Engineering after FIRST

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by Erin Rapacki

Nobody should feel bad about not deciding to get into science or engineering. I think FIRST does a better job of training leaders, and in-turn... those leaders will know how to appreciate the job the scientists and engineerings are doing.

You don't have to be a 'geek' to love FIRST .

Absolutley. If you fall into that non-engineering major category, please visit this thread http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...6&page=1&pp=15
to find people who feel the same way.

[akaria]

I know that I definitely plan to major in engineering in college, before FIRST I had planned to go in to physics, now it’s mechanical engineering, still a lot of the same things but now I will get to tinker!^_^

[Jessica Boucher]

What's interesting about these poll results is that its 3 out of every 4 people want to major in science when they graduate HS...and in the 03 annual report it was 1 out of every 2 people (with roughly the same question posed). So you can infer that either FIRST jumped a whole bunch in that statistic, or CD has a higher concentration of technical-focused students (which I honestly thought was the opposite, but hey).

[MOEmaniac]

the biggest reason i got involved with FIRST and MOE is because i love building things then thinking of ways to impove it and keep improving it. that is wat engineering is basically all about.....right?

[Pierson]

I have always loved to build. In college, I am looking for a cross between Business and Engineering with a small emphasis in IT.

[GregT]

Originally Posted by Peciv

I have always loved to build. In college, I am looking for a cross between Business and Engineering with a small emphasis in IT.

http://www.iienet.org/public/articles/index.cfm?cat=840

Greg

[cvhsrobotics]

I got 3 years to worry about this, but I hope to work at JPL/NASA

[Paul H]

When I was little I always wanted to be an engineer because my uncle was one. I didn't even know what an engineer was! As I moved through high school, I changed to wanting to be in business. Then came FIRST. I joined as a junior, and junior year went by and it was cool, but I thought nothing more. Then came this past year, senior year. Somehow I got inspried. A bunch of my teammates complained abour Dave Lavery's speach at VCU, but I listened to it and it actually made me start thinking about engineering. I look back on it, and the two best parts about FIRST were the engineering/building aspects and the competitiveness.

I see the Jim and Tim, the two main engineers on our team, and I see all of the "big name" FIRST engineers on these forums like Andy Baker, Paul Copioli, Joe Johnson, etc. and they all seem like such great people, I want to be like them.

So yes, I think I will be giong into engineering. I'm going to spend my first year at Michigan State as no preference with mainly engineering classes, just so I can leave it open, but it'll take somethig special (there's nothing like FIRST in the business world that I know of) to sway me.

So consider me "Inspired"

[suneel112]

For me, there will never be engineering after FIRST. I will be in both at the same time. You can do FIRST in college, and still do it when you get a job as an engineer. You can even do it when you are looking for a job.
To diverge from that, does Engineering count as science, because at Purdue, the school of science is a separate entity from the school of engineering.

[phrontist]

88% of all 1418 alumni go to Virginia Tech. 6% go to CalPoly. 6% go to a liberal arts school. We have 15 alumni.

[mad_cloversc]

I have been planning to be an engineer for a while before i got into FIRST (but then this is our first year), I can't decide on a specific branch, either civil, or mechanical. I really want to major in architectural engineering, but the school I want to go to doesn't offer it, I've been thinking about doing a double major in civil engineering and architecture (I like design). Robotics has really helped me confirm that I do want to go into engineering.

[Dick Linn]

Talk to students and staff at the school(s) and tell them what you think you want to do. Ask there opinion and see what their experience has been. You can get a better idea what the specialties are and how to get where you want to go. I started out in Architecture, got a degree in Horticulture and now work at a software development company. In a way, I regret not getting into mechanical engineering, or staying in Architecture/design. I love the creative aspects, too. Software is not so much fun, though it definitely involves design and a lot of detail.

[jessjank.]

I'm going to be majoring in Cognitive Science and am interested in a minor in either Robotics or Biomedical Engineering (which came about because of FIRST). I actually plan on going to med school (I've wanted to be a doctor most of my life) and becoming a doctor of Pediatric Oncology, also because of FIRST - I ended up shadowing Dr. Bart Kamen, Dean's brother who is a Pediatric Oncologist, two summers ago and that really helped me to realize what exactly I want to do.

[Mike]

Something in the field of Computer Science for me

[Liz Smith]

Originally Posted by Nick Mac

I just find it very odd that i'm so involved with FIRST and I love being there building the robot and stuff...but i want to go in a complete seperate direction and do political science and english...Hehe...i guess that technically is a science !

I just became involved with FIRST last year, and now I am fully obsessed. I never really thought about going into engineering until FIRST, so... I have been looking at liberal arts schools where I can major in um... studio art, which is really a different direction. I love the building of the robot and everything else, so maybe I'll find a way to tie engineering in as well.