[roadtonowhere08]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaron313 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Rant: I really hate the term "General Ed." What the hell does it even mean? Every field of study is specialized to some (usually high) degree. To science/engineering majors, these are often seen as throwaway classes that distract from the primary goal. To the people majoring in a "Gen Ed" subject, it is what their goal is. So when people say "I'm getting my General Ed out of the way," I cringe, because most of my time now is spent studying those subjects for fun. At my school, we call them Breadth Requirements, which is more intellectually honest.

Basically GE classes are the more bread and butter classes that give students a taste of everything. The goal is to make students more well-rounded in their knowledge rather than just having one specialty. I am sure you probably already know this, but I wanted to throw it in there in case someone else might not.

The merits of this approach are debatable, and I can see where both sides are coming from. I think it can be a good way for more wishy-washy students to get exposed to more than what they might have been previously and give them some sort of direction if they see something they like. Like you said though "Breadth Requirements" is a more accurate title.

 

[Drubbing]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackbird /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is it better to spend more money at a "Brand Name" college and get "better" returns, or go to a "regular" college and get "regular" returns?

This must be an American 'thing'. Getting a brand name education guarantees, wait for it...nothing. It doesn't get you a free pass into anywhere, and doesn't add $xx to your salary.

Who knows what are the best professions to pursue? Give it 5 years and it'll all change anyway. Doing what you enjoy, because you enjoy doing it well, and getting better at it, is what gives you returns in work, and life in general.

I found out way too late what I really enjoyed, and what I was good at. I never went to college, and finally did so just recently with a mortgage, a full time job, and three pre school kids, finishing a Communications double major degree with high distinction, last year. Hard work? Understatement, but I did so well because I loved it.

But I'm a lot older than you, and it's just not that easy to change careers with a piece of paper with top grades at my stage of life, so evaluate what you really like, and study that. If you find it's not you, I know students that swapped courses even 2 years in, taking credits to the next course where possible.

Many people end up doing very different work, to that which they studied for; your life doesn't necessarily get mapped through doing 4 years of college.

Don't look to anyone else to work out what career is best for you, there are no shortcut answers. It's your life; you evaluate it and take responsibility for it.

People may have well intentioned career related advice to give you here, but really, none of it is worth jack. Sounds like you have a good relationship with your family - have a detailed discussion with them is where to start.

 

[aaron313]

 

 

[dBs]

Theres 2 tactics when it comes to GE classes. Depending on your outlook, one is more favorable than the other. You can get them all out of the way in the beginning to buy time deciding if your major is for you, or you can space them out if you know that your major is for you. If you plan on doing the former, I would say to start off at a community college. Community colleges are allowed to teach classes up to the 200 level (the limit of all the GE classes anyway). Its significantly cheaper and easier to get those classes done at a CC. Then transfer to the university to finish the degree. You will tend to get smaller class sizes at CC's as well which can be good as its almost always the case that some area of the GE classes will not be your gift.

The second option is the one I took, I wanted to be an engineer all my life. Hahaha, when asked what I wanted to do when I grow up when I was even as young as 5, I would say engineer. I dont really think I even knew what it was back then, hahaha. When my band instructor in grade school asked what instrument I wanted to play, I asked him which one would help me with my math. Yea, I was a weird little kid XD. Anyway, the advantage to spacing out the GE classes like I did is that the GE classes tend to be far easier than your core classes for your major and you can help offset more difficult later classes with those easier GE classes. Be honest though about which GE classes will be easy or difficult for you. As I said before, theres always at least one are of GE that will be your weak point, so plan around that.

Summer school is also a great time to take GE classes, only some are offered in so condensed a time frame. The ones that are offered though are usually much easier than the full semester long versions because they have to whiddle away a huge chunk of the material. One of my Core Humanities classes (basically history via literature of the time) I took in the summer. I didnt loose a single point the entire semester, I ended up with over a 100% in the class. By contrast, I took the other two during the normal semester and I came out with B+ in both.

