<p>I realized that a lot of the shools i want to apply to just don't have enginering programs but have 3/2 dual degree programs. It would be go to this college for 3 years, then spend 2 years at dartmouth. or go to nyu for 3 years, sudy for 2 years at stevens institiude of tech. or study for four years at fordham, go to columbia for 2 years.</p>
<p>does this deract from the college experience? you get a b.s./and b.a., but it also prevents you from getting an m.a. in a 5 year program which for, my second question, is a 5 year program (like villanovas) too much? (too hard, etc.)</p>
<p>Elliot, I think crossover programs are great for alot of kids. I am a Mechanical Engineer with also a MSIE and MBA. I have interviewed and hired 100's of kids during my tenure as a Engineering Manager.</p>
<p>I'll pose a question to you, how confident are you that Engineering is your final career choice? What is your potential to get into a top engineering school as a freshman? Are you ready to hit the ground running so to speak in a program that is clearly intended to weed out the contenders from the pretenders from the day you walk into your first class? these are some of the questions you should be asking yourself and your answers can give me a idea of what my advise would be.</p>
<p>Having said that I think you can read between the lines that this decision is really based on the individual student. I've done alot of colabritave work with programs at Michigan, RPI, Carniege Mellon so I've had a first hand opportunity to talk to kids and Professor's at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Likewise a considerable number of engineers that I hired either came from a start in a non engineering program or from a community college that had a 2+2 or 2+3 program. I myself started with a AAS, then got my BSME and finally a MSIE and MBA. Companies don't look upon this unfavorably I can vouch for that, if you finished at a good engineering school, demonstrarted that you can do the work, have a good grasp of the theory, and the sense that you can perform in a corporate environment there isn't much important about where you started 5 years ago.</p>
<p>Inquire about attrition rates at some of these engineering schools I think you will be surprised by the results. Especially for first year freshman. In alot of situations for Kids it's much better to start slower at a less demanding more pratical hands on engineering program before you get immersed totally in the theory, then you have all the bases covered to ba able to go faster later on.</p>