<p>My son will be freshman at Alabama this fall and will be attending Bama Bound on 7/9-10. He is trying to figure out what classes to sign up for and stressing out. The problem is that he is totally undecided on major he has no idea what he wants to do. He is thinking possibly the STEM route but, as he says, how do I know if I want to be say, an engineer, when I have no idea what that entails? He is concerned that he pick courses that enable him to go the STEM route, if he wants, without putting him too far behind. e<br>
So here are some options he is thinking for fall (not - all just some combo of classes). Thoughts/potential problems?</p>
<p>MATH 125 4 HRS
PHYSICS 105/106 4 HRS (this and biology are the hard sciences he enjoys the most)
ASTRONOMY 101/102 4 HRS (SOMETHING HE IS INTERESTED IN)
AMERICAN STUDIES 200 3 HRS (Apocalypse in Film)
UNIV HONORS 155 FROSH SEMINAR 3 HRS (War Crimes)
OUTDOOR ACTION 1 HR
ENGR 111 1 HR (Seminar on Engineering Options)</p>
<p>He has AP credit for Freshman English as well as Psychology, American History, Macroeconomics and American Government. So I think he has a little wiggle room to explore a bit
…</p>
<p>The Freshman Engineering Program goes over all the different disciplines in engineering that Bama offers…so your son will get a taste of each discipline so he can decide which one (or none of them).</p>
<p>Doesn’t he have to take another FEP class?</p>
<p>I’m showing my ignorance - what’s FEP?</p>
<p>FEP=Freshman Engineering Program</p>
<p>If your son is thinking about majoring in Engineering, he should declare it. If he has a 30+ on his ACT or the equivalent SAT score, he would also get extra scholarship money. Students who don’t declare a major are automatically placed in the College of Arts and Sciences. If he declared something like Engineering-Undecided, he would be in the College of Engineering and advised by the Freshman Engineering Program.</p>
<p>A freshman engineering major would likely be taking more engineering courses as engineering courses have specific prerequisites. Detailed flowcharts are available for all engineering majors.</p>
<p>Sorry, should have been more clear. </p>
<p>Sea_Tide is right, he should be engineering undeclared…or he can be engineering (declared) and change if he decides to.</p>
<p>He should be taking more FEP classes to stay in the sequence.</p>
<p>[Courses</a> - Freshman Engineering Program - The College of Engineering - UA](<a href=“Freshman Engineering Program – Students | The University of Alabama”>Freshman Engineering Program – Students | The University of Alabama)</p>
<p>[Freshman</a> Engineering Program - The College of Engineering - The University of Alabama](<a href=“Freshman Engineering Program – Students | The University of Alabama”>http://fep.eng.ua.edu/)</p>
<p>I’d say definitely enter as an engineer (then again, I might be biased) and let him explore the different engineering options through the ENGR classes in FEP. Each major has an intro course - if he wants, he could take several of these and get a great overview of what a career in each would entail. Have him do a little research before hand into engineering fields and get an idea of what interests him. Does he like planes? rockets? cars? bridges? skyscrapers? chemistry? pharmaceuticals? computer programming? Figuring out what field of engineering might interest him will help him decide if he wants to be an engineer at all. </p>
<p>Looking at his schedule right now, I’d try to squeeze one more ENGR course in, such as a specific 121 course, or ENGR 131 (these are the ENGR courses: [University</a> of Alabama Undergraduate Catalog 2010-12](<a href=“Page Not Found | The University of Alabama”>Page Not Found | The University of Alabama))</p>