Thread: What to study
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Unread 13-05-2011, 00:13
Ian Curtis Ian Curtis is offline
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Re: What to study

Quote:
Originally Posted by DonRotolo View Post
Along the same lines, speak with college professors, particularly the department heads. Make appointments and visit (or phone) them. Trust me, they'll be happy to speak to you. Pick a local school (even if you're not planning on going there) so it's easy to visit, or pick a school where you think you might apply. The admissions office can get you the contact info for the folks who will help the most.
I'm sure department heads would love to speak to prospective undergrads... but in my experience it's extremely difficult to schedule anything with them. They'll probably be at prospective student days, but outside of that good luck. When we get funded every year we speak to a couple of department heads and its several weeks between first contact and our meeting, and we basically work around them.

I think the best people to talk to are juniors/seniors who are actively in the job search/internship process. I've found that professors can lag behind the real world occasionally, but undergrads are the ones that slog through career fair after career fair and application after application.

As others have said, freshman engineers (assuming no AP credits) basically take exactly the same classes. Use that time to join engineering clubs like Formula Hybrid, AeroDesign, Solar Car, etc and see what upperclassman are actually doing. Pick something that has both an ME and EE side you can see what you like best.
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