<p>I wondered if you are an ENG student at UIUC, how much time is there to check out / explore other non engineering ("soft") classes?</p>
<p>One the reasons that my son was applying to UIUC vs just going to a math/science/engineering intensive school such as RPI, RH, and the like, was for the breadth of offerings at UIUC.</p>
<p>Beyond comp 101, would he be able --have time - to take an anthro course or english course, for example? </p>
<p>How often do ENG students at UIUC minor in something else? </p>
<p>Is it possible to major in ENG major in something else?</p>
<p>When I asked my son why does he want to go to college, he said, To get a well rounded education and be prepared for a job. </p>
<p>Getting an engineering degree at UIUC would certainly satisfy the latter part of his 'mission stmt', but to what extent can UIUC satisfy the 1st half of that statement?</p>
<p>The University’s General Requirements must be met and the College of Engineering requires a minimum of 18 hours of “Gen Ed” courses. Six hours of humanities, six hours of social sciences, and another 6 hours of either. Go here to see the wide range of courses that count toward the fulfillment of the “Gen Ed” requirements of the University.</p>
<p>[Course</a> Information Suite, Course Catalog, Class Schedule, Programs of Study, General Education Requirements, GenEd](<a href=“Course Explorer”>Course Explorer)</p>
<p>As the noted the university has 18 hours of gen ed requirements unrelated to science and math: 6 humanities, 6 social studeies and 6 in cultural studies (3 in western, 3 in non-western). However, you can actually meet that entire requirement with only about 12 hours (four 3 hour courses) because you can find courses that will count toward two and sometimes all three of those group requirements, e…g., one course may satisfy a three hour requirement in both humanities and social studies. </p>
<p>However, the college of engineering itself also has an 18 hour general studies requirement that includes humanities, social science and cultural studies and courses taken for the university requirements also meet the engineering college requirement. The main difference is that the engineering requirement in fact requires completion of 18 hours. </p>
<p>So basically any engineering student will need a total of 18 hours which are not engineering/science/math courses, in additon to the freshman rhetoric requirement.</p>
<p>If that is not enough for your desire, you can possibly take more. Nevertheless, you should not assume you can take much more. The engineering programs have huge numbers of course requirments in science, math and engineering that are needed for graduation and it can be difficult to take much more than 18 hours of non-science/math/engineering courses during a four period simply because of those requirements.</p>
<p>Is the result a “well-rounded education”? That is a matter of opinion. There are many engineering students who wish they could take more exploratory courses in other areas to be more well-rounded. But then there are many engineering students who think the 18 hours of courses outside of sceince/math/engineering are far too many.</p>
<p>Also, depending on the amount of AP credit your son has, many of the Gen ed, as well as some underclass engineering requirements (calc/chem/physics) can be fulfilled prior to your first term. That credit can allow you to explore more, and still graduate in 4 years. The key is that U of I is a strong institution in many majors, and will allow your son many opportunities to explore, regardless of his initially admitted major.</p>
<p>Good input -thanks. and drusba, noting how expectations and desires may vary across students was an intellectually honest reply on top of your reporting of the nuts and bolts requirements.</p>
<p>How many classes would 18 hours translate to?</p>
<p>Curiously, the day after I made this thread, yesterday, a construction company was digging up the street I live to put into water main. I approached the youngish looking guy on the cell phone overseeing this operation and asked where did he go to college and what degree did he get. He replied Urbana, civil engineering. Cool. A real live engineer and from UIUC, to boot. So I asked him the same question I posted and he said that he actually minored in business there. </p>
<p>He said he initially applied to / was in Gen ENG, then changed to Civil. HE also said that he has a buddy who went to uiuc who also majored iN GEN engineering and minored in business, but he went to work at the board of trade and has now made millionz of dollars he added with a smile.</p>
<p>That’s something to note with an engineering degree too. Engineers are often chosen for positions in business over business college majors. I think it’s because of the rigor of the engineering curriculum. Employers value the struggle that engineering graduates have had to endure in order to obtain their engineering degree, and they realize that the math engineers have had to master makes them excellant candidates for a variety of business positions. The bottom line is that while engineers can get a job in typically business-oriented positions, the same cannot be said for business majors in engineering positions.</p>