Can non majors enroll in the freshman engineering survey class? Is this class offered in the spring? Do transfers skip this class?
How helpful is Project Lead the Way? I was under the impression PLTW helped with admissions to college engineering programs but so far it doesn't seem to have done the trick... My son has a high GPA, 5s on APs, great ECs and will complete PLTW this year. Son #2 is currently in the program, is enjoying it, but I don't know if I should keep him in it. Would it be better for my younger son to take other classes rather than spend time on PLTW?
The class freshmen are required to take where I believe they build a hovercraft… I thought the intention of the class was to expose engineering students to all of the engineering disciplines.
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Project Lead The Way, Inc.
Oh, ha ha you mean the intro to engineering design! Sorry, no one ever referred to it as a “survey” class before but as soon as u said hovercraft…gotcha! I apologize but my response is going to be somewhat truncated since my computer died so I can only respond via my phone and, well, it’s kinda hard to do so in depth. That class is ENES100 and is required for everyone…the emphasis is the design process not so much an exposure to all the disciplines like you might be thinking… “Non” majors (those not admitted to engineering but working on gateway classes to reapply to enginneering) can take ENES100A so that they can stay on track with the 4 year plan.Yes, it is offered in the spring since different disciplines take it different semesters.
As for PLTW, I am always impressed by what I have seen as an outsider if that helps to know. If your school offers it and your child does not participate, personally, I think that would be a bigger question mark for enginneering admissions…why is this student not taking advantage of this program? To me, it would show a lack of interest in engineering if that student did not participate…actions speak louder than words.
So, why did your son not get admitted to Engineering at maryland? I couldn’t say because I don’t know all the facts…They (Clark admissions) have a different set of criteria than the university itself does. Honestly, as disappointing as it is to not be a “direct admit” it really is not bad since transferring to engineering is not competitive…just meet the requirements satisfactorily and you are in.
In the meantime, congrats on his admission to Maryland!
Also the reason it’s not competitive is because they have to back fill people that were direct admits but have since dropped out, been kicked out, or otherwise changed majors. There are so many in that category that the Clark school doesn’t get enough internal transfers to fill all the sophomore and junior vacancies. Smith is more competitive to internally transfer into because the students that initially got direct admission tend to stay in It.
Maryversity - Is ENES 100A a different class or a section of ENES 100 for non majors?
Ms. Powers - thanks for the info on PLTW. My sons both enjoy the program very much and have learned a lot about engineering. Unfortunately the colleges my son applied to are not schools in the PLTW network, including UMD, although they have stressed that applicants show a desire to be an engineering major, such as summer programs, etc. . Maybe the schools he has applied to just don’t like his essays…??
Hi,
While I cannot comment on your first question, I can tell you about my son’s experience with PLTW. He was in the program for all four years in high school, and he got into every college he applied to (including Maryland) except for Stanford (that was a longshot, a dream school). What the program did for him is to fuel his interest in the field, and confirmed that he wanted to pursue it in college. He was doing 3D modeling as a sophomore in high school, and constantly designing and building projects. When he went into the program as a freshman, some parents warned me that it might not be the best path to get into good colleges and that he would be better off taking other additional AP courses or extra math and science. While that might be good advice for many students, my son had such an interest in the subject matter that it served him so much better to do PLTW. He gained a lot of knowledge and got more hands-on experience, and put a lot of extra time and energy into it. More than anything, he started college with a solid idea of what he wanted to study while many other students in engineering were majoring in it because they were told it was a good idea, or because they were good in math and physics. As a college freshman, he felt very comfortable in his first engineering labs and was well prepared.
Also as far as the colleges within the PLTW program, that didn’t even come into play when my son was deciding where to apply and then where to attend. He could’ve gotten the college credits through Rochester (? I think that was it) but we didn’t do it. My son chose Cal Poly, and PLTW classmates chose Maryland, Drexel, Northeastern, Cornell, Virginia Tech… it’s unclear whether he would’ve been accepted to Cal Poly without the engineering classes in high school. That will remain a mystery. Applicants with higher SATs and more AP classes were not accepted, so who knows…
KJinMD - thanks for letting me know how things worked out for your son! My son has enjoyed the classes, knows that he wants to be an engineer, so is a bit frustrated that he will have to wait a semester to be an engineering major at MD - and I am a little concerned that he’s missing out on programs for the freshman engineering students since it would be fantastic for him to have the support in place.
Maryversity - how tough is ENES 100? While I’d like my son to stay on track with all of the other engineering students, I don’t want him to risk his B average and ticket into the program by taking the class.
Well, this class is a hands on class that depends a lot on teamwork. Your son is going to have a major advantage in this class given his experience with PLTW since they are actually designing and building a hovercraft from scratch that they will compete with at the end of the semester. Most of the kids in the class won’t have any experience working with tools or building or the design process (remember, all engineering students take this class, so biomedical, chemical (etc) engineering students are also in this class not just MechE and EE students). How hard? Every semester they change the challenge, so who knows. But, overall, it’s meant to be a fun class and I don’t believe success depends on winning as much as successfully completing a working design and completing assignments. But I am not a student, so I haven’t personally taken it haha. Most kids say it was one of their favorite/most fun classes, but it’s just a lot of work. You know, building a robot(hovercraft in this case) is all about design, redesign and more redesign. So, those not used to it are often surprised at the out-of-class time they need to spend on building so some can have an issue with time management. However, as I said, your son has the advantage of understanding this from firsthand experience, so he should be fine. As you can see from the general grade distribution, the majority of students do well in this class as a whole http://www.ourumd.com/class/ENES100
Here’s the website with videos from previous competitions
