general engineering and uppperclass "weedout" courses

boneh3ad
Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:05:53 +0000

I think NAFTA summed it up pretty well. I can throw in my two cents as well.

Those early Calc, Physics and Chemistry classes along with the TAM classes are all about weeding out people who just don’t have the mindset and/or motivation for engineering. That much is common sense and has been discussed ad nauseum. Usually, there are classes in each engineering major that, while not specifically designed to weed out more people, tend to have that effect. As NAFTA touched on, these often have the effect of just pushing students out of one engineering major into another in addition to out of engineering altogether, so you won’t necessarily have a major drop in class size, you just might swap a few people with other majors.

Each department has different classes that fall into this category. I graduated from MechSE, and for us, ME 300 was generally considered the “weed out” 300-level class. Most people who couldn’t handle ME 300 for one reason or another switched to another engineering. Civil seems to be a popular one because it is closely related to mechanical engineering if you just get rid of the thermodynamics related classes. To a lesser extent, ME 310 (fluids) seemed to function this way. I can’t really comment o n which classes fill this roll for GE.

I don’t think it is a phenomenon based on how hard these classes are, but rather the fact that these are the first classes that start introducing you to the methodology and topics used in your major. Some people realize that the major isn’t really what they thought, others struggle moving from the more theoretical TAM classes into the more applied pure engineering classes, and others still just can’t pick up the problem solving method. Whatever the reason, these early 300-level classes seem to be the final tripping point on your way to a degree. After that, very few people drop out or switch majors.

School recognition matters to a degree, but it isn’t everything. Generally, at a better school, you are more likely to find connections to the most desirable companies, and you are more likely to find said companies at the career fairs. However, once your resume is in that pile, it is as much about what you know and what you have done. For graduate school, the school reputation means you have greater potential to get good recommendation letters and do undergraduate research. Beyond that, going to the top school can help push you over the edge if you are borderline, but you won’t get into grad school on name alone.

General engineering is fine if you want to apply to companies at the career fair at UIUC. They likely are aware of the GE program and know what it is and how to use it. If you want to go anywhere that isn’t familiar with the program specifically, however, it could definitely work against you in some cases. I would have to agree that if you are interested in a different engineering, transferring wouldn’t be a bad thing to consider. Definitely talk to your advisor about it if you feel comfortable. He will give you a biased answer of course, but he probably still has some good information.

Minors are largely useless, as NAFTA said. The exception is if you are looking to get into a field that specifically requires skills that can be acquired through a minor. These instances are not extremely common though.