DS#2 is a rising junior in HS, and has recently told us that he’s very interested in majoring in Mining Engineering. He’s a solid student, but not what I would call ‘high-stats’. Mechanically inclined, doesn’t like to sit still, dyslexic, can focus on any topic for hours when interested, but otherwise bores easily. LOVES nature, hiking, off-roading, exploring remote areas.
He has been toying with the idea of majoring in Engineering, and mechanical engineering would probably be the best ‘fit’ out of the regular engineering majors, but he’s just not too excited by it, and I know it would be a very difficult major. But when he came across the idea of Mining Engineering, his eyes lit up. Given his motivation because of his interest in the topic, I think he could make it through.
Does anyone have a child in Mining Engineering, or any experience with the major? How tough is it, compared to MechE, EE, ChemE, etc… Did your child end up working in the mining field? I’ve read that some people say it’s a dying field, and others say there’ll be never-ending work. We are also a little worried that all the work will be in remote areas. DS doesn’t want to end up in a city or anywhere super populated, but we really don’t want him being restricted to only being able to live in desolate areas.
Any insight into this field, or suggestions for how we can find out more about it, would be much appreciated!
No direct experience in the field but my D (a chem E) was recruited heavily by Colorado School of Mines. They have a lot of information on their website about the major, courses, etc…
The mining and explosives has to be a hit. I’m tempted.
WVU’s mining program is well regarded. NETL has a presence there.
I don’t see how surface or underground mining could completely go away.
My dad worked underground for 30 years until 65 as did pretty much my entire family. He fixed a lot of engineering mistakes. Underground is a different world. No thanks. I’ll stay above ground.
I’m not a mining engineer but took some classes in the department that were great: crystallography (our lab was like a museum room, and the final consisted of the professor picking a sample from the thousands of little drawers in the room and we had to identify it, so fun!) and biomining, also super cool. My friend’s son that is obsessed with explosives is at Colorado school of mines and is working on space mining research.
My one friend that is a mining engineer works for McKinsey, not exactly what your son is looking for is my guess. It is one of the more eclectic engineering majors but to me it sounds like lots of fun. Good luck to your son!
Colorado School of Mines is a great school (but expensive for OOS). Wyoming and Colorado State are also great and a good deal cheaper (Wyo especially). Montana, Montana State? The best mining schools are where the rocks are. (I’m sure PA and VA and WV have good mining programs too)
You aren’t going to find too many mines in NYC or LA, but they do dig tunnels for subways. Most mines are in the sticks, but in some pretty cool places too. My BIL, who is a civil engineer and went to school at Wyoming (he grew up in Cleveland), worked for the Moly Mine in Leadville, CO for a few year. He worked on projects on the surface like parking lots and loading spaces and I’m not sure he ever went down into the mine. My sister, who was not an engineer but a lawyer for a gold mining company and before that a copper/nickel mining company, went to a lot of mines in not such great places like Hazard County KY and Middle of Nowhere, WV, but also went to Pittsburgh a lot, to Australia, to South Africa. The engineers don’t spend all their time down in the mines but may be working from the company headquarters, and most of those are in cities.
Want to mention New Mexico Tech (officially New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology). It’s has a Mineral Engineering program with an option to specialize in explosives. One of the top explosives programs in the country.
Tech is a small school that offers lots of individual attention.
Tech is in Socorro, NM, a small town (pop. 9100) in the midst of of world class outdoors areas for rock climbing, hiking, road cycling, mountain biking, caving/spelunking, etc. Tech has an 18 hole championship golf course on campus. Socorro is about an hour south of Albuquerque. (There’s daily shuttle service to and from Tech to ABQ.) Tech shares it s campus with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the Very Large Array is about 30 miles west of campus.
Oil and gas is a boom and bust cycle, but certain other extractive technologies are going to be with us for a very long time. Tech emphasizes mine remediation as part of its curriculum and that is something will going to be in demand as older mines close and mining companies are forced to clean up their polluted sites.
No one in the family does mining, but D’s former BF earned a BS in MechE then a MS in explosives technology and now works for the Army as a contractor doing large scale demolitions. He blows things up for living and just loves it.
P.S. tech is much, much less expensive than Colorado School of Mines is for OOS. Tech even offer some scholarship for those with more modest test scores and GPAs.
University of Arizona in Tucson has a good mining engineering program also. We attended a college of engineering presentation at Arizona several years ago and one of the student presenters was a mining engineering student who spoke very highly of the program and the opportunities she had there.
Tucson is a great place for someone who loves the outdoors, hiking,off-reading and such. Also a great place for anyone who loves food.
My D and her husband are at UArizona for grad school and have come to love the outdoor opportunities in Southern Arizona. They hike and backpack frequently.
Of course, the first school I thought of was Colorado. But the second school I thought of was Michigan Tech. And they do indeed have an ABET accredited mining eng degree, as well as a geological eng degree. They have a wide range of summer programs for high schoolers there.
Hi all! Thanks so much for your responses and suggestions!
We met with the Dean of Mining Engineering at WVU, and it was really a great meeting. He told us how ‘in demand’ mining engineers are, and that his graduating class of 13 last year had 100% job placement. He emphasized how important internships were, and that the department worked hard to bring companies in to hire. He made the field sound very exciting, with lots of travel opportunity and hands-on work. The meeting really confirmed for my son that this is what he wants to do, and also allayed some of our worries as parents.
I will start looking into the 12 other programs in the country. I have to say, having a narrow list of choices does make it easier to research!
The annoying thing is that, though all 13 schools that offer this major are state schools, none are in our state, and NJ isn’t a member of the any group of states that would give him in-state tuition at an out-of-state school if the major isn’t offered in our home state. Soooo frustrating. I know some of these schools have lower OOS tuition, but nothing beats in-state tuition!
Blacksburg is a great college town, the campus is beautiful, with lots of outdoor activities nearby,a fun sports scene, and great school spirit. Good luck with your search!
To be fair, you wouldn’t expect Kansas to invest in Paper Technology as an academic discipline (but Maine does) and you wouldn’t expect Ohio to invest in estuary research (although Florida does). This is a big country and geography still determines a lot of what the public U’s have developed as core academic strengths…
Totally agree! I don’t expect NJ to have a mining engineering program at its state universities, but NJ doesn’t participate in any academic common market, which is what is frustrating. If we lived in Delaware or any state south of there, or as far west as Texas, he could get in-state tuition prices at any of the 16 states in the SREB Academic Common Market.
Virginia Tech would be awesome! But it has such a high starting tuition price for OOS, I don’t think we have a chance of getting down into our budget ($30k/year).