<p>Excuse you…? Like 20% double major. There is a blog article describing participants in a case or business plan competition of which all were in GBS and one was double majoring in computer science. Also, your ideas about going to a top engineering school (or top any school) are false. Don’t cling to that idea (attending one can certainly enrich your experience, but if you’re good, it won’t really change the outcome, though it could accelerate a good depending on who you meet I guess). Anyway, I thought I was explaining to you how many people at Emory or wherever are actually innovating without the engineering degree/courses. They are just naturally tech inclined and are surrounded by the right people. In addition it helps to go to a school that is more liberal arts oriented because you can get a multi-disciplinary perspective that could indeed catalyze ideas (as in, you’ll more easily identify what are perhaps unique or untraditional applications of your talent in CS or CE). We have no engineering school and students here are doing more than just becoming an IT guy/girl (again, the HackAtl was basically GBS derived. HackEmory was derived by CS, ,math, and physics. majors at Emory and these 10 folks raised like 12k in sponsor money for the very first one and likely did better for the one that just passed. And the participation was pretty high) Here is the article: <a href=“https://blogs.emory.edu/bbanews/2014/05/12/duo-secures-1st-placesiperstein-case-competition/”>https://blogs.emory.edu/bbanews/2014/05/12/duo-secures-1st-placesiperstein-case-competition/</a></p>
<p>As you can see, not only is there double majoring in the b-school but there are specific business plan competitions designed by and for Emory students. Obviously you are allowed to propose whatever you want within the realm of feasibility. You don’t need to have CE courses to train yourself in that area or perhaps you could cross-enroll in Tech classes if you feel you need them so badly. But you need not go through the actual engineering curriculum to become an innovator in that area. This is evidenced by the fact that Emory hosts hack-a-thons and case competitions and many schools with engineering schools (including a couple of top schools with engineering schools) don’t. And some of the schools (particularly even less well known ones) with similar selectivity and an engineering school cannot get the level of interest or participation as we can. It appears gaining an entrepreneurial atmosphere and fostering innovation is largely controlled by the environment at each school and the level of support there is for such things. Many students here are becoming innovators in a field without ever stepping foot in advanced courses (or any) on the matter. They are simply inspired by something and then work hard to learn things on their own (okay, let’s be honest, some students are already really good when they come in. The girl who came up with the box idea is also working on several other start-ups and businesses) so that they can pitch and implement ideas. As far as coursework, you may end up benefiting more from the mathematical physics, physical biology, or some other courses with open ended projects than many CE courses (even at top engineering schools, most of such courses will be about “obedience” as opposed to creativity. As in algorithmic problem solving vs. open-ended). If you were talking aerospace, BME, something like that, by all means, be skeptical and worried. When done right, those curricula do have tons of potential to get you involved in R and D efforts/innovation. But when it comes to computers, there are so many pathways to enhancing that talent (mainly through experience/getting involved in a large project, not associated with a course, where the talent is needed. Perhaps an internship, which many Emory CS and math majors get…)
@Chardo: I agree…should have bought that up. Thanks for bringing attention to that.</p>