College Major Deep Dive: Computer Science & Engineering

Webinar Transcription

2024-05-21 – College Major Deep Dive: Engineering

Lydia: Hello, everyone. Welcome to our presentation, “College Major Deep Dive: Engineering.” My name is Lydia Hollon, and I’m going to be your moderator tonight. I’m a senior advisor, a CollegeAdvisor, and have been one of the company for about three years now. And in addition to that role, I’m also a co-captain of our essay review team, as well as a proud graduate of New York University.

And in addition to my work with CollegeAdvisor, I’m an education consultant and a former high school teacher. So to ever orient everyone with the webinar timing for tonight, we’re going to start off with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q and a on the sidebar, you’re going to see that you can download our slides and you can start submitting questions in the Q and a tab.

We will be recording this session so that you can review the webinar again later. So don’t worry if you have to get up and get a drink of water or anything like that. You’ll feel free to watch it again later on. Now, let’s meet our presenters.

Nikki: Hi, everyone. My name is Nikki Tully. I study biomedical engineering at Brown University.

After I graduated, I joined the Teach for America Corps and I taught eighth grade math for two years. Now I’m a college counselor at a charter school in Houston, Texas, where I help high school students with their college applications. And I’m also a senior advisor here at CollegeAdvisor.com.

Hannah: Hi, I’m Hannah Deisinger. Um, my admissions background, I worked at RPI, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, um, which was the first institution in the, in the US to award a civil engineering degree. So very, it goes very far back in the engineering world, um, but RPI was, um, is now a STEM based research university.

Um, so while I was there, I reviewed applications for a broad range of disciplines. STEM based majors, engineering, math, sciences, pre med, um, architecture, what I actually was the liaison to the school of architecture. So spent a lot of time learning about the different majors within Um, the STEM fields and we had almost every engineering major you could think of at RPI.

After working at RPI, I transitioned to school counseling. I worked as a school counselor for a while and then I transitioned recently into doing more my own independent counseling work, which is what brought me to doing some work with CollegeAdvisor, um, being a AO, uh, on, uh, for my students, uh, serving as a advisor on their teams.

So that’s me.

Lydia: Great. Thank you. So now we’re going to jump into our first poll of the night, which is what grade are you in? And if you’re a parent tonight, just, Um, and then you can just respond as the other category. Otherwise, just answer for yourself. And while I give you all a chance to answer that poll question, I’m curious, Nikki and Hannah, what made you interested in engineering in the first place?

Nikki: Um, I’m going to talk about this a little bit on my slide where I talk about my experience at Brown. Um, but I was mostly interested in biomedical engineering for the research part of things. I was. a huge nerd in high school and just like very into biology. Um, and it wasn’t until college that I got to dive into the research portion of things.

And so I just wanted to explore that more.

Hannah: Yeah. I didn’t, to be honest, I didn’t know what engineering really was until I worked at RPI. I took an engineering class in high school and I can’t, I, to be honest, I don’t think I understood it was an engineering class. Um, and when I got to RPI, it was amazing to see.

Not only learn what engineering was, but also just see so many sub specialties and all of these people solving real world problems from a scientific lens in so many different sectors of life. I just thought that was so cool. And it was really fun to learn about this world that I’m not a part of. I’m married to an engineer, so I, um, I see it from kind of that perspective, but it’s really.

It’s really amazing how many different fields of careers you can go into from.

Lydia: That’s really cool. Um, I am not an engineer and I won’t be talking about experiences with engineering tonight, but just as a fun fact, both of my parents are engineers as well as my aunt and my grandfather. So engineering runs in my family, but I clearly did not get that gene.

All right, I’m going to pass it off to you all now to jump into our presentation.

Nikki: All right. Um, so when I played to Brown, I applied as a biology major and I was on a pre med track. I was very certain that I wanted to become a doctor. Um, and then after my first year at Brown and like catching on to the rigor level of the classes and also learning more about what it was like to be pre med, the fact that I would have to go to medical school for four years, I just decided med school was not for me.

Um, But as I mentioned, I was really interested in biomedical research. Um, so I did some digging and I learned about the biomedical engineering major and I decided to pursue that, um, at Brown, you declare your concentration or your major at the end of your second year in school. So I did that. Since I decided I wanted to, um, go the engineering route a little bit late in my college career, I was a year behind in my engineering courses.

