<p>At a time when engineering schools and top educators are coming to believe that engineering should be at least a six year degree with some sort of core involved, Uof C plus a 2 years masters elsewhere would put a student quite possibly ahead of the pack. Today’s engineering has greater needs than before, and if a student wants to rise to the top quickly nothing will get you there faster than knowing how to write, think sharply and all those other things(courses) that will make you stand out and away from kids who might still be taking ‘Drugs and Culture’ as their one and only elective. (Remember that many engineering types linger forever once they hit a certain career point, to avoid this one should take as many language, humanities, sosc as possible…possible at Chicago and MIT, not so much at other engineering schools. Management needs a certain amount of polish, and you need to be able to go head to head with grads from schools like Penn, Dartmouth and yes…Chicago…horrible in concept, but in horrible truth, one needs to be well rounded)</p>
<p>In our extended engineering family, with degrees from MIT, RPI and CM, a physics degree from Chicago was considered a very smart move.</p>
<p>No matter where you end up in engineering the best thing you can do is read, read, read…then learn to dress better than short sleeves and pocket protectors, learn the ability to chit chat, and learn how to stand up and talk in front of hundreds.</p>
<p>Do all this and no matter how much you have your geek on, you’ll go far.</p>
<p>(And for all the talk about Chicago being ultra nerdy…my sons both wear the skinny jeans and other faux cool hipster stuff the school seems to be excelling at. Forget what you hear, Chicago has a certain cachet that only Chicago could have…it’s like the dark side of higher education…embrace it…use it…intimidate others)</p>