Hello everybody! I am an international student who was recently accepted to Bates College and Yale-NUS College in Singapore. I’m having quite a few issues while deciding between the two so I’d appreciate if anyone could help me finally make a decision
So a bit of background: I (most probably) want to work towards a career in engineering. Neither school has specific engineering majors but Bates does have a general one as well as majors in Maths, Physics, and Comp Sci which I can translate to a graduate program in engineering. Yale-NUS, on the other hand, doesn’t have double majors but instead has something called Physical Sciences with an Engineering Focus which I guess could essentially be the same thing but I doubt I’d have the same flexibility as I would have in Bates (Like I said, I most probably will be going into an engineering career but if I choose to shift to, say, academia, Bates’ majors would be the better choice, I believe). As for financial aid, both are relatively affordable; Yale-NUS is cheaper than Bates but both are within my family’s reach. My goal after my undergrad is to get into a top engineering graduate program in the US and to ideally work in the US afterward.
What would you guys suggest when considering my interests and future plans? At the moment, I’m leaning towards Bates simply because of the flexibility and the US college experience and also the fact that most of my long-term goals align well with the school.
If you want to go to college in the US and have that experience, Bates! But you know that to get an engineering degree at Bates, it’s a 5 year program with 2 of them somewhere other than Bates, right? Not sure how you get accepted to the program of your choice and how FA works but the website says Bates FA only works for the 3 years there, so if that’s key to affordability, you will need to get FA for the 2 years elsewhere, so that’s uncertain.
I strongly suggest that you carefully read through the degree requirements at both for the majors you are considering - as well as any general requirements - to be sure that you understand your educational path at each. If you want an MS in engineering, you need to make sure you’ll be positioned for that, especially if you are expecting to do that without an undergraduate engineering degree.
For kids who are certain they want to be engineers I usually recommend going straight into an engineering program, not a 3-2, but a combined degree program can be a good option for students who want time to decide for sure that engineering is for them.
You’d have a fair amount of flexibility at Bates and although if you decide to pursue engineering you’d have to set the groundwork early, you wouldn’t have to declare your major until junior year.
If your goal is engineering, then you need to study where you can get an engineering major. It really is that simple. The 3-2 programs are not good choices for international students as the financial aid for years 4 and 5 at the second institution might not be affordable, in which case you would have to finish without an engineering degree. If you go to Bates, you need to plan on finishing there with a non-engineering degree.
Some graduate programs in engineering do admit students who have strong science and math backgrounds, however those students usually need to take a lot of basic engineering classes before they can enroll in the engineering coursework. You would need to pay for those extra classes.
Does the engineering focus at Yale-NUS prepare students to move on to specific engineering majors? Where do they finish those? Yale? NUS? Somewhere else? Does it just get them ready to move to a grad program in engineering is such a way as to not need to do the catch-up clases they might otherwise require?
If they don’t offer an Engineering degree, and you want to be an engineer, then you shouldn’t attend either. Take a gap year or look at the list of schools that will come out in a week or so that still have open slots.
Actually, in many countries, the process can be a math and/or physics and/or CS undergraduate degree (sometimes with some courses in english or business) THEN a graduate degree in engineering. It’s the same in the US except the 4-yezr engineering degree is more common) and for international students it actually makes more sense because it means BS with internships-> opt-> master’s degree=> opt → go home with valuable degrees and experience.
(Throughout Europe the Master’s degree is the norm for instance.)
The 4-2 system works well and for this student would be a good way to have both a liberal arts degree and an engineering degree along with a chance at annopt salary.
That being said op has said they’re interested in Physics or math, I really think it’d make no sense to turn down Bates as both are strong there.