Um, so I took that intro to engineering course during my second year when people usually take it during their first year. So I was taking that class with a lot of freshmen. Um, and I also had to double up on a lot of my engineering requirements. Plus it’s a tough major all around. So it was just a really tough four years for me.

Um, I was not familiar with engineering. Like you were saying, Hannah, like same. I have no experience with that. Um, nor do I have any personal connections to the field. So I wasn’t aware of how much physics was involved. Um, but I made it through it. I’m super proud to say that I graduated from Brown with a biomedical engineering degree.

Um, I also had really great advisors and professors. They genuinely cared about me and wanted to see me succeed. Um, and just knowing that they were looking out for me was something that I felt like I really needed while going to such a prestigious school. Uh, imposter syndrome is real and they helped me feel like I belonged.

And so that was part of, I think, what, what got me to that finish line as well. Uh, I also got to be part of two research labs while I was at Brown. One was a neuroengineering lab. The other was a biomaterials lab. And in both I assisted PhD students with their thesis project. Uh, that was a great learning experience for me and something that like, again, kind of helped cement my interest in, um, biomedical research, uh, in the neuroengineering lab, I got to help.

the PhD student with developing a 3D neurological cell culture, um, just to better help like performing tests in that cell core culture. When it’s 3D, it’s better than like the typical 2D. Um, and in the biomaterials lab, I got to help develop a antibacterial film coating for medical devices, like a catheter, which sometimes gets infected.

Um, so a solution to that very, very real problem. Yeah, that’s a little bit about me and my, my time at Brown and my experience being a bioengineering major.

Alright, so for anyone in the room, obviously, who’s interested in engineering, all of you are, um, these are some of the courses you’re going to be expected to take as an engineering major. Um, you usually have your introduction to engineering courses, and there’s like a part one and a part two to that. Um, at Brown, the part one was a statics course, and the part two was a dynamics and vibrations course.

So a lot of this is like your, um, AP physics kind of stuff that you’re learning with an engineering lens to it. Um, there’s also electricity and magnetism, thermodynamics, and you, you’re gonna have to take your math courses, you’re gonna have to take, uh, Calculus 1, Calculus 2, all the way through multivariable, you’ll have to take differential equations.

Plus some electives that are specific to your major. So for biomedical engineering, for example, some of those electives were things like biomaterials, drug and gene delivery, or cancer and nanotechnology. And you might also have to take an engineering capstone course where you get kind of like that hands on experience with engineering.

Um, For me, that was like a year long course that I took, um, and in the first half of that course, I, we got connected with different doctors in the area, um, that were experiencing some, like, problems that they needed solutions to in their workspace, and so we came in and we actually helped design those solutions.

So some of the extracurriculars that you can pursue in college as an engineering major would be, there are some groups that are very specific to engineering. Um, I was part of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers group on campus and we also had a biomedical engineering society and there are others that exist as well.

Some like affinity, other affinity related engineering groups. You can also, of course, do research and engineering labs like I did. There might also be something like an engineering design lab on your campus. This has tools and materials and things like 3D printers and all this great stuff that you can use.

In your undergrad to help you like do your projects. Um, but I knew a lot of my engineering friends worked in that lab, like as their part time job. Uh, and they would like train people on how to use the tools or just like answer questions. So that could be something that you do. Um, and of course, anything else that you have a genuine interest in, I think it’s important to have.

That kind of like balance between your major and the things that you like to do. Engineering is tough and it’s time consuming and it takes up a lot of your mental capacity. So anything that you like to do for fun that is going to get your mind off things. Um, I recommend that you also pursue

and then some career paths that you can take with an engineering major I’m kind of looking at this through the biomedical engineering lens, but I know some of these things apply to Um the other fields as well, and i’m sure Hannah could like chime in and add some things to this list Um, but of course you can work as an engineer engineering and especially biomedical engineering is interesting in that Um, if you try to look up jobs in biomedical engineering or look up the title biomedical engineer Not a lot of jobs come up or like it’s not directly related to to what you learned in college.

Um, Or it doesn’t even require a college degree. So I’m here to help you. These are some of the things that you can look for as a job title. Um, you can be like a systems test engineer. This person is the one that defines the requirements for their product, test the products, and then eventually approves it.

It could also be a mechanical engineer or like a research and development project engineer. This person is the one that actually builds the hardware. You can also be a manufacturing engineer. This person checks like that each part of this product and at every phase of development is correctly assembled.

