Engineering and 'pure' subjects

dsmo
Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:17:29 +0000

II would just have to say that as an engineer vs. a physics major, you are going to get the full engineering experience. Some computer programming, engineering labs, etc. You’ll have to take courses in some of the other engineering disciplines as well, so you’ll at least be able to get a feel for a couple other fields like electrical, chemical engineering, etc. You will not have to worry about having a ton of humanities courses as in LSA (but some are still required.)

I didn’t mean you should double major, only saying that if you are thinking about one day working as an engineer, you should get an engineering degree. For that matter, any engineering degree is going to be much more flexible than pretty much any non-engineering degree out there.

As to my co-op job…all because of the Engineering Career Fair on North Campus. I actually believe this was the first company I even went up to…talked to them for five minutes, they asked if I would like to interview the next day, I said sure and a week later they made an offer. Not a small company either, top 50 of Fortune 500. Was hoping to get a job in the Detroit area and not interested in other locations, but they made an awesome offer. Looked at the numbers, came out to be higher than the average U-M EE grad. I was shocked…my grades aren’t really anything special and I’m only a junior. So I’m off to Illinois for the next eight months.

Anyways, with the recent economic troubles, it seems like companies are cutting back on hiring. I have friends with better grades and more experience who’ve gone on a ton of interviews and haven’t heard anything back. I just got lucky I guess.