<p>I am not asking this because I am desperate to go to the LAC first. However, for financial reasons, I might be able to get better scholarships at an LAC or even a bigger school that does not have engineering, and then do engineering in grad school, or maybe do a 3-2 program. Plus, I have found private schools to give more in financial aid than the state schools which have the engineering programs. </p>
<p>I do not have any financial aid packages at all. I just have a couple scholarship offers in hand. It is just really possible that a small LAC will give me a better financial package than the university. I figured it would not be best in the long run. Until I read here that engineers often need graduate degrees anyway. I know a lot of people with undergrad degrees in physics will go on to grad school for engineering. </p>
<p>I would love some great advice on this. I am very worried about financing. (I am a white female by the way, if that matters).</p>
<p>agreed, most engineering careers do not require a graduate program.</p>
<p>Also, how would your LAC degree prepare you to enter a graduate engineering program? Have you looked at entrance requirements for those grad programs?</p>
<p>If you are a female engineering applicant you are essentially a minority at many engineering schools, so you may be able to get merit scholarships.
There are lots of threads in here and on the main college search page about 3-2 programs.
Maybe if you were more specific about your goals and qualifications you could get more specific advice.</p>
<p>First, as ken noted, engineers do NOT have to go to grad school, at least not at first. Most engineers go straight into industry, getting a masters degree a few years down the road if at all. A masters is a requirement only for certain specialties in certain disciplines - I got a job with a BS in EE, and got my MS really because I wanted to do antenna design, a subject not adequately taught at the undergrad level.</p>
<p>Second, LACs typically (although not universally) have a few shortcomings that can make getting into grad schools harder. While such schools offer an excellent grounding in theory and some of the fundamentals, they often lack the facilities and faculty to offer much depth in many (or any) areas. Grad schools are about specialization, and they want to see some advanced coursework and research in or near your proposed specialty, and this is something that LACs tend to struggle with. They also want that research to occur under solid engineering researchers, again something that LACs are not known for.</p>
<p>Now, if a LAC makes a better offer, you can still take it - you will still get a good education, will have better positioning for things like patent law and business school, and while your education may be limited in some areas it is still certainly be true that you will have good employment and grad school opportunities (if not as good as graduates from more typical tech schools). Debt is a big problem these days, and the minor disadvantages you see from a LAC may be well worth the reduced cost.</p>
<p>There are engineering schools which offer good scholarships as well. Many of them are smaller schools from among the Association of Independent Technical Universities. While not exactly having the same feel as a LAC, they offer a low student-faculty ratio and the more research-oriented schools provide an excellent preparation for graduate school.</p>
<p>All that being said, your local state university with an ABET-accredited Engineering program can also be a good financial bargain and will allow you to finish in 4 years instead of 5 with a 3+2 (or more likely a 2+3) program.</p>
<p>Going to graduate school in engineering is often a decision best left after working in industry for a couple of years. Engineering graduate programs like to see their applicants with some real-world experience.</p>
<p>^xyramancs, my dad is an engineering professor at UT-Austin, and he encourages students to go to grad school immediately after getting a BS. He has seen too many bright kids get a job and then not return for a master’s degree once they start earning some money! This is in civil/structural engineering, so other disciplines might be different.</p>
That is a dilemma in ALL fields of engineering! If you go right away, you may not have the focus and discipline needed to complete the degree, or may not have the exposure needed to pick a specialty well. If you wait a few years, the logistics may be overwhelming and you may have lost some good academic habits needed to succeed. Some people are better off going right away, some people need to work a few years first, there is no one way that is best.</p>
<p>I will say this - if I had gone full time right out of undergrad, I would be in a completely different specialty than the one where I landed!</p>
