Right now I have narrowed down my top schools and 3 come to mind. Emory, Lafayette and Union. I have always been interested in engineering, the way subways are built or Teslas for example. In high school I realized though that I excel in English and history class the most.
The problem is I want to go to a school that gives me the ability to be an engineer. I really want to attempt it. I’m in a dilemma because overall I Emory was my favorite school but in order to do engineering you have to do a 3-2 program with Georgia tech. Is this a good idea? I Won’t be exposed to my actual engineering subject till my 4th year.
Lafayette on the other hand, while a rarity, provides me with a 4 year education instead of 5 that will expose me to mechanical or civil engineering much sooner (I’m not sure if it’s freshman year when you start taking classes in engineering. If someone can answer this question too I would be very thankful)
Campus and environment wise I like Emory more ( the size and location especially) but it seems like Lafayette will be easier to get engaged with engineering and I will still be gaining a great liberal arts education. Please help me clarify the situation. Thank you.
If you want to do engineering, why Emory? It’s a great school, but it’s not an Engineering School. Lafayette is a liberal arts college with an engineering program. Georgia Tech is an engineering school.
The thing is that I am not sure about taking a path in engineering and I really connected with Emory regardless of there not being engineering directly there. The 3-2 program was intriguing.
Personally, I’d rather be happy for 5 years than unhappy or regretful for 4. It sounds like you connected with Emory and its people, campus, and personality, so if I were you I would seriously consider Emory because not everybody finds that school where they feel right at home.
I am personally not a fan of the 3+2 programs. Many students don’t finish the engineering part as they don’t want to leave the school where they are comfortable and happy and it is a negative to not get a taste of engineering before it is really too late to turn back. If you truly want engineering and feel that Lafayette and Union are too small, I would seek out some other options which have engineering available (ex. Lehigh, Villanova, URochester, GA Tech to name but a few).
For full disclosure my D recently graduated from Lafayette and loved it, but she was specifically looking for a LAC experience.
Emory seems like a good option (considering you like it there) because you won’t be faced with engineering until your 4th year so if before then you decide it’s not for you can switch majors without having yet committed to it (the problem @happy1 brings out).
Reach out to the faculty administrator of the 3+2 program at Emory and ask for historical statistics. Those stats might be very sobering. Ask how many start the program and how many finish. Also, make sure you clearly understand the requirements to transfer to Ga Tech - they might be tougher than you think. Remember that you will be thrown in to GT as a junior along with students who have been submerged in hardcore GT engineering courses for two years. It could be very overwhelming.
FYI, I have spoken to two 3+2 administrators (not Emory) and their stats showed that less than 10% follow through 3+2 to completion - for lots of different reasons.
While Emory and Ga Tech offer some joint and dual degrees, the reality is that most people who think they are going to do a 3/2 program do not end up doing so.
Not to mention of course that you will have to pay for five years of education rather than just four. Do you need financial aid? If so, verify how aid will work for all five years.
Keep looking. There are other smallish to mid-sized universities where you could start out in engineering, and then switch to a different major if you decide that wasn’f a good fit afte all.
Tufts is strong in both Engineering and LAs and has many of the same pluses as Emory regarding near/in city location, mid sized etc. Maybe expand your list and see if a different school ticks all your boxes?
@insanedreamer I don’t think it is good that the OP can’t taken engineering until his/her fourth year. I don’t think it is possible to make an informed decision as to if engineering is a good field for a person until he/she starts to take some classes and understand what the field is about. With a 3+2 program the OP won’t be able to take any engineering classes until after the school transfer is made, so he/she will have to make the upheaval in schools without knowing if he/she will like engineering at all. And if the transfer is made and the OP decides after a semester he/she doesn’t want engineering he/she will be in a new school with a major he/she doesn’t want. IMO it is preferable to take some engineering early on (freshman year) so if a student decides that the field isn’t for him/her there is plenty of time to change schedules/change majors within the same college. Also, paying for an extra year of undergrad is a negative IMO. If the OP wants engineering as an option I’d recommend that he/she expand the search to other schools (ex. Lehigh, Tufts, Villanova, URochester to name a few).
3/2 programs are just a marketing gimmick for schools to say they offer engineering. It’s one of those things that sound good in theory but rarely works in reality. If you want engineering, go to a school that actually teaches it.
Liberal arts and engineering are very difficult to combine without an extra year. Some engineering programs require over 120 credit hours, majors are 60+ credit hours instead of 30, at you have years of pre-requisites like calc, chemistry, physics, thermo, etc. before you get to your major. I would carefully evaluate your plan. You are often much better off getting an engineering masters degree in the same 5 year time.
^^^^ I would disagree. My D went to Lafayette and students there had no issue combining liberal arts and engineering in a 4 year program. In fact a number of her friends who went into engineering were able to double major in a liberal arts discipline (she knew engineers who double majored in art, economics, etc.). In that way engineering is a lot like studying other job-oriented discipline such as business, nursing etc. as an undergraduate – and I do believe that if structured well, programs can allow students to get great exposure to the liberal arts as well as their intended course of study. (ex. I was an accounting major with a history minor, my S went to Fordham and finished a large and demanding liberal arts core curriculum along with his business coursework etc.).
Go to Emory. It is your favorite, and you’re not going to be an engineer anyway.
The dropout rate for those actually enrolled in engineering is well over 50% at most schools. Why? Since it’s tough to get admitted in engineering it seldom is because they aren’t capable of the work. They just decide it isn’t worth it. I’m not really sure how a HS kid knows whether engineering is right or not, but it’s the way our system is set up. A lot of the kids that quit never had a strong belief it was right for them IMHO, so the crushing burden of schoolwork coupled with a lack of really understanding if engineering is right for them drives them out when they see their friends having a lot more fun in college and still equally confident about their future.
To me the 3:2 programs are for most kids a way to blanket over the unwillingness to decide, putting them on even weaker footing than those who at least profess such a desire at the start of college (ill-founded as it may turn out to be). Sure, there are some that truly want a liberal-arts education and then finish out in engineering. But for most 3:2 kids I think its just a way to putatively “keep the doors open” in hopes some “aha!” moment will confirm it for them, instead of starting college admitting they don’t know yet what they want to do in life.
If you don’t believe now that you are going to be an engineer, there is nothing that happens in college that will help you decide. The material in engineering classes teaches the theory of the field and the basics of the calculations, but practicing engineers do something quite different. They use programs to calculate load factors in bridges, behavior of circuits, vibration analysis of a component, etc. So taking engineering classes isn’t going to help you decide; in fact many engineers I know talk about the classes as largely 4 years of hazing before entering the profession. The way to decide is to read about what actual engineers do, and to talk to some of them, then decide if what they do is what you’d want to do.