EDIT: Im not a fan of the whole GE thing (in its current form at most colleges). I cant speak for all majors, but when it comes to engineering, its beginning to become common sentiment-as I have read-that you almost need a Masters now to have learned enough to be prepared for work. I dont know how true this is yet or not as I havent started my first job quite yet, but this is what I have read. I know I would have much rather taken Engineering Acoustics, or Advanced Fiber Optics, or otherwise over Modern Philosophy or Dance Appreciation. I know I could have learned so much more than I did if I wasnt forced to take irrelevant classes. Now if the GE system was like this: "Take 15 credits of anything outside your required/core classes". That would be great, at least then I could broaden myself out in a direction that is still interesting to me. I would have taken some art classes (as actually DOING art is really fun), or economics classes. Ultimately, I think its more of a way to force extra $$$ out of the students pockets. It might help some people find another major, but to require it is just unnecessary and detracting from everyone else. Thats just my take from a recent grad who found most of them pointless =P

 

[appophylite]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dBs /img/forum/go_quote.gif -I have read-that you almost need a Masters now to have learned enough to be prepared for work.-

Not necessarily true. One of the people at the company I work for doing the same job I'm doing had a Master's Degree in Petroleum Engineering (makes sense as we work in the oil field), yet she was one of the poorer performing engineers on site. We have people from a range of Bachelor's degrees (Electrical Engineering, Mechanical, Math), who were performing better than her with less time spent in the field. IMO, a Master's is great if that is the way you want to go, but it is not necessarily a necessity in the engineering profession.

 

[pdupiano]

I think its also important to realize that unless you go into specific majors-professions, you can pretty much do anything you want with your degrees/college education. The exceptions are of course:
Engineering
Architecture
Pre-Med/vet/law (just do something else as well as a back up)

These majors pretty much point you in a particular direction and will not provide you with additional skills/attempts at looking outside the field. Usually the classes are all laid out for you, you'll have 5 or so electives (versus the 20+ in other majors) and you just keep pushing through till you're done.

And I agree with Billy, that design work... as it turns out is usually left for the cream of the crop at the top of the heap, unless you decide you're going to become a consultant/inventor but in most cases you'd probably be at the top of the heap to be a consultant and you'd need to be somewhat successful to begin with to be able to sustain yourself as an inventor.

Oh and on a side note about specialization... Don't specialize in one thing. There are two choices:
1. Know nothing about everything (knowing a lot but very little of each subject)
2. Know everything about nothing (Specializing to the point that you know more about a topic than anyone else -but know very little if anything about anything else)

The middle path would be to pick a few fields and specialize in them -making sure to diversify them. I made the mistake and stuck with different fields of engineering...

Oh and one last thing.. you're what 14 years old. Go out and enjoy yourself, worry about this crap when your 22.

 

[billybob_jcv]

Quote:

Originally Posted by appophylite /img/forum/go_quote.gif Not necessarily true. One of the people at the company I work for doing the same job I'm doing had a Master's Degree in Petroleum Engineering (makes sense as we work in the oil field), yet she was one of the poorer performing engineers on site. We have people from a range of Bachelor's degrees (Electrical Engineering, Mechanical, Math), who were performing better than her with less time spent in the field. IMO, a Master's is great if that is the way you want to go, but it is not necessarily a necessity in the engineering profession.

There can be a difference between what it takes to *get* a job versus what it takes to do well in a job. The first might require a Master's (or more), the second usually doesn't.

I did the "other" option - I got an engineering undergrad and then an MBA after I had been working for 10+ years. As worthless as the MBA classes are, I do think it has helped me progress up the ladder of management - especially after I switched my career from engineering to IT.

Some schools really don't let you do the whole "get the GE classes out of the way first" routine. When I got my undergrad degree, there were core classes that had to be taken starting with the first semester. I did try to take as many GE classes as I could as early as I could, but that was primarily because I didn't want to be worried about taking a writing class my senior year when I would also be taking hard-core advanced engineering classes. But even then, I did take a mix of core & GE almost every semester.

 

[West726]

Wait. You won't have a clue what you're doing until you're 30. When you turn 40, you'll realize that you were just fooling yourself at 30 too.

But seriously: wait.

 

[dBs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by billybob_jcv /img/forum/go_quote.gif There can be a difference between what it takes to *get* a job versus what it takes to do well in a job. The first might require a Master's (or more), the second usually doesn't. I did the "other" option - I got an engineering undergrad and then an MBA after I had been working for 10+ years. As worthless as the MBA classes are, I do think it has helped me progress up the ladder of management - especially after I switched my career from engineering to IT.

Im debating where to go now myself, I hate getting complacent. I love the challenge of the next obstacle. I know that Im going to let my job pay for my grad school for me (very nice of them >=)), Im just not quite sure which route to take. MBA, Masters in EE, or both. If I decide to do both, what order, or at the same time. Im leaning toward both at the same time. Itll probably take me 5 years to get both while working, maybe more. I suspect that going for both from the get go will be the smartest option at least. That way, if I decide that one was unnecessary (or not the way I wanted to go), I can drop that and not be stuck having to start from square one again.

Ultimately, Im just worried about forgetting my math before starting a Masters if I go for the MBA first. I passed the FE/EIT and am planning to take the PE ASAP (they now let you take the PE exam after having passed the FE, you just arent recognized as a PE until you put the time in).

