<p>BS in Engineering= more intensive, with more classes/labs, and prepares you better for higher education in that field. </p>
<p>BA in Engineering= less intensive, with fewer required classes and is for people who want background in engineering but will probably go on to a different career, such as law or medicine.</p>
<p>Because I want to double major in English, and since I'm not exactly sure what I want to do as a career (though I'm positive I want to study engineering in college, even if I go to law school or something) I'm thinking the BA is better for me. But I have a few questions..</p>
<p>1) If I do a BA major, and later decide that I DO want a career in engineering and I want to continue along the engineering track in grad school, will having a BA ruin my chances at getting into grad school and studying engineering? </p>
<p>2) I know that Yale wants kids to major in engineering right now. Do they care whether we do a BA or BS, or is it all the same to them? (in terms of graduating engineers)</p>
<p>actually i think theres 3 choices… BSE, BS, or BA. im a mechanical engineering major myself for yale '13 and im doing BSE since im certain i want to do engineering for grad school (unless i somehow horribly hate it at yale and change my mind), but in your case it seems:
it won’t, but use logical sense in when you make that realization, it shouldn’t be 2nd semester of senior year, it’s likely you can make up for some of the courses and switch to BS or BSE. even if you keep with BA it won’t matter if you keep up grades in courses like thermodynamics and mechanics and do some good research.
lol what do you care about what they care… do what you want! you’re PAYING to go to yale and study. they wouldn’t offer the 3 choices if they all just wanted kids doing BSE like me and hope they go to MIT or strengthen their own grad program. if you’re talking yale professors writing you recommendations for jobs or grad school, i really doubt the name of a degree would get in the way of them praising you for your genuine passion in engineering (if it turns out that way).
hope that helps, im interested in law as well but for now sticking with BSE.</p>
<p>That was exactly the information I was looking for. Based on what you’ve said, it sounds like I will start out on the BA track and see how that feels for me. </p>
<p>Lol, I didn’t mean to make #2 sound like a deciding factor. Looking back on my original post, I guess I came off that way. My second question was a purely random, just-curious type of thing. haha</p>
<p>Oh, and do you think it’d be relatively manageable to handle a BS or BSE (what’s the difference, btw) while double-majoring in English?</p>
<p>i dont exactly know what kind of required courses there are for an english major so i cant comment, but the only thing i can say is it’s probably very, very difficult to do. but it seems you’ve got the skills to do it so go for it! i’d probably die, i’m more of a science/math person and don’t really like writing english papers or analyzing poems. as of now, i think yale’s core requirements for the humanities are going to be just enough… hehe im going to take some interesting politics/law courses if possible to see if i really have a credible interest in that area or if i should 100% commit to engineering. even if i do like the politics course, unless i hate engineering, i’m probably going to stick with engineering anyway.</p>
<p>Maybe I will just stick with BA… Cause it’s weird, but my real strength lies in English (I got 5’s on both AP Lit and AP Lang after not reviewing at all AND staying up all night before each test), but when it comes to math/science, I really have to put forth effort. Even though I’m good at writing essays and analyzing literature, my hobbies are all science-related (I’m a total gearhead; I love cars and building engines.) So, English is my strength but Engineering is my interest. </p>
<p>That’s so cool you’re taking politics and law classes; I LOVE that stuff. That’s why I’m thinking about going to law school after Engineering/English undergrad. Would you consider double-majoring in political science or something? That’d be awesome. Except you’re doing BSE so that’ll be a lot tougher. What year are you in at Yale, anyway?</p>
<p>haha i guess you forgot the little tidbit i said before, I’m Yale 2013, just like you. tell me im not the only one who LOVED bulldog days despite the rain??</p>
<p>anyway, you must be a genius because most of the people that i know who are going into engineering either don’t get good grades in english (like me) or they get good grades but don’t enjoy it as much as science/math. you own at both areas, maybe you have a perfect balance of left/right brain distribution. i took the ap lang and got a 5 but didnt take the lit exam cuz i was too scared o.o (not to mention lang and lit count for same credit at Yale… 0_0)</p>
<p>also, i havent really thought about double majoring especially since it would probably be really difficult, and i guess it’s really more of a hobby/interest thing than something i would want to double major in. if it turns out i like the law classes, i might go off to law school, and I’d probably want to become a patent lawyer in engineering.</p>
<p>Yeah haha sorry I didn’t see that you’re 2013 too! </p>
<p>Lol I don’t own at both. I own at English, I try at math. It’s just I enjoy science-related things, so that’s what motivates me to try hard at math and science even though they don’t come as naturally to me as writing does. </p>
<p>From what I’ve heard from current Yalies, double majoring is actually the exact same amount of work until your senior year (where you have to do two senior projects or one XL project.) Cause think about it… it’s still the same amount of classes, just more narrowed into two concentrations. The only difference is that a double major limits your freedom to take “random” classes, but if your interests are pretty solidly divided between engineering and politics/law then you shouldn’t have much of a problem. You’ll still have distribution requirements to take unrelated classes. Double majoring is pretty doable. :)</p>
