I want to go to school for engineering but despite a ton of research I’m still not exactly sure what type I want to go into. I know that a lot of programs start freshman taking courses specific to the type of engineering, and I don’t want to get behind if I start in one I don’t like and have to change majors. It would be really nice to have a year to discover what I like and don’t like within engineering and not feel like I’m committing to it from the start. I know of two schools, Virginia Tech and Purdue, that have a first year general engineering that everyone has to take first. This is in my opinion such a great idea, and I would definitely prefer to do that. However so far I can only find these two and I was wondering if there were any others that have this same program.
Harvey Mudd offers a very high quality general engineering degree. Hard to get into, though.
A number of schools have “freshman eng’g programs” which will include a Fall semester class that exposes the students to all their offered E disciplines. So, even tho a student might be declaring an E discipline (or not), he/she can easily change after that semester to the discipline that fits best.
Many schools don’t make you pick your major until later. At Penn State, for instance, we’re all “ENGR” majors (pre-engineering) until the end of sophomore year. And the recommended academic plans for the first two years are pretty consistent across disciplines, so if you change your mind you’ll probably have minimal catch-up to do. Check your in-state schools for similar policies.
University of Arizona has all engineering students enter as “engineering undeclared” and take a class that explores all disciplines while taking the common prerequisites. You would declare a major after freshman year.
Northwestern has a very comprehensive general engineering program that exposes you to almost every discipline in the engineering school over your first four quarters. The program is called Engineering First, and is composed of four Engineering Analysis (EA) classes, where you get introduced to the analytical part of engineering in many of those disciplines, and Design Thinking and Communication (DTC), where you learn the basics of engineering design and the design process. Personally, I found three of the four EA classes to be very interesting, and DTC is the reason I switched to engineering from liberal arts.
Here’s a link to the Engineering First curriculum: http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/academics/undergraduate/core-curriculum/engineering-first.html
All majors additionally have a couple class slots dedicated to Basic Engineering classes; through those, you can get a feel for different majors before you commit to a major, or even if you choose a major but are unsure if you chose correctly.
Plus, its super easy to switch between majors, especially during freshman year, in case you change your mind.
Most schools we have looked at this year for engineering have almost identical first year (or longer) requirements no matter what engineering discipline you think you are interested in, in fact most schools emphasize this since many of those first year courses are required for ABET accreditation. Schools that we saw or heard this at include Case Western, Pitt and Drexel. I believe it is far more the rule than the exception.
Be careful, though. At some schools, the frosh engineering students need to maintain a high enough college GPA in order to get into the major of their choice (e.g. 3.2 GPA needed at Purdue and Minnesota; those with lower GPAs may be admitted to majors with space available). Check how freely (in terms of GPA requirements and such) you can choose your major. At schools where you enter pre-declared in a specific engineering major, check how freely you can change your major.
At some schools, there may be an option for frosh to enter pre-declared or as undeclared in engineering. Again, check on the details of how freely the student can change or declare an engineering major.
Clemson offers this. Valpo also but it is a semester rather than a year.
At RIT it’s called Engineering Exploration, and you choose which specialty area by the end of freshman year.
For rising HS juniors and seniors, there are summer one week exploration into engineering programs at various schools like Purdue, UA, and others. However the schools often do not advertise this kind of program because their sections get filled up so quickly - DD did the one week UA SITE program (go on ua.edu and do the search function to find info) and decided between two areas of eng. UA has had three separate one week SITE programs - UA’s engineering program also includes CS.
It helps open the eyes beyond ‘engineering day’ at various schools - which students may or may not be able to get to.
During the first year at UA, DD’s eng courses were light - introduction into her discipline (civil eng) while she advanced on the calc, physics, etc needed for the eng courses. Taking more sophomore year.
Many schools do have the programs showing various disciplines in ‘finish in four’ with their on-line school catalog.
One may be able to go in declaring ‘engineering’ and sort out exact discipline of interest during UG experiences.
If you know any engineers, ask them what they do and how they decided. They may be able to share some of the various courses and you can see where your aptitude and interests are at. Your science and math teachers at school and GC may also be of some help.
@bodangles when you said penn state you were referring to UP right? I’m doing the application for that right now and I was wondering, since if everyone is ENGR, does it matter if you select undecided engineering or a specific one
@gi2016 Yeah I go to UP. It shouldn’t really matter if you choose completely undecided, undecided engineering, or a specific engineering, as you just take the recommended courses. Look up some sample plans to see: http://www.engr.psu.edu/AcademicPlans/
At Georgia Tech you can remain undeclared major until you have 60 credit hours.