Tell me about UA engineering

jrcsmom
Fri, 14 Jun 2013 10:45:01 +0000

My S just finished his freshman year in Civ-E, we primarily chose Bama because of the scholarship, but also because my S liked the idea of spreading his wings and getting a bit farther from home than some of his other options.

We primarily viisted schools ranked in the top 10 for Civ-E (UIUC, Purdue, Georgia Tech, MIT) and other top engineering schools (Rose-Hulman, Cooper Union), but those which he chose to apply and was accepted would have been a stretch financially. And ultimately HE chose Bama over other options such as Rose and Purdue because they were far to close to home, although he was told we could make the finances work. By choosing Bama we were able to get though year 1 without borrowing any money and had enough money for him to travel to Ecuador with Alabama Action Abroad to end his year.

Pros: The facilities - from the brand new engineering buildings and labs to the new dorms the facilities are comparable to any other school out there (and far surpass most schools, especially other publics, many of which are facing budget issues)

The honors college (although not directly related to engineering) - EVERYTHING about the honors college is outstanding. After an awkward initial campus visit, it was the meeting with the honors college that convinced me to give Bama a second look, from their recruiting, through their communications with families and students, to the events they arrange, to the priority registration, to the courses they offer there is nothing negative with the honors college.

The scholarships - as noted above, this was the only option we had that allowed us to finish the first year debt free with the hope of completing the remaining 3 years in the same manner.

Neither pros nor cons;

The courses - this could be swayed to a pro or a con when my son gets into his upper division courses, but so far taking basic requirements, they do not vary much between schools… calculus is calculus is calculus whether you take it at MIT or your local community college. Also as an ABET accredited engineering school the degree requirements will be VERY similar to every other ABET accredited school.

The faculty - like ANY large school, there are some VERY good and some to avoid. Other threads recommend checking ratemyprofessors before registering. We’ve run across both since we began looking at the school.

Cons:

After a year, most of my concerns were alleviated and my S has had a very good experience, but the one con that is still very apparent to me is the lack of emphasis on work experiences they have in engineering. In all of the top 10 schools we visited one of the first things they talked about was how critical it was for engineering students to get work experience and the companies they worked with to secure internships and co-ops for students. At Bama - there is a very good co-op program, but it is not exclusive to the engineering school and students must make an effort to seek it out, there is no requirement for any work experience as some other schools do have and there are no requirements for students to even attend a presentation to hear about the benefits or of how to get involved. For students that don’t want to or can’t complete a co-op for some reason, the internships are coordinated by a completely different office and it is mostly inefective - during our first campus visit I asked a prof about the ability of students to get internships, after staring at me for a few moments like I was speaking a foreign language he finally responded “some students that have personal connections are able to get internships”… I again asked our honors ambasador who was leading our tour if he or any of his friends had gotten internships…once again I got that blank stare and then heard “Oh, you mean a summer job, I need to find one of those”. My son went to both (fall and spring) engineering career fairs, but found very limited companies looking for civil students and of those only 1 or 2 looking for interns. The Civ-E department sent out occasional opportunities (maybe 4 or 5) over the course of the year (for a department with hundreds of students) most of which required older students or students that had completed specific coursework - none of which my son was qualified to apply to.

That said, I took some initative and began scouring the web for any and every opportunity that he was qualified for - I searched job sites such as careerbuilder, monster, and indeed, internship specific sites, and simply googled civil engineering internships, summer engineering internships, summer 2013 civil internships, and many other combinations. I found new opportunities almost daily. I had my son apply to any opportunity that was in an area near home or a close family friend or relative. He interviewed for 2 positions and is now currently spending the summer with his grandparents and working at one of them.

Especially in a field such as engineering, work experience is CRITICAL. My only disappointment with Bama so far has been the lack of emphaiss they devote to it. My recommendation would be for them to begin a work experience office specific to the school of engineering that deals with both co-ops and internships. I would like to see them be as concerned with the number of students that graduate with work experience as they are about the number that travel abroad.