I met with an adviser last week and she set me on a three year track to graduate with a civil engineering degree. I have enough scholarship money and financial aid to where my entire cost of attendance would be covered for four years. I am basically choosing between take just the civil engineering track and graduate in 3 years or pick up a couple minors in math and physics (another class for math and another 3 classes for physics) and pick up an engineering leadership certificate (another 3 classes) which would stretch me to 4 years with 12-15 credit hours per semester. What are your guy’s opinion on whether or not it would be a good idea to graduate early. If you guys could give advice on how this would affect transition into industry and graduate school that would be great. I am entertaining both options at this point.
If you are really focused on getting a job, this puts you in a good position. I would attend job fairs in your third year to both see what was out there and to collect a little interest. Once you’ve seen the lay of the land, you could contact some places both interesting TO you and some places that were interested IN you.
Your question to them would be, of course "Let’s say I could do a few things to customize myself. What would it be and what would it be worth to you?
Of course, you will want to keep your graduate school options alive and open in case what they want involves some graduate level activities.
I was in that position once. I chose to take a second major (in math) instead, which I would say was an excellent choice. One of my other classmates in the same position chose to double as well (in physics), which also ended well.
Ten years from now, no one will care how early(or how late, really) you finished your BS if you will end up leaving school after that (and 100% of companies won’t mind if you learn more in school). If you don’t leave school yet, why rush and lose a year of paid-for education? If you go for an MS, you will have to start paying right away, when you could finish a substantial fraction of that program in your extra year. If you go for a PhD, you would save a lot of effort (maybe a year’s worth or more) by having more formal education and lab experience as an undergrad. When you have debt, the rush to graduation is more understandable. When you aren’t, if you think it through you will find that it isn’t worth it.
Also, math and physics as minors are far, far different from math and physics as majors. Engineers learn the low-level results applicable in most commonplace situations. When you start taking proofs or more theoretical physics, you start to learn why things work the way they do and how you could actually make progress in those fields.
What University do you attend? What year are you now? Does your University offer a masters degree in civil engineering? And a BS/MS program? Do you have any interest in getting an MS? If I was in your situation, I would look into using that extra time to get an MS degree rather than minor or engineering leadership program, since an MS degree will provide more career benefits. You may be able to remain an undergrad for your 4th year, and retain your scholarships, while completing classes that will count to an MS degree, so that you could complete it quickly.
@sacchi
Answers to questions:
- UCF (University of Central Florida)
- Freshman/second semester (came in with 45 credit hours from highschool)
- UCF does offer a masters in structural engineering which is the route I think I’m going to pursue
- I am interested in a Master’s as long as it is done full time because I have heard from many working civil engineers that when they went back for their masters it took them 5-7 years and by the time they got it, it was no longer useful for their career.
When I spoke with the adviser she did say that I could take graduate level courses as long as she specifically indicated they were not used for my undergraduate degree. She said by doing this I could transfer those credits to most graduate schools. I’m definitely am interested in some of the graduate level courses in Bridge Engineering and Finite Element Methods and will try to work those in even around my minors.
The main problem with just taking graduate level courses is threefold in my mind:
- I don’t believe UCF has a BS/MS program or at least there are so few people in the program that I have not met a person on that track. It is my impression that once you complete senior capstone design you must graduate although I am not sure if this is definitely true and I will have to ask my adviser about this. I currently am under the impression that you cannot solely take graduate level courses after you complete your undergraduate but like I said I will have to confirm this.
- The prerequisites are pretty high up to where I would only be able to take them junior and senior year (assuming fastest possible track through the prerequisites. This forces me to take full course loads my sophomore year (I’m trying to stretch things out to about 9 credit hours of core major requirements per semester. That would accelerate me towards graduation and I would be graduating in less than four years unless I take two or more graduate level courses in my junior and senior year which would be very strenuous, I would think.
- I would like to keep the minors because they also help get rid of Honors college requirements (linear algebra and physics 3). After linear algebra and physics 3 I believe I would be one course away from the math minor and 3 classes away from the physics minor. I am definitely less attached to the idea of an engineering leadership certificate and may use the three courses for graduate level coursework.
Thank you for the suggestions everyone. You all have been very helpful with you suggestions and responses.
My D is in a similar situation. She is considering a dual degree in engineering (1 more semester) or Sequential Undergraduate and Graduate Studies (2 more semester). If you have a financial burden, it makes sense to graduate as soon as possible. If you have a good scholarship to cover most of the cost and you are not in a hurry to earn money, one more year of college life is invaluable. Don’t forget that you will also have one more summer for internship.