I’m looking for suggestions for a junior. His first thought was Mechanical engineering but is now also considering Industrial design or product design. He doesn’t have a burning desire to be an engineer he just knows he loves and finds challenging his engineering classes at his HS. He loves building things. He is a strong student with above average test scores. His Mom says it is easy to come up with reach schools but needs some help with sure bet schools. He doesn’t mind a large school.
Ca resident and he will apply to Cal Poly. He is open to leaving the state. I am assuming finances are not a huge issue but merit aid would be nice.
In researching they were surprised to see that a lot of the design programs have an art component. He isn’t really artistic.
Would love any opinions on these majors.
Thanks
It is too soon for him to finalize his career goals. That will come with exposure in college classes. Research your state schools and come up with a list of those that cover both the engineering and related product design fields. He needs options of more than reach schools in CA. There are so many OOS options one could consider for his interests but you are lucky to have great instate options.
@wis75 - he has some state schools but most of the UC’s are not an easy admit. The Ca state university system has schools with programs but while the schools themselves might not be reaches the programs in those areas are impacted like San Jose. Or like San Francisco state you aren’t guaranteed you’ll get into the major.
We were discussing how it is hard at 17 to know what you want as a career goal. Unfortunately for some majors you have to get in as a freshman. At Cal Poly SLO you have to apply for your major and it isn’t so easy to change.
@wis75 Industrial Design is one of those majors you need to start right away freshman year. It’s not one you can pick up after doing some gen eds because (a) you need to plan to find the schools that have programs and possibly build an admissions portfolio if you are going to an art school (b) once admitted, it is a full four years of required classes and you need to keep up with the sequence.
@mom60 Industrial Design blends both art and engineering, and is offered at art schools as well as colleges of engineering. If he is not interested in art at all, this may not be the best major. But, by choosing where he goes he may be able to find a more art-focused or more engineering-focused program. Try idsa.org to learn more about Industrial Design. There is a section called “how they do it” that explains the field and a list of schools offering the major.
I have a co-worker with a recent industrial design degree from a highly-regarded art/design school. His major required very little math! He has never had calculus. He also said that professors in his program often disparaged engineers who they felt placed unworkable restrictions on designs. Fortunately, this young man is really enjoying working with a bunch of engineers and is scratching his head about the anti-engineering vibe he got at his college.
Anyway, my point is, if a strong student likes engineering classes and is good in math, he or she might consider industrial design in combination with engineering, if that is even possible. It just seems wrong to me that this major does not require a whole lot of math. I would think that industrial designers who also have some engineering background, or at least a little math and physics, would be sought after. Maybe I’m wrong about this.
Auburn University
http://cadc.auburn.edu/design/design-degrees-programs/indd
Check out Case Western Reserve University…especially the "think[box]'…CWRU’s center for innovation and entrepreneurship
http://thinkbox.case.edu/
Case is strong in Engineering but also is affiliated with the Cleveland Institute of Art where you can take classes.
@LBowie engineering constraints typically mean compromises for a designer. A good designer and engineer will work together to find the best compromise. It is a compromise though. The best designers do seem to have a good understanding of mechanical principles. The industrial design programs I am familiar with spend more time on materials and how to manufacture things than most mechanical engineering programs. They just don’t go deep on engineering theory. There is only so much you can cram into a 4 year degree.
^yes, true. My co-worker is really good with materials and knows a lot about how to make things, cast them from metal, 3D print, various materials. He knows how to work with all kinds of material and is a member of a local maker workshop where he can access tools, etc. He enjoys this as a hobby. He is really good at sketching things free-hand. He is a creative problem solver, and definitely artistic. Gosh, I feel like I just wrote a letter of recommendation!
Might take a look at Civil E with a concentration on Structures or maybe Construction. I’m not sure if that totally meets his desire to design but it’s a solid engineering major and might satisfy his desire for making things. Make sure you only look at ABET certified, if he went this direction he’d definitely want to get a PE license.
" he just knows he loves and finds challenging his engineering classes at his HS. " - Tell us more about them. It’s not clear if you mean pre-engineering academics (calc. physics etc) or study of things like CAD / projects.
Industrial design is more artistic than engineering.
Anyway, will he be NMF? UCincy DAAD is extremely well-respected in the design world and they have a NMF scholarship.
RIT also has industrial design.
Besides UCincy, almost all of the top design schools will require portfolios. They want kids who are artistic.
@mom60
Our DS started out as a Mechanical Engineering major and switched to Packaging Science at Clemson. It may be the perfect answer for your friend’s son.
From the link:
WHAT YOU’LL STUDY
Packaging science majors first complete basic course work in science and math before delving into the intricacies of packaging design, materials, polymers and distribution. A strong science and math background is essential for success. Clemson offers four emphasis areas including:
Distribution, transportation and engineering technology
Materials
Food and health care packaging
Package design and graphics
Yes, packaging science/engineering seems to be a neat blend of science, engineering, design, logistics, marketing, and general business.
Not too many schools offer it. SJSU does. So does RIT. MSU is the giant in that field and he may be able to get merit scholarships there. Cal Poly SLO has a packaging minor.
Our DS is not emphasizing design so, those classes have been limited by comparison to the specialty he has chosen. -helpful if the student isn’t artistic.
Also, our son was high stat and did receive a merit scholarship. We are OOS. The Clemson OOS scholarships top out at 15K per year with the exception of their National Scholars Program, which covers all tuition, fees, additional expenses and study abroad.
DS will be working again this summer for his second internship and he’ll still have his required co-op to add to his resume when he starts to interview for full time employment.
By now, we’re admittedly biased but, the program has been pretty amazing.
My middle son applied to some schools for ID and one for Product Design, but he also applied to schools for Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgic Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Animation, Game Design, Computer Game Science and Computing & the Arts. As you can see, he didn’t know what he wanted to do, but by spring of senior year, he knew he did not want to do engineering because he has a math disability. The ID schools that he applied to (and got into all of them):
SJSU
CSULB
Purdue
The Product Design program he applied to and didn’t get into (no surprise) was Stanford.
I don’t know what your son’s stats are, but these were all match/safety schools for my son with a 2230 SAT and a 3.95/4.47 u/w gpa at the time of applying (dropped to a 3.81/4.41 by mid-year, but these schools didn’t see that gpa).
Here’s one nice list of ID schools:
http://www.collegevaluesonline.com/rankings/industrial-design-degrees-top-undergraduate/
This shows you admit rates of the schools with ID and PD:
http://colleges.startclass.com/d/o/Industrial-and-Product-Design
Didn’t the peel open cookie (Oreo, etc.) packaging get invented at Clemson?
@LBowie Yes, it was .
I think Appalachian State has industrial design
My D is an Industrial Design major at RIT. She could have been an engineer - loves and does well in math and science - but is an artist at heart. She picked RIT over more purely art schools as she wanted the opportunity to take classes she was interested in outside of art - astronomy, CS, surprisingly theater and improv. She has taken classes associated with NTID (National Technical Institute for the Deaf) and is thinking of specializing in design for the deaf community.
And just in case ID didn’t end up working for her, a non-art school offered many more opportunities to explore.