<p>A few weeks back I saw a recommendation for Trinity University's engineering. They person on CC said that they had ChemE, ElecE and MechE. I am interested in chemical engineering so recently I started looking into it. When i was browsing their website I only found they offer an engineering science major, but saw nothing of any specific engineering program such as ChemE. Do they offer chemical engineering? Or is their engineering science just a broad engineering degree that is not specific? Is this what I'm looking for?</p>
<p>Trinity University is ABET-EAC accredited to award a degree in Engineering Science. They cannot award an ABET accredited BS degree in Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or in Mechanical Engineering.</p>
<p>What Trinity can do is award you a BSES (Engineering Science) and allow you to concentrate in ChemE, EE, or ME. It is not the same as graduating with a BSME, BSEE, or BSChemE. You are not as prepared for industry or in as much demand by industry as someone with one of those degrees.</p>
<p>well what you mentioned is important to me so I guess trinity is out of the running. Thanks for clearing that up.</p>
<p>I know this is way too late, but for others who are reading this and feel the same way: Don’t completely cross it off the list! I am studying Engineering Science at Trinity and I’m focusing on ChemE too! The teachers are wonderful and very personable making the struggle of Engineering a bit lighter.
The benefits of our program:
- You come out with a better understanding about Engineering in all fields rather than just one.
- Like I said, the department is fantastic, you will never get this kind of help or community anywhere else.
- You make life-long friends in the small classes - you have the same classes with the same students. May seem like a bad thing at first but once you realize that you’re all in the same boat and struggling with the same things, you can rely on others to help you out when you need it.
- You CAN focus on a specific study. Trinity offers Engineering Elective classes that allow you to take classes in a specific study (MechE, ChemE, EE…) I have taken 3 ChemE elective classes already and I plan to take 2 more at my time at Trinity. I have learned a great deal about Chemical Engineering at my time at Trinity but I also have the ability to work for companies that need Electrical Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Product/Design Engineers, etc! It really does pay off in the end.
- Lastly, Trinity offers an Engineering Design course every semester that is required for the major, however its an AWESOME class. We finally put our studying to action! We take a problem, come up with multiple solutions, pick the best one, create it, and send it off for someone to use! Check out the projects on Trinity’s Engineering Department website! [Prospective</a> Students - Engineering Science at Trinity University](<a href=“http://www.trinity.edu/departments/engineering/Prospectives.html#designseq]Prospective”>http://www.trinity.edu/departments/engineering/Prospectives.html#designseq)</p>
<p>I am sorry this message is so long but I LOVE the decision I made going into the Trinity Engineering Science program. It is a LOT of work, but any major at any college is going to be hard depending on how much work you decide to put into it!</p>
<p>To me Trinity is doing what Harvard’s SEAS is doing.</p>
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That’s great, but it kinds of makes you a “jack of all trades, master of none”, whereas engineering companies will normally want you to be a master of something. As mentioned, you are not as prepared for industry or in as much demand by industry as someone with a degree in a specific engineering discipline.
Also, engineering programs aren’t as segregated as you might think. For example, I’m required to take a course in circuits (EE), one in materials (MS&E) and one in optimization (I&SE) for my degree in ChemE. </p>
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I’m sure it’s great, but there are plenty of other fantastic departments.</p>
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I go to an absolutely massive state university, yet I’m in small classes with all the same students as well. In engineering, what you’re describing isn’t limited to small colleges.</p>
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If you wanted to focus on a specific study, wouldn’t it be wiser to just attend a school that has a specific study program?
Also, have you actually tried doing an internship/co-op/working with a company that needs one of those types of engineers? I’m interested in knowing how that worked out.</p>
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This is basically a given for every engineering program. In my school’s ChemE department, senior students are basically assigned a project by a company in industry, and work on it for that academic year, submitting the results to the company at the end. It’s great, but you can find it almost anywhere - nothing worth choosing ES instead of ChemE over.</p>
<p>sforeman, I am not saying that you are doomed by going to Trinity, but you have some misguided statements here.</p>
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<p>In general, this is not what employers or graduate schools are looking for. They want to know that you are competent in the area they are hiring you for, not that you have a taste of a bunch of different fields. In many cases, depth is preferred more than breadth.</p>
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<p>That is a pretty bold claim. I bet the help and community there is pretty similar to other small schools. Not having been to any small schools for engineering, I can’t say with certainty, but not having been to any other schools, neither can you.</p>
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<p>I did my undergrad at a large university and I can tell you with 100% certainty that you take all your classes with almost all the same people once you start doing your core courses. It was enough that we could tell who had transferred out or fallen behind if we really wanted to because faces stopped showing up in classes. Certainly there are advantages to small class sizes such as more personal attention, but the advantage you cite is not unique to small schools except in the case of the classes like gen chem or calculus.</p>
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<p>That isn’t really a benefit, as a true chemical engineering program has many more than that.</p>
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<p>Are you sure about this? In practice it rarely works out that way. You may thing “Hey I know a little bit about all these things so I can do all of them” but to many employers, they are thinking “He/She knows a little about all these things but not enough about any of them except the one he/she focused on.” The maxim of “Jack of all trades, master of none” holds true.</p>
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<p>Now this truly is a benefit in some regard. Most traditional engineering programs only have a handful of these type of courses and they usually don’t show up until near the end of your time in the program (say, the last two years or so). There is certainly some value in engaging students in design courses earlier like that so long as it doesn’t interfere with their overall depth of knowledge.</p>
<p>I am not trying to put down Trinity University, as I know of successful engineers that have come from there. I met a guy the other day that went on to get his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at a major school after doing his undergrad at Trinity, so it clearly doesn’t discount you from going to grad school. However, I am trying to keep the thread objective, and some of the things you cited as advantages aren’t really advantages in many cases.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t these issues/concerns apply at any school with a general engineering science degree? Harvard, Dartmouth, Harvey Mudd, to name a few.</p>
<p>Good points boneh3ad ;)</p>
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<p>Same to you. It seems we were typing at the same time and you started about 3 minutes before me, haha. I posted it and just figured “Whatever, I’ll leave it.”</p>
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<p>To some extent, yes. You will notice there aren’t many Harvard or Dartmouth Engineering Science graduates hanging around in industry. Similarly, Harvey Mudd tends to send people either to graduate school or local(-ish) industries that already know it is a good school.</p>
<p>I am not saying that these types of schools don’t have their merits, only that you have to know what you are getting into.</p>