My daughter is a senior this year and is interested in an engineering degree. She has been accepted to Trinity for the Fall 2018 semester. She is also interested in CS, however, after doing a month long engineering program last summer at MIT, she really thinks she wants to go the engineering route. She has also been accepted to Texas A&M in engineering as well as Colorado School of Mines. She has automatic admission to UT-Austin, however, did not get accepted into UT’s engineering school. I love the size and vibe of Trinity for her but she is concerned about Trinity’s Engineering degree. It does not seem to be comparable to the other schools as far as engineering is concerned. They just offer an Engineering Science degree. Does anyone have any insight on if you are qualified to take the PE after you graduate from Trinity’s engineering program? Or, just any insight into their engineering degree and how we should consider it when looking at good choices for our daughter. I have heard so many stories of kids thinking that one certain degree is for them and once they get into college things change. I want her to have a school that offers a good engineering path as well as a path she can grow into and change up a bit if needed. Any insight will be very helpful. We are getting close to needing to make decisions very soon and since she has been rejected by UT she has really been in a bit of a slump. She is still waiting to hear from a couple of reach schools(Vanderbilt and WashU). But even if she gets into one of those I’m not sure the expense is something we are ready to take on. She has been awarded a scholarship to Trinity that has it inline with the Texas public colleges. We live in Houston.
The facility itself is terrific. The classes are small.
I would call Admissions, and ask the head of the Engineering Dep’t to get a hold of you and your daughter via email or phone to discuss these precise issues. They are remarkably responsive in my experience.
As to the CS Department, it is terrific, the best Prof (IMO) is Dr. Mark Lewis. My S is a Junior CS Major at TU.
Good luck to your D!
Thank You! I was thinking about doing that…didn’t know if that was appropriate or not. I will give it a try. Has your
S looked into any internships for the summer? Just curious if Trinity is a big promoter of summer internships.
@ColdinMinny , I have similar question around internship and career service. According to the “Ultimate Guide to America’s Best Colleges 2018”, after a long paragraph of great things about Trinity, “On the negative side, the study abroad and career service programs are not as strong.”
I graduated from trinity over 25 years ago with the engineering science degree and feel that I received a very good engineering education. Unless things have changed, your daughter will definitely be qualified to take the relevant professional exams upon graduation. In my day, engineers from all schools took the “Engineering in training” exam at the end (or last semester) in college and then took th PE exam after working for several years. Trinity grads always had a higher pass rate on the EIT than the state schools in Texas, as I recall. I think this was attributed to the smaller class sizes, emphasis on undergraduate teaching, and the focus of the engineering science curriculum on fundamentals as opposed to particular technologies (which aligns well with the EIT exam).
In my view, the engineering science curriculum, which is is ABET accredited, is similar to the first three years of more traditional engineering curriculums with likely fewer alternatives and requirements for upper class technical electives. I believe students at trinity still specialize either in mechanical, electrical, or chemical engineering in their studies (choosing their speciality after a few years), although the degree does not indicate this specialty (as was the case when I graduated). It is a particularly good program for students who are not sure yet what they want I do (as is trinity in general).
That’s the good part. The downside is some employers are not very familiar with the engineering science degree and also that trinity is a smaller school so it may not offer as many opportunities for on campus job interviewing, so that is something to consider and ask the department head about. If your student is planning on a graduate degree after undergrad, however, I think these issues don’t really matter.
I wish you the best.
Again, my S is a CS Major. However, he has had an Internship every summer. The first summer was through a professor at TU working on gene sequencing algorithms, and he has secured internships from there on in. I will note, however, that my S has had to do a lot of legwork. I suspect he is not using all the resources available, but he has received internship offers and appears to be doing well.
Placement and internships is absolutely an appropriate question for you to put to Admissions and Prof’s in your target department…at least in my opinion. The educational piece is too important (and expensive) to not ask about this directly.
Good luck!
I would avoid Trinity. If she got accepted into Texas A&M for engineering, I would take it and run! It’s a top ranked program that competes head to head with UT. The only difference is that A&M is not as selective. Employers from all over the country recruit at Texas A&M
A&M terrific school. However, your D better be prepared to take her classes, especially the first couple years, with very large classes. Much smaller, hands on instruction at TU. For some kids, makes no difference. To others, it is a big deal. Not a TA in sight at TU; lots of TA’s at A&M.