I would stay away from schools that have ET in addition to engineering (interestingly, Purdue has both for example)."
I guess I would be interested in examples and why you feel this way. I certainly wouldn’t recommend that anyone not consider Purdue for Engineering since they offer a Technology degree through their Polytechnic Institute. They are one of the top engineering schools in the country. Their technology degrees fill a completely different niche.
Purdue is certainly a good engineering school. My experience however has been (based upon the two lower tier public institutions in which I taught that had both engineering and ET) is that the school tends to attract students who chose the school as a “safety”, and weren’t as highly regarded as their peer engineering-only schools. Purdue is an exception, no doubt.
@Engineer80 where did you go to school for your degree/degrees? So far we have Umass A, Umass L, Northeastern, Lehigh, Lafayette, and UAH on the radar. All of which are ABET schools.
How do you feel about Trinity College for Engineering?
@Skippy - BE, MS (Electrical Engineering), PhD (Engineering Physics/EE), all from Stevens Institute of Technology, MS, Applied Math, Rutgers, postdoctoral work in EE (Communications engineering/optical signal processing), MIT. 23 years with Bell Labs, now doing spacecraft navigation system development for a major aerospace manufacturer.
@Skippy - I don’t know much about Trinity College but I looked up their website. They offer two engineering programs, a BS in Engineering (with concentrations in EE, ME, CE, CompE, Biomedical E, or general engineering) and a BA in Engineering Science. The BSE is ABET-accredited while the BA is not. As with all ABET accredited programs I am sure theirs is reputable and meets the accepted standard of rigor, but of course I would ask the opinions of students who attend there. The BA program in my opinion is meant for people who want to gain a background in engineering but do not intend to do high level engineering work. It has much more liberal arts content than the BSE curriculum (it is difficult to include a liberal arts curriculum of the kind one would get in a liberal arts college in an ABET accredited engineering program because of the many general and specialized engineering and science courses required, without significantly adding to the course load). If your goal is to do engineering work in industry or government (and/or get your PE license) stick with the ABET accredited program. By the way, ABET accredits programs not schools. It is possible for a school to have for example an accredited EE program and an unaccredited ME program (though that’s not very common). Also, ABET accredits only undergraduate programs.
CT DH hires engineers. He says Trinity prepares the students well. They are ready to learn more when they get a job!
@Engineer80 …can you please repeat that in English? ha ha So if Trinity was a contender stick to the BSE not the BA right? I am new to this and I don’t even know what a Liberal Arts college means?
Yes, a Trinity student who wants to go into engineering as a career or otherwise needs an ABET-accredited degree (e.g. for the patent exam) should choose the ABET-accredited BS degree. Note that this degree program is a general engineering major, but with elective specialization options in electrical, mechanical, biomedical, or computer engineering: http://www.trincoll.edu/Academics/MajorsAndMinors/Engineering/Pages/BS.aspx .
@Skippy, ucb- Yes, stick with the ABET accredited program. The BA in “engineering” is not a true professional program. I think having that degree most employers will pass in favor of those with the accredited BS or BE. Additionally, again, if your goal is to become a PE, sit for the patent bar exam (as UCB points out), get a government agency engineering job, etc, you have to have the ABET accredited degree.
One thing that strikes me in reading Trinity’s syllabus for the BSE program is that the coursework doesn’t go into great depth on any of the specialities (EE, ME, etc). An accredited BSEE/ME/et al at a dedicated engineering school will. I think that will put their graduates at somewhat of a disadvantage compared to the former.
A “Liberal Arts” college or major tries to offer a wide variety of courses in a wide range of disciplines as opposed to subjects specific to professions or occupations. Traditionally liberal arts included literature, history, science, math, langugages, world cultures, politics, and more.
Engineering requires many fundamental science, interdisciplinary engineering, discipline-specific, and design courses. There are also many hands on labs. The large number of science and engineering courses leaves little time for a traditional “full” liberal arts curriculum. The ABET requirements though require liberal arts and humanities subjects in the engineering curriculum as well.
The rationale of liberal arts traditionally has been that the college should be a broad education containing a wide range of subjects and thought (that’s what is meant by “liberal”) and that should provide the foundation for professional or job training later on either in graduate school or on the job. Engineering however is a specialized profession requiring in depth discipline specific knowledge, which cannot be effectively learned “on the job”, hence engineering school exists to provide the professional training and education. One cannot for example graduate as a liberal arts major and expect to learn the equivalent of a four year engineering degree solely “by doing”. The employer needs to have the base of skill amd knowledge already in the person they hire.
Hope that helps and best to you!
Thank you. Is it safe to say Trinity wouldn’t be a great choice for engineering? What about Northeastern, Umass Lowell, Umass Amherst, Umass Dartmouth, Lehigh, Western New England or Lafayette? How do you feel about those? We are trying to narrow it down.
@Skippy00
A “Liberal Arts” college is one that does NOT have graduate school programs or graduate students i.e - masters, law, business, medicine, PhD programs. etc.
They are designed for the education of undergraduate students. Period.
They can have engineering programs, or not.
@Skippy- of the ones you mentioned UMass, Lehigh, and Northeastern would be choices. The location for UMass which campuses have engineering departments (not all may exist at locations)…
Umass A or Umass L which do you think is better?
@menloparkmom - While many LACs are undergrad only, the “LA” refers to the curriculum not just the student body.
Do they both have engineering? I suspect they are both good.
@Engineer80 yes Amherst does and it’s a good one but I’m not sure how the one at Lowell compares. Lowell is more affordable. https://www.uml.edu/engineering/
Ok…DH says…Trinity is fine…but he will get a general engineering degree with a concentration in some engineering field. He will probably want to get a masters.
My husband says…do NOT make your college choices based on wanting to do engineering solely. There are tons of students who change their minds about engineering…and switch to some other major. DH says…it could be up to 75% who THINK they want to do engineering and change their minds once they start.
Trinity has other options, and the cost might be OK.
But like i said earlier…in my opinion, you want to visit this school.
@thumper1 - While one should not rule out other options, engineering pretty much requires that one start out in engineering as a freshman. As discussed earlier, engineering has specific course requirements. Unlike most majors that can be started as a liberal arts freshman engineering cannot. If one is not reasonably certain he/she wants to be an engineer, he/she will lose a significant amount of time and credits attempting to transfer into engineering from a nontechnical major. My suggestion if you aren’t certain about engineering is still to start out in engineering. It’s easier as another poster pointed out to transfer into another major from engineering than vice versa. One can transfer into engineering from most hard science majors for example but would still have to make up the engineering specfic coursework. That may extend your stay beyond four years.
Phi Beta Kappa has little relevance to engineering as it is primarily liberal arts oriented. The equivalent honor society for engineering actually is Tau Beta Pi. Does Trinity have a TBP chapter (suspect not).
In reading the OP’s posts though it appeared he/she is reasonably interested in engineering. By all means, visit all the schools you’re considering.