<p>Going to an LAC will not prepare you at all for an engineering curriculum. Those 2+3 programs don’t really prepare you for the rigor, and you’re exposed to too much other curricula which, will making you a more “well-rounded” person, will also make it harder to make the shift to a focused major later on. You also won’t be around engineering resources for as long, making it harder to network and find internships or research opportunities.</p>
<p>Go to the state school, it may cost a bit more but it will provide you with more engineering opportunity. No engineering firm will care about your “liberal arts” curriculum - they’ll care about what work you get done and how well you work with other engineers in their company.</p>
<p>I did a non engineering degree 1st and am now in an engineering grad. THIS path was very expensive and would have been a lot easier and less expensive if I would have went engineering 1st.</p>
<p>A non-engineering undergrad degree doesn’t really prepare you for an engineering grad program. If you tried to go that path, it would difficult to be admitted to an engineering grad program without first taking a bunch of pre-req classes first.</p>
<p>I’m not a fan of 3/2 programs. A very small percentage of people initially interested in them actually follow through with them, since most prefer to just spend that last year and finish up at their college. It is also quite difficult to squeeze a full engineering program into 2 years, because engineering tends to have so many long chains of pre-requisites, where Class D requires Class C, which required Class B, which required Class A. </p>
<p>If you want to study engineering, you would be much better off just going to a college that offers engineering. BTW, anecdotally I’ve heard that women students have better odds of getting merit scholarships at tech schools with very uneven male/female ratios. Also, many private schools offer engineering - not just state schools. What is your instate public school? That is likely to be your cheapest option.</p>
<p>I would say that the chosen graduate engineering program would determine if the non-engineering undergrad degree makes it harder or easier.</p>
<p>My B.S. degree is in Computational Mathematics…which is a hybrid Math/CS degree. As for engineering graduate degrees, my options were:</p>
<p>1) M.S./M.Eng in Systems Engineering
2) M.S./M.Eng in Industrial Engineering (but only the MSIE programs heavy in O.R.)
3) M.S./M.Eng in Computer Science/Software Engineering
4) M.S./M.Eng in Engineering…those broad degrees requiring a “hodge-podge” of courses</p>
<p>I chose #4. My degree just says “M.S. Engineering”. Now, I had a couple of things working for me to use that option. 1) I already had 8 years as a software engineer when I started grad school and 2) In Federal I.T./C.S. contracting, employers really care that you HAVE a M.S. degree…not really the specialized engineering major. The structure of my M.S. Engineering program was as follows:</p>
<p>Course 1) Math Requirement …I chose Statistics
Course 2) Computer Applications…I chose a Data Warehouse course
Course 3) Technical Writing
Course 4) Project Management I
Course 5) Quality Management I
Course 6) Systems Engineering
Course 7) Stochastic Processes
Course 8) Experimental Design
Course 9) Statistical Quality Control
Course 10) Linear Algebra…yes, I took the easy way out</p>
<p>Being a Math major and selecting a graduate engineering program that allowed applied statistics courses to be used for the degree helped me greatly.</p>
<p>@MaineLonghorn, i can’t argue with your point. For some students it is important to go to graduate school right away. Particularly those who really have a research vocation. It is definitely hard to quit work, live on a reduced income and go to graduate school. However, for a student who is not sure, a few years of work can help to provide direction and the motivation to succeed. Plus, the employer may help with tuition costs for a Masters degree.</p>
<p>I think sometimes engineers don’t go back because the BS degree enabled them to get a decent paying jobs that they really like. (That was the case for me. I did take some company sponsored grad courses, but the practical work on the job was more to my liking.)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Engineers do not generally need to go to graduate school if their bachelor’s degrees were in an ABET accredited engineering major.</p></li>
<li><p>Some LACs and other smaller schools do offer engineering majors. Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Swarthmore, Bucknell, Smith, Cooper Union, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology are examples.</p></li>
<li><p>Remember that a 3+2 program means an extra year of school costs, and financial aid uncertainty at the “2” school until you reach the transfer point. Also, many of the “3” schools restrict your choice of major there.</p></li>
</ol>