<p>First, Happy Easter to All and to the other Christian believers “HE is Risen!”</p>
<p>Now to the question for this thread.</p>
<p>Son has decided to attend GT. He is interested in Computer Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Game Design and Cyber Security. </p>
<p>Obviously he can’t major in all but until he decides his desired path and declares a major, are there classes that are common/required to all of these disciplines? It would be nice to give him at least a semester/year to get to know GT and the various programs along with their pros and cons before making a firm choice as well as have an opportunity to speak with professors and students in these areas.</p>
<p>He also plans to do coop/internships. If he waits to declare a major will this hinder this option?</p>
<p>One nice thing about engineering is that freshman year is pretty much the same for all degrees. Here’s an example that works for both CompE and ChE:</p>
<p>That would keep him in good shape for the first year until he made a decision.</p>
<p>Now, if he wants to go into programming with “Game Design and Cyber Security”, then his courses will be different. He’ll need to take CS-major computer science courses both semesters of his freshman year, or else he’ll be behind. So, in summary, he’ll have to decide “engineer” or “programmer” pretty early, at least by the end of the first semester. </p>
<p>There are mostly cons to co-oping before declaring a major. If I’m Intel, I want to hire a student that I know will work for me for 3-5 terms, then work for me full-time (after all, an internship is just a long interview process and freshman interns add no value to my company). Would I really risk hiring an undecided engineering student? Probably not.</p>
<p>To get around this, he can register as an undecided major, but when he goes to interview with a company, put a specific major on his resume that fits what he wants to do at that company. That’s not lying, because he is at Georgia Tech and very well could pursue that degree by just filling out a form (similar to students listing an anticipated graduation rate).</p>
<p>Skylark, I would like to expand on something that GPBurdell said. Your son does not necessarily have to decide between programming and engineering before taking a programming course. I, for example, took CS 1371 (Intro Programming for Engineers) and then switched to a CS major… they accepted CS 1371 as my intro course, and did not make me take CS 1301 (Intro Programming for CS). Whatever intro programming course he takes will be able to transfer to the other department should he choose to switch. After that, though, he will need to choose.</p>
<p>That would be the big concern to me, so if that’s a routine policy, he probably has a semester to make a decision (after taking CS 1371). He could just take the CS course for CS majors (CS 1301), which would work for both degrees, but if he’s not a really strong programmer (because everyone else will be), that could be GPA-suicide.</p>
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<p>It’s probably not in my best interest to say.</p>
<p>GP & maea good info and advice. It sounds as if the classes are heavily curved if one of the courses has so many great programmers and it could deal such a hard blow to someone who does not program.</p>
<p>So, for clarification - which class should he take which could apply to both computer engineering and chemical engineering if he has zero experience with programming?</p>
<p>Skylark, tell your son to also look at Computational Media if he’s interested in game design – a joint degree between Computing and Literature, Communication, and Culture. Some world-known faculty in gaming.</p>