@jessicawang Will your parents pay full freight for any major that you choose, or are they expecting you to major in eng’g?
engineering, business, etc but not writing
Don’t go in to engineering. Study something in business or maybe CS, but if your heart isn’t in it, engineering is a terrible major to pick.
I suggest you double major - and look for schools that will support that goal. Do comp sci or business - and writing. Engineering is such a demanding major that you won’t have much time to pursue your writing and is a poor choice if you don’t really like it.
There are lots of schools, including many LACs, that have good comp sci and excellent writing programs where you could do this.
Alternatively, there are many business careers that require an ability to write well if you want to combine the two.
D visited Union and was really impressed. So was I. Union and Bucknell are a couple of schools where you can get dual BA BS degrees, which is pretty cool.
Apply to Union, Bucknell, etc if you want to do engineering + writing.
If you can imagine yourself doing writing + CS (much more realistic, since engineering is sequential and has few electives where you’d be able to take English/writing even for a minor), lots of choices open up.
Santa Clara would be an obvious safety, although not a LAC.Macalester may suit you, too. Neither would be a “safety” though.
I’d prefer east coast schools, especially near the Greater NYC area.
Are doing the 3/2 programs worth it because then it takes 5 rather than 4 years to graduate….
Harvey Mudd is a great school and very selective, and it would be ideal if it was located east coast.
I don’t think I want to go into computer science….I don’t see why I can’t like both engineering and writing.
Look at Smith College. It would offer you the best of both worlds. http://www.smith.edu/engin/
For some schools CS is engineering, not BA in CS.
You can apply to Harvey Mudd and other schools that have one downside. Once you have all your admissions, you’ll be able to decide which downside matters less.
You CAN like both engineering and writing, but the problem is that engineering has a very prescribed path. It’s not like other majors, which you can easily combine with any minor or major. In fact, it’s not only very prescribed, it’s also sequential, which explains why most engineers graduate in 5 years, not 4. You have to take every class and each class has to be taken in a certain order, so you don’t have much leeway. In short, you may like both but engineering won’t allow you to take both equally (or even, in some universities, to minor in writing.)
You may however look into NMF scholarships that last for 5 years, so you could complete engineering and writing side by side, spreading the sequences over 5 years.
For instance, look at Umass Amherst engineering:
https://engineering.umass.edu/sites/default/files/flowchart-entering_after_june_2010.pdf
Your first year, you take Freshman English + 1 elective, sophomore year you have 1 elective, junior year zero, and senior year two electives. That’s it to fit any English class along with History, etc.It’s impossible to double major and even adding a minor will be onerous and require an extra year.
Now, this is the BA in CS:
https://www.cs.umass.edu/ugrad-education/details-ba-requirements
https://www.cs.umass.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/BA-CMPSCI-tracking.pptx_.pdf
You have two required courses in writing, 4 required courses outside CS (which can be writing), 4 humanities courses (which can include English) and a foreign language requirement. You also have 11 CS classes and 4 math classes.
IN short, it’d be very easy to double major and graduate in 4 years.
Union, Lafayette, Smith would all be excellent options for you.
At Union, you’re given 11 electives that must fulfill the Common Curriculum requirements.
http://catalog.union.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=2&poid=281&returnto=85
One thing to remember about 3/2 programs is that most kids who start them don’t finish. Also, that last 2 years of solely engineering classes would be killer. Also only one summer of an engineering internship.
However, the big plus is that you can get some major scholarships from some of the LACs that have 3-2 partnerships with Columbia and WashU.
Keep in mind that you have to get at least a B in all required classes for the guaranteed transfer to Columbia. WashU is a little more forgiving: 3.25 GPA in all required STEM classes will almost certainly get you in.
@DrGoogle, many schools offer CS in engineering as well as a BA in CS.
Titan, yes some poster suggested not to study engineering but CS. I just want to say that some CS degrees are actually engineering.
@DrGoogle, they may be in the college of engineering, but CS is pretty distinct from the engineering disciplines even if it is in the same college. It’s more math and logic than anything.
You have to take some engineering courses but not as much. Math and logic at the lower level but at a junior level, I believe my kid takes almost similar to what I did in graduate school for CE. Compiler, web, database, etc…
I’m not trying to do English in college, I’m fine without taking any english classes at all. Evaluate me as if you were solely looking at a potential engineering major
@drgoogle, all that that you listed (compilers, web design, and databases) are software/CS. CompE’s would get to take a lot of CS courses, but that doesn’t make CS engineering.
- Is there evidence anywhere that most students who start 3/2 programs don't finish? I've seen this said a lot but have seen no stats on it.
- It's not true that you only have one summer to do an engineering internship in a 3/2 program. Many students in 3/2 programs do engineering internships multiple summers - they begin often in their sophomore or junior summer, but I've known some in special programs who've done internships as early as the summer after freshman year. My husband interned at NASA the summer after his freshman year in an aerospace engineering 3/2 program.
The thing is, 3/2 programs don’t foretold you with all GEs and then make you do the engineering curriculum in just 2 years at the end - that’s not how they work. Colleges that have 3/2 programs offer foundational engineering (and math and physics and programming) classes at the first college. You take the foundational classes that prepare you for the upper-level engineering classes in the second college. The idea is that when you transfer you’re at the same place as a junior engineering major. That’s also why you can do an engineering internship earlier than you might expect.
Post #35, I’m not sure I understand your point. And why you think it’s not engineering why the school even states it’s engineering both for my program and for my daughters program.
If you have the money and time, apply wherever you want. Schools like Kenyon know who will be a good fit for them. If you get in, then you can repost here in April with your goals and options. Good luck.
If you’re a future engineering major applying to a LAC that doesn’t have engineering and you don’t include English, I fail to see why you’d spend time and money applying to colleges that would have no reason admitting you.
If your goal is not to study English or Writing and you only plan on studying engineering, why mention writing at all in this thread?