I have a friend who is certain she wants to major in engineering, but is not sure which engineering field she wants to major in. I’ve heard of colleges that have a semester or year where students get to explore different engineering fields before having to commit to one-- does anyone know colleges that do this? This particular student has very high stats. Thanks!
Flagship-level colleges with first-year-engineering (FYE) programs that do not have competitive admission or high GPA requirements to enter specific majors include Michigan, Pittsburgh, and Virginia. At these colleges, engineering departments do not have capacity limitations beyond admission to the college or the engineering division.
Those with FYE programs where admission to specific majors is competitive or requires a GPA substantially higher than 2.0 include Purdue, Minnesota, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Ohio State, Penn State, NCSU, and others. These admission requirements are generally due to capacity limitations.
A few colleges that admit most frosh directly to engineering majors but where changing to a different engineering major is difficult due to capacity limitations do have an engineering undeclared option where frosh can declare an engineering major later with fewer or no restrictions.
Some extremely selective and less selective colleges do not have capacity restrictions on engineering majors, so changing into an engineering major is easy if the student has the prerequisites. However, they may differ in terms of how much advising is oriented toward the “undecided engineering” student.
We just took the Wisconsin engineering tour last week and they have an ‘exploratory engineering’ first year track. You apply to the school of engineering as a Freshman but then can be on the exploratory track the first year before choosing a specialty. They also said you can change your specialty after end of first year and provided GPA thresholds to do so. Some are higher than others. Important to read the fine print on all these.
If Wisconsin has a exploratory engineering track they don’t go a good job of promoting it on their website. Here is their webpage for 1st-year engineers with no mention that I see: https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/student-services/academic-advising/first-year-undergraduate-students/
In general I’m somewhat skeptical of entering engineering undecided and thinking school will help you make up your mind during that first year. It is nice to take a class about engineering in general to learn what various fields involve; someone may feel they could see themselves working on computer design but not at all interested in industrial chemical design. But you don’t really need a class to do this. There are books and websites about engineering as a career, the prudent student will follow up by networking thru parents of their friends to talk to engineers to get more specific questions answered, maybe shadow someone for a day, etc.
Just taking classes in a few areas to see what resonates is a less useful approach. For one thing there is so much math & science required for engineering that the first year is primarily preparation, all engineers taking about the same math & science classes. Secondly, engineering classes are quite different from engineering as a career; the former emphasizes learning principles, working engineers apply them.
Many many schools have at least first year engineering design class that allows students to get some exposure to the different disciplines.
College career centers can also help students identify their strengths and interests.
@mikemac – Interesting that the website doesn’t show this. They provided a booklet with clear information about this option for first-year engineering students. They said when you apply you choose Engineering on the application and then “Exploratory Engineering” as your major instead of, for example, mechanical. Because most first year majors take basically the same thing it doesn’t make a big difference in the courses taken. They did say students on the exploratory track will take a more broad first year design class designed to expose students to a lot of types of engineering and they assign you an advisor who works with with you to help choose a speciality.
They also said at end of first year it’s not uncommon for students on specific tracks to switch into another engineering major anyway. That said, they also provided very specific min GPA to get into the different engineering majors – some were higher than others.
VT and NC State just have all their first years on the the same exploratory track before choosing a major and some are more competitive than others. Both assert that the vast majority get their first choice but this is hard to confirm.
Some engineering majors at Wisconsin require a 3.5 technical and 3.0 overall GPA to stay in or get into the major:
https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/student-services/academic-advising/first-year-undergraduate-students/progression-requirements/
Some of the students who change majors may be doing so because their GPAs are not high enough to get into their first choice major.
VT guarantees choice of major for general engineering (i.e. undeclared frosh in the College of Engineering) students with a 3.0 college GPA: https://enge.vt.edu/content/dam/enge_vt_edu/undergraduate/coe_com.pdf
“In general I’m somewhat skeptical of entering engineering undecided and thinking school will help you make up your mind during that first year. ”
Such programs have been extremely effective and more and more schools are moving to them, so your skepticism is not aligned with schools and students, IME.
I had to enter a specific major back when I applied and switched at the end of F year based on class work. My D finished FYE at a leading school last year and it helped her decide.
I think you give “books and websites” too much credit, compared to actual course and lab work, in helping to understand various engineering disciplines.