 years/2 years as well if youre good</p>
<p>What did you think of this program? Would you say it is a good alternative to a 4-yr engineering school?</p>
<p>Just in general I find the 3-2 programs to be sort of bizarre. At least conceptually. I can’t imagine going to a college through my junior year and then, effectively transferring away for senior year and doing 2 more years at an altogether different college, while my friends from those first three years go through senior year together and hit the job market or grad schools. And if you happened to spend a year or semester abroad, you’d barely have a connection to your alma mater.</p>
<p>I wonder if this is mostly a marketing thing to paper over a gap in majors offered…or if students actually follow through with it. I can’t imagine there are very many students who send in a deposit to a college while planning to transfer out of it (as a practical matter). This observation isn’t limited to Bowdoin…it’s something I’ve wondered every time I’ve heard someone talk about their college’s 3-2 program.</p>
<p>i think its a cool program - mostly because i would never want to waste 4 years of my life at an engineering school!</p>
<p>I see it as a compromise of going to a great school where you can explore a liberal arts curriculum, but still get guaranteed placement to Columbia’s engineering program</p>
<p>some people just might not be ready to do a “pre-professional” thing for all 4 years right out of high school.</p>
<p>so why not get a chance to explore your passions/other academic interests, and then also get pre-professional credentials? you get the best of both worlds!</p>
<p>3-2 engineering programs are of huge interest to prospective students on LAC message boards. Unfortunately, they are of virtually zero interest to actual students enrolled at LACs. The number of students who actually participate in 3-2 programs averages below 1 per year at many top LACs. </p>
<p>Some LACs have a 2-1-1-1 program with Dartmouth. You study engineering at Dartmouth during your junior year, then go back to your LAC and graduate as a BA with your class, then go back to Dartmouth for a fifth year of engineering and the engineering BS. This seems like a potentially better system than 3-2, since it leverages the “junior year away” concept that is popular with LAC students.</p>
<p>LAC students now tend to prefer the 4-2 approach. Get a solid BA focusing on physical science and math at a LAC, then apply to engineering graduate schools for an MS.</p>