Ok it’s me again. My son is “thinking” he would be interested in engineering. So my question is. Do we concentrate on a school that has an Engineering College? How does it all work? Obviously he wouldn’t look for a school that doesn’t have engineering as a major. What if a school has engineering as a major but no actual college of engineering? Does it really matter where he got a BS from as far as getting a job? Also if he wanted to concentrate on Civil Engineering shouldn’t he find a school that has that discipline? Will he get just as good of a job coming from a state college vs a profile university? I need some education on this. I was focusing on rank and now I’m finding that finacnces are more important. So will that cheaper education get the same degree?
For engineering specifically you’ll want to make sure that the college’s program
Is ABET accredited. Yes there should be a college of engineering at the school, and the degrees are BS not BA.
Some schools do a direct admit to each program and some schools have you apply to the school of engineering after your first two years.
ABET drives the decision but do look at internship or co-op opportunities as those are important experiences for engineering undergrads.
Ha ha yes I meant to type BS but hit the A. Thanks.
@missbwith2boys has pretty much nailed it. I will add that there are many state public schools that have very good ABET accredited engineering programs.
For the schools that my daughters have been accepted to (but not for engineering) we have seen almost no correlation at all between the cost of education and the quality of the education. In many cases the less expensive schools can give a very high quality education. Details will vary significantly from school to school and from student to student.
In many popular flagships and other schools of similar selectivity, the engineering majors are “full”, so it may be hard to switch into one after enrolling. Investigate carefully. It is less likely to be the case at super wealthy privates like MIT that can maintain extra capacity or less selective schools that may offer big automatic merit where many students find engineering to be too hard, leaving unused capacity when they change out.
Some Liberal Arts Colleges that do not have an engineering program themselves, will offer an “engineering transfer program.” In these programs, the student satisfies their general education requirements and takes pre-requisite math and science classes at the LAC, in the first two or three years, and then gets their engineering courses at an affiliated university that does have an engineering program. Some might say the best of both worlds, others might say why not just go to the university with the engineering program from the get-go…
ETA - I also agree, ABET accreditation is critical. Internship and/or co-op opportunities also important.
The school needs to have ABET accreditation. Any school with engineering and ABET will be fine. I think it’s also important to look at the career center at the college, and find out the %age of grads who get jobs when they graduate.
Ask about internships as well.
If your son is “thinking” about engineering, you might want to look at schools with other options as well…in case he changes his mind. It’s a LOT easier to switch majors than to switch colleges.
Also, at SOME colleges, it’s not easy to switch INTO engineering. And applying direct,y into the engineering programs at many places does tend to be more competitive than applying as undeclared. But this varies by college.
If the only reason your kiddo is thinking about engineering is because he thinks that’s the best route to a high paying job, I would very very strongly suggest he spend some significant time shadowing some practicing engineers. Maybe this summer he can get a job as a “go for” at some place…and see what the work is like.
It’s not for everyone.
I’m an engineer and have had a great career and graduated from SMU. My husband is an engineer that went on to be a lawyer and graduated from University of Houston (had a profitable career as an engineer). NASA hires engineers from all over, a lot from state schools. Lately we have a lot of folks from Iowa State, Kansas State, Mississippi State, Alabama, Auburn, and all the ABET Texas and Florida colleges. You don’t have to spend a ton undergraduate to get a good engineering degree. A school with a college of engineering is probably best. If your S wants Civil Engineering go to a school that has that degree, along with others in case he changes his mind. Do look into what others say and start in a school that you are guaranteed to be in the engineering dept to start with and go to a school with internships or co-ops. Those are great.
@momocarly what type of engineer are you?
I’m an electrical engineer with a biomedical specialization (college didn’t have that degree at the time). I also have a BS in math that I got at the same time. I work in aerospace and don’t do anything electrical now and love my job! My husband was chemistry undergrad then chemical engineering masters with a petroleum specialization and is now a technical litigation lawyer! There is so much you can do in engineering. The co-op programs help a student figure out what they like and don’t like. I learned I don’t like the chemical/oil industry!
Ask the school who some of their biggest employers of their graduates are. Then have your S go on-line and look at some of those companies and see if they look interesting. That can help focus him a bit too.
- As other say, look for ABET accredited colleges
- Apply to your state schools
- But also realize that engineering is a popular major, so sometimes you don’t get directly admitted to the engineering school…you apply after 2 years of “pre-engineering” (taking Calc, Chem, Physics, etc)
Direct admit is better. - Look and see if they have research programs for undergraduates if that is of interest or Coop programs if that is of interest
Thanks everyone…he definitely likes the co-op idea which is why he is interested in Northeastern University. I also know they offer co-ops at Umass Amherst but we may not be able to afford those schools. Do all the co-ops work the same way as they do at Northeastern? You are still enrolled full time as a student but not paying tuition while you are at your 6 month co-op? He is very interested in math which is why he thought engineering would be a good field. I think he should be a lawyer because this kid loves a good argument ha ha.
How the mechanics of a co-op works may vary by school.
Even without a formal co-op program, a student may be able to make his/her own by using the withdrawal and readmission procedure at the school, though that can be less doable if the school has certain key courses offered only one semester of the year, so that skipping a semester of school may set one’s sequencing back a whole year.
Law school can be done after any undergraduate major (college GPA and LSAT score are the most important factors in law school admission). Engineering majors with law degrees may have more opportunities in patent and intellectual property law.
@momocarly - I was just excited to see another SMU BSEE/Biomedical engineer on here! I think I saw on another post that you were there in the early 80’s…I must have started right as you were finishing (1988). I was also a co-op student (Baylor Biomedical Services). My daughter is a freshman at SMU (also engineering) this year.
I don’t think co-op programs are quite as popular any more because some engineering disciplines are in high demand and students may want to get straight into their (usually) higher paying careers - the co-op process slows that down by 6 months to a year. At least that is what we learned on several college tours. Hopefully a student that doesn’t co-op would take advantage of some really good internships. I really loved my co-op experience - the job market was much different in the early 90’s though.
There are summer programs that can give him a taste for engineering, like Operation Catapult at Rose-Hulman. That could help him decide.
Also, merit aid sometimes has a minimum GPA attached, and engineering majors often struggle to maintain high GPAs. So watch out for that trap.
So for a kid who has a knack for Math…what other career would be something he would enjoy and make a great income from? Looking for other options…What is hot out there in the work field currently?
Rankings are highly subjective and are based entirely on opinion. That’s why I don’t pay much attention to them. Some fields of engineering are harder to get your foot in the door than others, so it helps to have a minor and/or get a masters degree. A masters degree is worth much more than a bachelors from a big name college.
Some of the math majors at the college where I teach find actuarial work in the insurance industry rewarding.
So, for you engineers, I am curious about undergraduate engineering degrees v. getting a more broad undergraduate degree and then going to grad school for a masters. For instance and undergrad in Applied Math or Chemistry and then going to a good graduate program. Thoughts on the benefits/drawbacks of that approach?
^Well, that won’t work in some disciplines, at least. A civil engineer needs LOTS of design classes as an undergraduate. There’s no way that someone with a degree outside of CE would be able to get a graduate degree in it. I think all of my courses in grad school were based on concepts we learned as undergrads.
I don’t know about other disciplines, though.