<p>Doesn’t UC Boulder have some kind of program like this too?</p>
<p>If you are dual canadian, why do you want to do school in the US. U Toronto seems to have an optics institute. Queens, McGill, Waterloo, UBC and Dalhousie are also good Canadian universities to look into. Regardless of what you major in, you pay a small fraction of what you would pay for US tuition.</p>
<p>Sounds like you need to interview some optical engineers and the peeps who hire them. I think you’ll find that a physics or EE degree with emphasis on optics (i.e. optics projects you do yourself and exhibit or anything that shows optics experience) should get your foot in the door anywhere.</p>
<p>I met a guy that made 110k starting off in this odd major. Also I have met a guy that makes a fortune as a corrosion engineer.</p>
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<p>And I meet English majors who start at $70k as analysts at Investment Banks. Strange isn’t it.</p>
<p>Yes, but I was just responding to the odd engineers part of the thread.</p>
<p>zombehhhh thread.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m a current optical engineering student at the University of Rochester. Many places offer graduate programs in optical engineering, but only a few offer undergrad programs specifically for optical engineering and only 2-3 are ABET accredited. As you said the big 2 are UofA and UofR and as far as recognition goes, Alabama is next in line(only a physics specialization at alabama. If you want to go into industry instead of university research after college, I would HIGHLY recommend attending one of the two above programs. THE MAIN DIFFERENCE - the optical engineering degrees from these two schools are designed as ENGINEERING couses, where as specialized physics tracts are designed for APPLIED SCIENCE. I am from Arizona, but chose to go to rochester for something new, but i can tell you that both of these places will have infinitely more resources for you to utilize( for hands on research during school, equipment, knowledge base, and most importantly connections into the society of optics) than somewhere that just offers a specialization in optics. At Rochester your GPA is not emphasized at all, as a 2.5 from here will trump almost any other 3.5 for a job.(Of course like any other engineering job you better impress during interviews.) I hope this helps you, because its such a specific and small(as in numbers of degrees) field, the name behind it will be that much more of a help starting out.</p>
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<p>My dad is an optical engineer. His degree is in physics. Most of the people he hires are either physics or EE.</p>
<p>Edit: Holy zombie thread!</p>
<p>[Accredited</a> Program Search](<a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx]Accredited”>http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx) lists only four ABET accredited optics engineering bachelor’s degree programs:</p>
<p>Norfolk State University
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Formerly Rose Polytechnic Institute)
The University of Alabama in Huntsville (Formerly University of Alabama in Huntsville)
University of Arizona</p>
<p>It looks like they are all accredited under general engineering criteria only.</p>
<p>Rochester’s ABET accreditation list does not list optical engineering as an ABET accredited degree program:</p>
<p>[Accredited</a> Programs details](<a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=89]Accredited”>http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=89)</p>
<p>Suppose someone has an MS in materials science specializing optical materials (no research experience in the said specialization) would that person be qualified to be an optical engineer?</p>