[archiver]

Posted by Samuel Lindhorst.

Engineer on team #240, Mach Vee, from Jefferson High School and Visteon.

Posted on 10/12/2000 12:22 AM MST


In Reply to: The BEST School posted by Michael Martus on 10/11/2000 7:17 PM MST:



: OK I got you started, lets heat things up a bit.

: Which is the best college/university for engineering and why?

One is Kettering. I was very skeptical when my daughter won a FIRST scholarship to go there in 1999, because it just seemed to be another small, high-priced college. But after seeing that program up close, I'm in awe. It's not cheap, but the advantages are incredible, and my daughter has my total support in going there.

To begin with, Don Nichols is a nut about FIRST, and he awards the scholarships, 8 $20k rides in 2000. The school, founded as General Motors Institute, was specifically handed the task of preparing students for two disciplines - engineering and management. This wasn't a school born out of academia, it was born out of a need for competent engineers with dirty hands. It produces. They love FIRST because of it's 'hands-on' orientation.

When going to Kettering it is grueling, the semesters are only 12 weeks long, and they don't cut back on subject matter because of the short sessions, they just cram more in. If you go to college to party, forget it, you will fail there. The best part is after 12 weeks in school, you spend 12 weeeks on the job as an intern. If you are a Kettering kid, it's usually as a well paid intern. I know of several Kettering seniors that function as manufacturing or project engineers in the companies they intern with, completely performing the duties, with pay and authority to match. After this it's back to school. The program takes 5 years, not 4, but there's only 1 school session the last year, so most of the time the students are at work.

Upshot: on graduation Kettering students are offered positions not as entry engineers, but as engineers with experience and are very highly paid because of it.