Has anybody completed the 3-2 engineering?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

I’m currently a high school senior and I’m considering applying ED to a liberal arts college for 3-2 engineering. I have a few questions for people who are currently, or have previously completed it.

  1. Are you glad you are in the 3-2 engineering? Do you wish you had gone to another school and completed 4 years instead?
  2. Did your financial aid from the LA college transfer? If not, was it difficult to get needed financial aid at ____ university?
  3. Were you able to study abroad?
  4. After completing it, were you able to find decent jobs? (Does anybody know the average salary of someone who did 3-2, without getting a masters?)
  5. How rigorous were the courses for the 3-2 engineering? Was there time to participate in sports?
2

If you have not already seen this thread, start there - http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1806509-is-a-3-2-program-a-good-idea.html#latest

  1. I did have a few friends in college that came from a 3-2 program and did well (one very well - upper level management). But perhaps they could have done same just spending 4 years at my school. Since the first 3 years were state school, I think there was a financial appeal to not enrolling in private STEM school til more sure it was the right move.
3

Search this topic, as it has been discussed MANY times here on CC. The general consensus (and of course it’s not true of everyone) is that it is better to begin your career at a STEM university, rather than transfer after two years at an LAC. To each her own.

4

Yes there have been a lot of discussions on the problems with a 3-2 program. Perhaps that is why there are not many posts by people with actual success stories with such programs.

5

This is directly from the pre-engineering advising web page of Williams College:

This is 9 out of 10 of a small number.

If you want top notch Engineering with a liberal arts/teaching focus check out Olin, Tufts and Harvey Mudd.

Bucknell, Villanova, Lafayette and Union also offer engineering in a Liberal Arts setting.

https://physics.williams.edu/pre-engineering/

6

Don’t get me wrong, I like Tufts, a lot. I wouldn’t call it a top notch engineering program though. Can’t disagree with the assessment of Olin and Mudd though.

The problem with the rest is that the engineering programs are not strong. Before choosing one of them, look carefully at the course catalog and labs to get an idea of what you’ll be trading to be in that environment.

For a school that allows engineers to take quite a few history, arts and social science courses along with a very diverse population of majors where the engineering is VERY good, look at Lehigh.

7

Only consider Lehigh if you want to be at a school that is 50% greek.

8

UMich also has the 5yr sequential program, but it is more like 4+1 as it is not likely to finish the bachelor part in 3 years anyway so the 4th year is a kind of mix. It does not really matter how do you call it. I know many students did that but most of them interested in research or Ph.D. afterward. For BME, it is very helpful to have a master degree in the job market though.