 

[marvin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdupiano /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think its also important to realize that unless you go into specific majors-professions, you can pretty much do anything you want with your degrees/college education. The exceptions are of course: Engineering Architecture Pre-Med/vet/law (just do something else as well as a back up) These majors pretty much point you in a particular direction and will not provide you with additional skills/attempts at looking outside the field. Usually the classes are all laid out for you, you'll have 5 or so electives (versus the 20+ in other majors) and you just keep pushing through till you're done.

I'd drop pre-law off of the list as there's no degree requirements for law school. There are better degrees to enter law school with (ex. engineering can make law school much more lucrative), but nothing hard and fast. A good GPA, LSAT, some extracurriculars, and an ability to write well are pretty much what they're looking for from your college experience.

I'd add Accounting to the list of tracks that are major-specific. You need those accounting classes to get a CPA cert. Accounting is really a career track that should be considered if you don't know what you want to do. There aren't advanced degree requirements (with associated costs) and there's a wide spread of career tracks from high power large firm tracks with brutal hours to 40/wk low stress government gigs. Employment is also reasonably easy to find on the lower end of the scale.

Also, while diversification on a pre-med/dent/vet track may sound like a good idea, it can severely crimp your efforts to enter those fields. It's already difficult enough to rack up a high GPA, do some volunteering, get some leadership experience, weasel into a research job, and find time to shadow a doctor or do gruntwork at a hospital. Tacking on an backup education can make for a brutal experience and compromise your efforts. It's preferable to reevaluate your odds of entering med/dent/vet school at each semester and to re-track if the the window has closed.

Without knowing how intelligent you are, I'd caution against assuming that college is a good idea. It may not be. Bankruptcy law revisions have made it difficult (if not impossible) to discharge education debt. Because of this, ending up in a situation where the cost of your education loans greatly exceed the financial benefit of your education is very possible.

 

[chesebert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackbird /img/forum/go_quote.gif That'll be when I'm 1 year deep into college. Also, Its not a bad idea to start early. Industrial design, that sounds pretty interesting. But also, a difficult profession to come across. I mean, even in a big company like Apple, how many industrial designers do they really have? I really need to check if my school offers some engineering program(I think it does). That's also another good suggestion. Answering more questions: 1. I do NOT want to EVER live in a place like manhattan when I grow up. Too much pollution, too expensive, and simply not enough space. But then again, I do not want to live in the suburbs either, since those are relatively empty and not exactly convenient. I'd probably like to live in a kind of "rural" place in a "city". 2. I cannot do anything health/medical/history/crime/bugs related. I think i'll be fine with anything else. 3. *With a question of my own*, Does it really matter whether you go to a "Brand Name" college or not? I mean, is an employer more likely to hire someone who graduated from engineering from Harvard, than from Polytechnic, for example? 4. I NEVER want to teach. I can't teach, so please don't ask me to teach. 5. *connected to question 3* Is it better to spend more money at a "Brand Name" college and get "better" returns, or go to a "regular" college and get "regular" returns? 6. I'll answer when you ask.

that's the idea; why would you want to pigeonhole yourself into some profession w/o trying new things.

If I were you I would start thinking about what profession to pursue after at least 1 year in college.

 

[Nocturnal310]

Entertainment industry.....wtv happens..this industry will never die out...people will always need something in their mundane lives.


Gaming, movies, music, etc etc...all forms of media.

 

[chesebert]

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Originally Posted by nickosha /img/forum/go_quote.gif Since we are already kind of on the subject, do you guys have any knowledge of or experience with the schools in Michigan or nearby states? I'm mostly looking at the usual suspects (MSU, UofM, etc) plus some others like RIT or Kettering, but I'm very unsure right now and any insight or recommendations of places to visit are always helpful. As mentioned, I'm interested in engineering, but I'm also kind of interested in chemistry, physics, and some technical fields. Thanks

Why would you look beyond UofM for any type of engineering major? Michigan just updated their EE building and a built the new CE building and semiconductor lab/foundry (care to make your own chip?).

Plus if you are so lucky to have GPA 3.8 at graduation (note the curve is 2.7 at Michigan; so 3.8 would be top 5%ish) you can get admitted to Michigan law w/o taking LSAT (what a deal!)

 

[chesebert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marvin /img/forum/go_quote.gif Without knowing how intelligent you are, I'd caution against assuming that college is a good idea.

have you ever met a non-intelligent headfier?

 

[krmathis]

Anything you have an interest in and which will put food on the table (and a table to put the food on).