<p>And omg that’s exactly what I thought of doing (patent law!) haha that’s awesome.</p>
<p>As a double major in molecular biology and classics (which i think is fairly analogous to engineering and english… although the engineering majors are probably harder than the biology major), I think that’s a very reasonable assessment. It really does limit your electives, especially with a science major that has a lot of requirements. Don’t underestimate the value of those electives… some of the best classes i’ve taken were fun random classes, and they were important to me even though they were not part of my majors. Pick those electives well… yale has a great course catalog with some classes that can expand your interests and introduce you to new things. </p>
<p>And a general note on doing two majors: only double major if you have a good reason. A good reason isn’t ‘i really like this… and that… i just can’t choose!’ or ‘i may as well get as many credentials as possible… that will be impressive, right?’ For me, i started out in the biology major, am more than half way through, and want to have the degree in case i decide to work in a science related field. I took a lot of classics courses for fun and for distributional requirements, and discovered that i had done half of the major by accident. That and the fact that there’s no required senior essay was a big draw. I think i might want to teach latin after college, and i’ll need a degree in it if i want to get a job. So that’s why i decided to double major. </p>
<p>I don’t think it makes sense to double major if you’re planning to apply to law school… it seems unnecessary. It’s not going to help you get into law school, but it will limit your electives and force you to take major requirements you might not be interested in. You’d do better to major in one and take a lot of electives in the other, on your own terms. That is, unless you have good and specific reasons to complete each major.</p>
<p>Yale for engineering? Why? Did you get a scholarship or something, because surely there are cheaper and better schools for engineering. But I’m not one to judge.</p>
<p>haha well for one, Yale is Yale. i actually got into an ideal school for engineering, University of California at Berkeley, with a Chancellor’s Scholarship, but my parents wouldnt let me leave the east coast at all. i found the mechanical engineering program at Yale is pretty much the same as MIT’s with probably a little less electives/cool lab research. I got a $33k grant, meaning my parents would have to pay $17k, which really isnt all too bad. my hope is to go to MIT for grad school or go off to law school, but I’m actually on the waitlist for MIT right now so that might be a tough decision if i ever got in… Yale is Yale… but then engineering just screams massachusetts institute of technology… the thing is though i feel like the smaller program at Yale would get me more attention and a better opportunity to shine rather than get curb stomped by 500 other people in mech. engineering at MIT who took differential equations in their sophomore year of high school.</p>
<p>kwijiborjt: Thanks for the advice. Yeah, I’m not double-majoring for a dumb reason like wanting to resume-pad or anything… a degree from Yale is impressive enough lol. I’m kind of in the same boat as you; I might want to work in either field. I know a science major has a lot of requirements, which is why I started this thread in the first place (I’m trying to figure out which track I’ll want to follow.) As of right now, I’m leaning toward the less intensive BA which seems to be tailored toward students who are double majoring.</p>
<p>Yakyu Spirits: I did get a scholarship, but the scholarship program I applied through allowed me to apply to more “engineering-type” schools such as MIT and Caltech as well. However, I WANTED to go to Yale for engineering, for a of variety reasons. I can’t get into everything so I’ll give a brief overview. The lady who interviewed me has sent three kids to Yale (all in science/math related fields) and she gave me a lot of information on the sciences there.</p>
<p>First of all, you get so much more personal attention because there aren’t as many students who major in that field. The student to faculty ratio for engineering is 1:1! She told me that the professors are really involved with the engineering students, knowing them by name and always available to provide extra help. Second, Yale is focusing SO much on the sciences right now because it’s really trying to beef up its reputation as a good math/science school (as opposed to people always thinking “yale’s for humanities!” or something.) They are pouring tons of money into science and math (as well as attention!) Finally, as I’ve explained before, I’m NOT just your typical math geek. Lol. At ALL. I crave humanities, philosophy, literature… the whole nine yards. I just couldn’t see myself at MIT (or a similar university), surrounded by students who live, breath, and eat math/science. That’s just not my element. Which is why Yale is perfect for me. Not only are they focusing so much on engineering, but I’ll be able to take amazing classes (and double major!) in the arts, humanities, politics, etc, and be around students from a multitude of backgrounds with thousands of completely disparate interests. THAT, to me, is the perfect college experience. :)</p>
<p>CCPWNZ: Definitely! I feel the same way… at MIT, theres gonna be TONS of engineering majors. You’re not gonna get as much individual attention OR be exposed to as much people with totally different ideas and interests. I mean, this is just undergrad. Undegrad is a time for exploration and experience as well as academics! Yale will afford you exactly that. Read above ^^ for why I think Yale is awesome for engineering. MIT is a good deal for grad school, though! haha</p>
Based on what you’ve said, it sounds like I will start out on the BA track and see how that feels for me. </p>