<p>I have just been accepted into the Harvey Mudd class of 2018! I am looking to major in Engineering and was wondering whether a general engineering degree puts Mudd Engineering graduates at a disadvantage compared to their peers when applying for admission at graduate schools in a specific branch of engineering or when heading off into the work force? In other words, do Mudd engineering graduates have a lot of explaining to do when potential employers realize that they only have a general engineering degree? Do Mudd engineers who head off to graduate school have a lot of catching up to do when they are lumped together with people who studied a specific discipline for their undergraduate degree?</p>
<p>The data seems to argue that Mudd grads have very attractive options both for graduate school and for employment. I am told that many of the Engr seniors will take EIT (Engr in Training) exam which can make it a bit easier to get your practitioners license. Another issue is that Mudd’s Clinic and its Career Services programs bring more recruiters to the campus than there are seniors going into industry.
A worthwhile consideration is that HMC has a particular vision for the kind of Engineer it produces (see the mission statement). In keeping with that vision, it probably would help for you to be confident that the process of the education agrees with your ideals - like their Core curriculum, their focus on speaking and writing, the team-oriented learning style, the required courses in social sciences and humanities, etc… </p>
<p>I think that a general engineering degree can be somewhat advantageous because it shows that you have skills in many areas. You can still take more courses in a specialized area. Mudd engineering students generally present themselves to employers as electrical engineers or mechanical engineers or whatever they consider their interest to be, but they have the freedom to apply to jobs in many different fields. Also, employers tend to know about Mudd and that their engineers are well-trained. I would say the bigger issue could be explaining a low GPA to employers who are trained to filter their employee searches by GPA.</p>
<p>Here is my opinion: I absolutely think there would be disadvantages if you were to look for specific fields such as chemical or petroleum engineering. I would argue that the disadvantages would extend to other fields. The big advantage would be for jobs with very good training programs. The employer can assess a Harvey Mudd applicant through diversified courses and could potentially choose the person best suited for that training program.</p>
<p>Looking at the outcomes of the Harvey Mudd graduates, I believe that the advantage lies in a strong foundation for pursuing further education in the form of graduate degrees. Also, if you look at the outcomes, the graduates pursuing employment are heavily represented by software engineers:</p>
<p>Also, the Mudd engineering curriculum was originally designed to prepare students well for graduate school instead of necessarily going to industry right away. Most graduates these days seem to have good success with either option, though.</p>
<p>Although the degree is a general engineering degree, there is definitely an emphasis on electrical and mechanical engineering over other sorts. This emphasis shows up in the three semesters of systems engineering and the one semester of experimental engineering. The most popular electives are in electrical engineering, digital/computer engineering, and mechanical engineering. That being said, there are strong professors in chemical engineering, but someone wanting to do ChemE, CivE, PetrE, etc. would be best off going to grad school after Mudd.</p>
<p>There are definitely a lot of good classes in mechanical engineering, like dynamics of elastic systems and incompressible flow. There’s also advanced heat transfer for the thermo side of things, but I don’t think there are any thermo classes beyond that. As for electrical/computer engineering, the microprocessors and embedded systems classes are popular and look particularly good to employers. The “science stem” of the engineering core is one intro class in each of thermodynamics, analog electrical engineering, digital engineering, mechanical engineering, and materials. There are plenty of other electives in systems engineering, engineering management, manufacturing, and information systems.</p>