<p>I know that this is a naive question, but I have no background in engineering. My son and I will be visiting colleges over spring break, and I’m wondering what questions we should be asking engineering schools, and what we should be looking for on our visits?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>ABET accredited?</p></li>
<li><p>How easy is it to do research with a prof? How many undergrads have this opportunity? Are they washing glassware or getting involved on cutting-edge research? </p></li>
<li><p>If you hate it, how easy is it to switch? How many students start in engineering, how many end, and where do the rest of them go? (All but one engin. school in the country loses students, so ask this one.) Why are they dropping? Lack of preparation? Grading curve from hell? </p></li>
<li><p>Breadth and depth of electives? How often are they offered? Can you research for credit?</p></li>
<li><p>For students with varied interests: how easy is it to double-major? To take liberal arts courses? What are the distribution requriements?</p></li>
<li><p>What do students do upon graduation? Of those in masters/Ph.Ds, where are they? What are they doing years down the road? If they are using engineering as a springboard into something else, what is it? Finance, which is hard to break into (i.e. engin. degree really helping) or selling insurance? For those who want law or med school, what are the grading curves like? </p></li>
<li><p>Ask yourself: do the engineers look like their liberal arts counterparts, just a little more serious and a little less suntanned, or do they look miserable, malnourished, and uncannily akin to Boo Radley?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I only really have one thing to add: How accessible are the professors? Do they attend their office hours? Are they open to you just dropping in and chatting about engineering, or do they tend to shy away from interaction with students?</p>
<p>LOL… 7’s definitely an important one. I got admitted to one uber-superstar school’s grad program, but all the professors were gone or busy when I made arrangements to go visit, and the lone undergrad-turned-grad student staffing the department office looked like he’d been dragged down a few flights of stairs. He kept sighing deeply and looking at his college senior ring, as though to remind himself that somehow, all the pain was worth it. I know it’s not that way for every field, and I might have just caught them on a bad day, but in terms of school-choosing, my gut instinct has never lied to me (I just have to learn to listen to it!).</p>
<p>Engineering’s a rough major, but it’s worth it if you love it. I think that equally important to all of ariesathena’s questions, which you <em>definitely</em> should have answered, is to definitely give weight to the question, will I (or, in this case, will my son) be happy here? It’s a lot harder to have a good college experience when you’re miserable in a place, so I think it’s majorly important to pay attention to whatever’s pinging your radar, and see whether or not it fits in with the way the students on campus are acting.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you and your son!</p>
<p>(PS, ariesathena: Which one is the one that gains engineering students?)</p>
<p>Another question you want to inquire is about some of the senior engineering coursework. Most introductory cirriculums are very similar due to ABET standards, so the real differences tend out come out primarily here. In particular, are seniors required to write some form of a thesis to graduate? (sometimes this is called differently)
In practically all cases, there is a senior “projects” course. Who teaches it - TA vs. professor? How much of a say do students have in what they do in it (e.g. here’s the topic, pick one from this list, or come up with something within the discipline on your own)? Is the project from start to finish (or as much as possible), or just some nice pre-cut portion? How big is a section/group?</p>
<p>Also, to add to the number 3 mentioned above. Do consider the quality of other academic departments outside of the school. It’s quite possible your son may want to switch out of engineering. For instance, if your son isn’t sure of engineering with absolute certainty going to school with a stellar engineering department but horrible everything else may not be as good of an idea as a school with a good (but not stellar) engineering and a good liberal arts.</p>
<p>I have a question, how should you go about asking these questions. It seems to me that really wherever you go the answer will be biased…except maybe the disgruntled kid who says the program sucks.</p>
<p>Some of the questions are more cut-and-dry, like ABET accreditation, so there’ll be no problem getting answers to those questions. Get access to a copy of the course catalog and page through the degree requirements and overviews. You’ll be able to tell whether there are a lot of courses beyond the basic ones so you have an opportunity for enrichment… Essentially, get all the in-print information that you can, and all the better if it’s the stuff the students use to plan their degrees, because that stuff is pretty unbiased, and it can give you a good overview of what your experience may be like.</p>
<p>And sure, when you get to asking the other questions to actual recruitment students, the answer’s going to be a <em>little</em> biased. I mean, they’re trying to convince you to go to their school, right? Still, whenever I’ve hosted prospective students in some capacity, I’ve always been instructed to be honest, but upbeat. Asking some tough and loaded questions (What <em>don’t</em> you like about your program?) can separate the honest campus representatives (I wish there were a structured course that taught us to use AutoCAD) from the ones that are just blowing smoke at you (I wish <em>YOU</em> were here! or The soda machine runs out of Powerade awfully quickly), and then you can tell whether or not you’ll be able to get <em>real</em> answers from the people you’re talking to.</p>
<p>aibarr - thank you. I’m visiting UIUC here in a few weeks, I’m from california and trying to decide if it’s the right choice for me. Where should you go about picking up the in-print course catalogs, I’ve scoured the website and found the Degree Requirments however I can’t find course descriptions, should I goto the Administrative Building?</p>
<p>hrm… I’m not sure they actually print them anymore. Digital age and paperless society and all that jazz, you know…</p>
<p>However, this is the URL you’re looking for:
<a href=“http://courses.uiuc.edu/cis/catalog/urbana/2006/Fall/[/url]”>http://courses.uiuc.edu/cis/catalog/urbana/2006/Fall/</a></p>
<p>(Sort of ironic that I just left Urbana-Champaign to go apartment hunting in SoCal…! I’m sitting in the Albuquerque airport right now… yay, free internet!)</p>
<p>From my daughter’s experience visiting engineering programs, nothing can match talking casually with current students. </p>
<p>Are they happy that they chose the school? </p>
<p>What do they like, dislike about the college? </p>
<p>Re: print catalogs. At OSU, we were able to buy one for $5. Otherwise, it’s all on-line.</p>
<p>Dear Friendshiplady,</p>
<pre><code>1. How many office hours does the average professor have? How will he get help if he cannot find his professor?
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What is the average class size? How many PhD holding professors will he see in the freshman/sophmore years?
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How many professors are active in the American Society for Engineering Education? (This may give a clue to how much they care about teaching your son)
Find students to verify if what they answer in 1 and 2 is true.
</code></pre>
<p>Thanks so much everybody. Your answers are insightful and will be helpful next week as we visit colleges.</p>
<p>The TA thing is important: who teaches the courses? How much do the professors care about being teachers?</p>
<p>I thought that this was a good discussion on how to explore engineering programs. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=105841&highlight=engineering+nuturing[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=105841&highlight=engineering+nuturing</a></p>