My son is a junior and we are just starting to research schools. He thinks he wants to major in engineering, but really not sure what branch. Electrical and aerospace seem frontrunners, but he just doesn’t know because his experience with most of the sub-disciplines is limited or nonexistent.
I like the idea of schools that have a common program for first-year engineers and then you pick your specialty after you have more exposure to engineering in general. From what I can tell poking around individual school websites, some schools take this approach and others you would enter having already declared electrical engineering or whatnot. Are any of you aware of a resource that lists schools according to how they structure their first-year engineering program? I’d also like to know how difficult it is to switch within an engineering major. If the answer is you have to ask on a school-by-school basis, that will have to wait; we’re just not there yet.
Finally, I’m looking for a good way to research what schools have which sub disciplines (specifically, at least both electrical and aerospace). Is there any better way to go about this than school-by-school websites?
Certainly lots of other criteria to manage – fit, cost, stats, etc. – but how flexible a school is within engineering majors is where I am having the most trouble gathering information efficiently. I’d appreciate any help you can offer.
Your son could start with a list of STEM-focused colleges and universities with an engineering school/college. The two disciplines you mentioned are generally covered by these colleges. They typically require all their first-year students to complete a common engineering core curriculum regardless of their subfields of interest, and students can usually choose their major after their first year, as long as the major is not impacted (the two you mentioned are generally not impacted).
My son is a senior in high school and doesn’t know what field of engineering he’s interested in either (or even if engineering is his thing at all honestly). He’s thinking Aerospace or Chemical. He’s been accepted to several schools already and they all look pretty easy to switch. The first year is basically identical for all of them and a couple of the schools include a kind of engineering overview course freshman year to give them a sampling of all the disciplines. He was just told to take regular Chem instead of the “Chem for Engineers” in case he goes the Chemical Eng route.
As far as finding schools. We started by just googling engineering schools and then weeded out the ones he didn’t have a chance of getting into or that were too expensive. Most schools with engineering programs cover several fields. Aerospace is tougher to find (at least around here). We only have one option in our state. One of the schools on DS’s list doesn’t offer it at all, but it checks all the other boxes and is the least expensive option. Right now our front runner is Iowa State, but Huntsville, U of M - Twin Cities and Duluth are all close seconds for us.
I don’t believe there is such a website. We researched school by school.
I can speak to Purdue which has a common first year engineering curriculum and a transition to major after the successful completion of first year. It can be competitive depending on popularity of major. Both Aero and EE are competive and require a 3.2 engineering GPA to guarantee acceptance of the first choice major.
Purdue has 17 engineering majors and a number of minors and concentrations.
FWIW, many undecided prospective engineers will put mechanical engineering on their applications because that gives a very broad foundation.
I would research by building your own list via rankings. I have two kids in engineering one at michigan state and the other at Penn state. Very big difference in how they work with engineering students. MSU has all engineers living together first year, some classes provided in a building attached to the dorm, advisors offices in the same building and extra help provided by TV in the same building while Penn State is the opposite. Roommate has nothing to do with engineering and classes plus help is all over campus
For those with first year undeclared engineering programs, pay attention to whether a high college GPA or competitive admission is required to declare a major. For example, here are some thresholds:
2.0: Michigan, Pittsburgh
2.0-2.5: Cornell
3.0: Virginia Tech*
2.0-3.2: Penn State
3.2: Minnesota, Purdue
2.0-3.4: Ohio State
2.8-3.5: Wisconsin**
3.5: Texas A&M*
Has competitive admission for majors that have space available after admitting those who meet the GPA minimum.
*Does direct admission; GPA is to stay in the major.
The ABET website allows such searches. It won’t tell you if a school does first year engineering or not, but it will show you which subdisciplines.
Ohio State has competitive admission for majors that have space available after admitting students with the department’s guaranteed admission gpa for most majors - (Aero/Astro, Aviation, Chem, Civil, Engineering Physics, Enviro, FABE (food, ag, bio, eco), Industrial & Sys, Mat Sci., Mech, Welding)
CSE and ECE will not admit students below the guaranteed admission gpa, but majors also have different policies on how that gpa is calculated (which courses count and repeated coursework). Admission for BME is competitive (no guaranteed admission for gpa, avg has been 3.6). For details see “Major Application Guidelines” at
https://advising.engineering.osu.edu/current-students/applying-your-major
They do go over the policies in depth in their freshman survey class so students can set their academic goals and priorities.
I assume your son will be seeking direct-admission to an Engineering school? If so, he should be able to pick (almost) any major later-- and the Engineering Core should be the same for all. (almost because Computer fields are impacted nearly everywhere and admissions are limited— see ucbalumnus post above for different/better info.
I am an Engineer myself and my son is in a HS Engineering Program (but only a Freshman). Schools I may direct him to look into when the time comes: The UCs (we live in CA), UWA, Univ CO, CO Mines, Univ UT, UTX, Rice, GA Tech, Purdue, UIUC, UWI. He is opposed to private schools, but that might change (yes I know Rice is private, but it’s more affordable than other private schools.)
As an Engineer myself, if I had it to do again…I’d go to a top LAC and major in a science discipline and then do Engineering at the graduate level. You miss out on so much by going Engineering too early. The Engineering core is so huge there is little opportunity to explore other subjects. My son will likely not heed this advice.
I know of two (on my son’s list) Stevens Institute and Manhattan College.
Thank you all – this is very helpful and I appreciate it!