After some careful deliberation, I’ve decided that I want to pursue the engineering track at JMU. In high school I was an exceptional math and science student, but I decided to attend JMU because I believed I could be a big fish in a small pond for pre-med, which would benefit me more than the name prestige of other Virginia universities. However, now that I’ve switched over to engineering, I’m starting to question whether staying at JMU would be the smartest choice. They only have a general engineering major, and the department is just coming up on its 9th year. I like JMU, but I would transfer for the sake of academics. Does anyone have any knowledge of the engineering major at JMU, how it compares to other neighboring Virginia schools, or if engineers have success after graduation?
JMU Engineering is just that, General Engineering. If you are serious about this major, you might want to 1st talk to the department to get a feel for what their graduates do upon degree completion. Ask about if the program is fully accredited and allows for sitting for the EIT exam, etc. I know that most jobs in Engineering list specific degrees such as ME, EE, etc. so I am not sure where a GE degree would fall for jobs. Given its newness, I doubt it stacks up to programs at UVA, VT, GMU, VCU and ODU which I do have experience with students obtaining jobs from these. Just my thoughts.
I agree with @bboop42 , general engineering is kind of an oddball major. I believe JMU engineers can get PE licenses, so it’s fully ABET accredited. I know a couple JMU engineering grads, mostly in environmental engineering type of stuff or construction management, not necessarily working in real EE/ME/Civil work. I believe a lot of JMU engineers transfer to other state colleges like VT after a year or two, their courses transfer and they go into their more desired engineering discipline.