No. Don’t double major in physics and music. He won’t have time for music as spare time is sparse.
And no, I wouldn’t get a degree in physics. It’s as hard as engineering and less marketable in the real world. If you believe otherwise search engineering job postings versus physicists and let us know what you find. If he likes physics, he should get a Ph D in it and work for a university somewhere.
One thing you should understand is that his job prospects will be related to what major he chooses and where he chooses to live. Some make more, some less. Some are more volatile and some are not.
If he’s going into engineering to “get rich”, then he should go into nursing and maybe eventually medical school instead. He’ll study less and enjoy life more. Unless he has the idea for the next Fortune 500 company in his head already. If he just enjoys asking “why?”, then maybe engineering is for him.
One thing your son will find out about engineering is that plenty of small, less expensive state schools can fill the bill when it comes to getting an education. Most employers are not going to care if you went to Tech, Rose Hulman, VPI or whatever. Most HR people can’t tell the difference. In a lot of respects you get out of a degree what you are putting into it. What most first employers will want is a four year degree and twenty years experience (ha ha).
And after a few years of working, it simply will not matter what the perceived pedigree advantage was of going to school x, unless perhaps, your son is attempting to become a dean of an engineering school somewhere. I went to WVU. It has an excellent engineering program in several disciplines, even winning several recent national contests against “big name” schools with massive budgets. Out of state tuition is relatively inexpensive. It’s never held me back, and people stop snickering pretty fast when they find out how well you know your area of study. Statics doesn’t change if you’re learning it in Pennsylvania or California. Chemistry is chemistry and so forth.
Your son won’t have any issues keeping up as long as the school he chooses is ABET accredited. Someone suggested UC. I think that’s a solid choice too. There are lots of solid state school choices. Just don’t fall into the marketing ploy of ‘school named x’. It’s not like medical or law school where throwing that name around can get you bonus points. Engineers usually work in teams and solve real world problems. There’s no time for primadonnas on teams. In fact, they are usually resented.
OP, back to your original question regarding engineering employment without a degree in engineering?
Yes, I’m sure it is possible BUT, and it is a big but. There is very wide range of “engineering” jobs. Some may be highly technical while the other end of the spectrum are glorified salesmen. So, it all depends on what level of engineering job you are looking for.
In my 40 year career in engineering and engineering manager I knew the educational background of probably several hundred engineers. I can’t recall a single one with an LAC degree. There could have been some, but I was not aware. There were a few with science degrees that morphed into engineering while working but not many.
HR would screen the resumes I saw and again I can’t recall a single LAC degree (might have been part of the reason I knew of none in the work force). We were a large aerospace company working for NASA and were definitely on the highly technical end of the engineering spectrum.
I am of the personal opinion that it is hard to cram all the necessary background engineering knowledge into an undergraduate degree. So, a LAC degree would be insufficient to gather the knowledge for the type of engineering job I would be interested in.
I’ve not seen anyone mention Alabama Huntsville as a likely no cost option for the OP’s requirement. Not sure on the music scene but given the student’s stats, UAH with ABET is a good job-producing option. I cannot imagine any of the LACs like Lehigh or Lafayette will be remotely affordable. I also feel that there’s way too much uncertainty with a 3+2 option.
Look at UMBC for computer engineering - especially ties to NSA, defense industry, and, cello opportunities with music minor, also scholarships for either via Scholars.
It wouldn’t be NO cost. Assuming he scored a 33 on his ACT he could get free tuition with his 3.9 GPA, but that doesn’t include all the fees and housing. Plus, they keep raising the bar for out of state scholarships every year. They were trying to build up their program and are getting close to their goal. My son would have qualified for 100% tuition scholarship last year with his 31, but now it’s just 67%.
That’s not always the best option for engineering due to the sequencing of classes. Attending community college first often times just lightens the load for them while they’re there, but doesn’t reduce the years. Plus, all the big scholarships are typically the freshman incoming ones, so you lose out on that money transferring in later. The one school DS is considering gives him 8K/year auto incoming scholarship for 4 years and an additional 4K/year (for 2 years) engineering scholarship. He’d sacrifice nearly all that going somewhere else for a year first. (The max transfer scholarship is $3500/year).
But, some schools play better together than others, so it could be a money saver. Just saying, for us it didn’t seem to make sense.
This might of been mentioned but what can the OP afford? Start with that.
They might not get everything they want. Maybe focus on engineering and do music as an extracurricular and not a minor etf5. Not sure that their goal is.
“They might not get everything they want” - Right. And that is actually the case for many families… even with high stats kids and better financial situation. College is pricey, and often compromises are made.
The Community College option could make good sense if paired with strong university program. For example, DH studied at Hudson Valley Community College (including cross-register classes at RPI) then transferred to defined university partner Clarkson.
@cshell2 I guess I was assuming OP’s son would qualify for 100% tuition. The highest award also includes housing for one year. Room and board there is far less than it is in New England for certain and seems like about $10k.
He hasn’t taken the ACT yet and would need a 34 to qualify for free tuition (double checked, I was wrong before saying 33). Only on CC is that not a really high bar. Room, board, fees and books are 14K and there would be travel expenses as well. Just saying it wouldn’t be “Free”. To get the free year of room and board you need a 4.0 GPA and a 36 ACT.