I will be entering Rice as a BME freshmen this August. Right now my future aspirations are grad school and a job in research and development (and hopefully a not a job where I have to sit behind a computer in my cubical or inspecting products)
In the past, I was sure that I would be an aeronautical engineer as I had a great passion for planes and wing design.
Only recently have I been inspired by the advances in Biomedical Engineering and the impact that the work has in improving lives. The field seemed to have a more meaningful impact than aeronautical engineering.
However, I am not yet over my love for planes and wings and I feel conflicted between the two. What are some ways that I can gain experience between the two and decide?
Does Rice offer any services, events, clubs, activities, etc. that help engineering students learn and experience the different engineering disciplines?
Thank you
Before I describe Rice’s opportunities, just realize that many, probably most actually, people your age trying to enter engineering don’t know which type to take. And that’s perfectly okay because believe it or not, you have a lot of time to decide, especially if you plan to attend grad school.
Anyways, at Rice, most freshmen in engineering have the same curriculum: physics, chem, math, another tech course, and an elective. There’s this class that many freshmen take called Engi 120, which is engineering design, that can really help you with getting experience in, well, engineering design. Many use that course see what aspect of engineering they’re interested and it would be a great way for you start narrowing down your choices at an early stage. Since most engineering curriculums are the same the first year, you don’t really have to worry about making a choice too early because you won’t get behind in classes.
In addition to classes, there are other opportunities around campus. The Center for Career Development (CCD) has appointments where you can walk in, talk about your situation, and they’ll help you out. You aren’t alone in having trouble picking an engineering field, so the CCD probably has had many appointments related to this matter and will be able to help a lot. Talking to an engineering advisor or professor would also be very helpful, though you’d have to be able to track them down in their busy schedule. Talking with peers in your residential college about their experience can also be extremely beneficial, since they probably have first hand experience in that field. There are also different clubs related to engineering you can join to see a bit of what work you might be able to do. RiceX and iGem are related to aerospace and bioengineering, respectively, but there are also many other activities for other engineering fields. Lastly, during O-Week, there are plenty of opportunities and events specifically geared towards inquiring more information about majors so I highly advise you to take advantage of those and get as much information as possible to help you figure with this decision.
I also want to note that Rice does not specifically have an aerospace engineering major. There are some courses related to aerospace in the mechanical engineering department which you might be able to take depending on if you took the pre-req courses, but there isn’t a specific major itself. And it’s also important to note that for grad school, you do not have to study the same thing you studied in undergrad. You can definitely go from bioengineering undergrad to aerospace grad (or vice versa) so long as you learn the foundation skills in both fields.
ChiGuy123 thank you for your extremely informative response. Do you know if having a different undergrad degree than your intended grad degree will affect admission in any way? Thanks again
For fields within engineering, I suspect it would not, if you shown you’ve done well with your undergrad field of study. Certain grad schools may require certain pre-req courses to be fulfilled but I would think that you would be able to satisfy most of them if you stick with any engineering curriculum. If you stay involved and demonstrate excellence in any engineering field of study, it should be rather easy to swtich within engineering degrees. Most graduate programs look for similar elements in an applicant: strong GPA, high involvement, relevant experience, good relations with professors (for letters of rec). So a lot of this actually happens outside of your undergrad field of study. If you’re interested in certain graduate programs now, however, it would be worth your time to check their program application requirements so that you make sure you’re able to satisfy them in your undergrad at Rice.
DS was a Mech E at Rice. He mentioned once that had he to do it over again, he might have selected Electrical instead of Mechanical Engineering. No matter-- he has been able to get jobs he enjoys and loves his current position. Younger s has a Chem E degree from a different school and has a position like that of the Mech E.