LAC or engineering program?

[ucbalumnus]

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@dodgersmom

As for the schools in contention, none are the so-called “tech” schools, and all of them offer a vast array of opportunities outside the engineering program. The only question is whether he’d be able to take advantage of those opportunities if he decides to stick with engineering. The “tunnel vision” required to successfully complete an engineering program is going to limit his exploration outside that field. Not bar, but limit.

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<p>Instead of generalizing, perhaps you and he should start going through course catalogs of each school to determine exactly what the degree requirements are for each major under consideration, and how much schedule space there is for out-of-major interests (such schedule space may come from free elective space, H/SS breadth space for H/SS interests, or even in-major electives for science/engineering interests).</p>

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@dodgersmom

My bias is towards doing the liberal arts program now, while he has the chance. He can always get a professional degree later, but he can’t go back to college.

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<p>Depending on the specific areas of engineering of interest, this may be more or less feasable. Since you have not named them, it is hard for others to give specific information. For example, if the interest is civil engineering, it really makes the most sense to do an ABET-accredited civil engineering major, since PE licensing is most important in civil engineering. But for industrial engineering, it may be more possible to enter parts of the job market with a degree in math or statistics, if the school offers, and the student takes, applicable courses in linear programming, operations research, decision analysis, etc…</p>