Engineering vs Liberal Arts degree?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Well, to start off, I really want to do something regarding the environment. As for what, I'm not quite sure yet...</p>

<p>Thus far, I think I want to do something with Environmental Engineering (air pollution or energy, so maybe even Energy Engineering) partially because I really enjoy engineering and partially because I want to do something with the environment.</p>

<p>On the other hand, I recently became interested in Carleton College. Not to sound like a valley girl, but like, really interested. The campus and the atmosphere resonates with me... or at least, that's what I think I feel. In short, I just really like that school.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, Carleton doesn't exactly have a separate engineering degree-- but I looked into it and it does have a 3-2 or 4-2 engineering program with 3/4 years at Carleton for a Liberal Arts bachelor's degree of my choice (if I go for it, most likely environmental science) and 2 years for a master's degree in engineering at Columbia.</p>

<p>I know I probably shouldn't worry about this until I actually get accepted to places, but would it be more practical in the long run to go to maybe UC Berkeley or something and get an engineering degree or get both a liberal arts degree in Environmental Studies and then a master's in engineering?</p>

2

<p>Depends on what you mean by “the environment” and what you want to do with that. I haven’t heard the greatest things about 3-2 programs and I would approach that with caution. Ask Carleton how many students typically participate in the program each year, what the attrition rate is, and what kind of results they have after transferring to Columbia.</p>

3

<p>I would agree, 3-2 and 4-2 are very interesting. But I’m not too sure on how they pan out. Plus the other school usually has no obligation to give you any type of financial assistance. Full pay at Columbia would be a lot.</p>

<p>But regarding environment lots of other majors cross over such as geology, biology, chemistry etc. Really depends on what your focus is going to be. Engineering is more along the lines of building the solution as opposed to figuring out what the problem is to begin with.</p>

4

<p>If you want both in 4 years, try Bucknell, Lafayette or Lehigh. My advice would be Cal, however. Since you “valley speak,” I assume you’re from CA. Cal has two large advantages over my suggestions - much more well regarded for engineering and less expensive for an in state kid.
You can go to grad school for environmental policy.</p>

5

<p>This is a generalization, but there are two approaches if you want to do something for the environment:</p>

<p>1) Work at developing something new.</p>

<p>2) Work to help reduce pollution/carbon footprint.</p>

<p>Lots of kids go into environmental studies thinking they’re going to reduce pollution, and become really frustrated as adults. Many wind up in compliance jobs for companies. That means that you work for a company that pollutes (oil companies hire a lot of people in this area, for example), and enable them to pollute as much as they can without getting in trouble with the regulatory agencies. Most of the others wind up in government jobs, where they either act as police over the polluters or enable the companies to get permits (which often means enabling the polluters to come as close to legal pollution limits without going beyond them). </p>

<p>The complaince jobs at the companies pay far better than the jobs with the government agencies.</p>

<p>So many of these jobs are about enforcing and complying with government regulations. There are few jobs developing public policy, and those generally mean working with or for politicians, who have to keep their constituents happy. Constituents aren’t happy when environmental regulations cost them their jobs.</p>

<p>There are, of course, people who try to educate the world about pollution, but those jobs are few and far between.</p>

<p>Environmental studies majors often wind up in different fields, or complain about the drudgery of spending their lives concentrating on permits and bureaucracy for low pay.</p>

<p>Environmental engineers often work on environmental cleanups and the engineering details of getting new plants or facilities installed so that they comply with environmental regulations. Once again, many of those jobs are about compliance or enforcement.</p>

<p>I hope I’m not throwing a bucket of water on our dreams, but the people who will make a difference in improving the environment are those who will develop something new that enables people to pollute less, such as new energy sources, fuel efficient transportation systems, etc. If you want to do that, aim for mechanical or electrical or chemical engineering and a few other fields – those are the people who will have the greatest influence on changing the environment.</p>

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<p>Regarding 3/2 engineering programs, check with the schools to find out how many people actually do them. This is a banner flown by a large number of liberal arts colleges, but if you check their actual numbers, very few students actually become engineers that way. If you’re considering engineering but aren’t sure yet, consider schools that have both engineering and liberal arts programs (Cal, Lafayette, Bucknell and Lehigh, among others, are all good choices).</p>

6

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<p>Politicians may also be wedded to an ideology (either left wing or right wing) which causes them to refuse to accept a realistic policy recommendation.</p>

7

<p>Engineering 3/2 programs look appealing at first. But few students would want to switch schools at end of junior year, especially if in another city. Also I’ve read there are limited number of transfer slots. For most famlies and extra year of college cost is also a big factor.</p>

<p>Having said that, I had a classmates a a private college had done 3 years at a state school in 3/2. (This was after he got overwhelmed at an elite private engineering school and worked a few years as a mechanic). He has had tremendous success in the corporate world, but he was one smart dude.</p>

8

<p>I was in a Physics and Engineering 3+2 program last semester and this will be my last semester of it because I have just decided to transfer into an engineering program at another school earlier (2nd semester sophomore year). I was all about the 3+2 program but then when I was talking to other engineering schools about it, they said that I would need to take separate classes at a community college (thermodynamics, statics, etc.) if I wanted to graduate on time and it was looking like 5 years would be more like 6 years. I decided it wasnt worth it and that I should just start my engineering career now so I applied and was accepted. Long story short, you should talk to the engineering schools you want to apply to after the 3 years before you commit to your 3+2 program.</p>