You can be a design quality or quality assurance engineer. This person makes sure that everything is up to code with the FDA or whatever agency your, your product is going to be managed under. You can also be a field service engineer. This person, like, works for, um, a medical equipment or device company and is designated to, like, go to the hospitals and fix.

That equipment, whenever a problem arises or something goes wrong, or you could be a human factors slash usability engineer. This person looks at how like users are actually handling the product and then fixing the design of it accordingly, or You can, if you’re biomedical, do research or chemical, do research, um, in a hospital or a laboratory and apply your, your engineering lens, um, to labs.

Because I know that a lot of people who work in labs typically just have like the biology or chemistry background. And when you come in with that engineering knowledge, it can, um, add a different, a different perspective to things. Yeah, those are some of the career paths.

Um, and then how can I maximize my chances of landing an internship in the engineering field? I think first and foremost, it’s going to be important to keep your college GPA up, especially when it comes to your engineering courses. If you’re trying to land a engineering internship, then The people that are looking to hire you are going to want to see that you have great grades in your engineering courses.

So that could be one thing that showcases like, hey, I’m knowledgeable about, about these principles. You also want to make sure that you’re establishing connections with your professors and your advisors, whether that is like you going to visit them in office hours or working in their labs. Um, those are incredible, valuable connections for you to have because they can connect you with opportunities.

And when something comes up that directly aligns to your interests that they hear of, or something comes up and they just think of you, like that’s, that’s great. And eventually down the line, they could even be a reference or a recommender for you when it comes to like applying to actual jobs or grad school.

If that’s something you want to do. Um, and you can also get experience by pursuing research and project opportunities. Any project that you do in your classes is going to be something that you can kind of. Push to prospective employers and say like, Hey, you know, I did this. So this is some experience that I have, although it was part of a class, it’s still something that you did.

Um, but any kind of experience in the field is going to be really helpful as well.

Lydia: Great. Thank you, Nikki. So we’re going to take a brief break in the presentation. Um, so looking at the responses from your last poll, it seems like The vast majority of you, 60 percent of you are in the 11th grade, which is a great time to be thinking about potential majors. We’ve got also got a few people in the 10th grade and 9th grade, one person in 12th grade, and then a couple of parents.

So we’re going to open up our next poll, which is where are you in the college application process? I’m going to go ahead and open that up so that you all can answer that question. And while you all think about that, I want to ask our two presenters, what do you think is the most important skill to have if you’re someone who is interested in pursuing a major in engineering?

Hannah: So I would say collaborative problem solving. So I think a lot of students are either good at collaboration or problem solving. But being able to tackle a problem with other people and find good solutions and make progress and put something together, I think that’s really, really key. Um, and it takes time to practice.

I don’t think most students come in like top notch at that when they come into college, but I think a lot of colleges goals are to have the students lead the way. Um, and that way, um, with that skill,

Nikki: yeah, I think going off of that also just a willingness to learn, um, and make mistakes because you’re not going to know these things right off the bat.

And so being able to come out and be like, I don’t know how to do this thing, or actually I want to learn how to do something, um, and going to your peers, going to your mentors, um, and being able to ask those questions is going to get you a long way. Great.

Lydia: So looking at our poll, most people are saying that they are still learning.

still either in the researching schools phase, which is 50 percent of our audience. 28 percent are saying they haven’t started yet. And 22 percent are saying they’re working on their essays, which again. Great news because this is a perfect time to start thinking about your major. If you’re in that stage where you’re starting to work on your essays and you’re starting to put your application together, you can make sure that the rest of your application really aligns with the major that you’re intending to pursue.

So now I’m going to pass it off to you, Hannah, to take us through the rest of the presentation.

Hannah: Absolutely. Thank you. So, what can you do now to increase your chances of getting into engineering? So, this is probably on a lot of your minds, and that’s probably part of why you checked this out tonight. Um, so the first thing starts with your academics, right?

So, when colleges are looking to accept you into engineering, they, they need, they need evidence that you are going to be academically successful in their program, which, um, we just learned is very rigorous and some very, uh, uh, intensive courses that you have to take. I heard a lot of math classes in that description, uh, for NICU before.

And so in high school, the biggest recommendations, make sure that you are covering your bases with With math and science, I sometimes come across students who want to kind of dig in really deeply into a certain science area and they miss their foundations. So be careful, make sure that you are taking biology, chemistry, and physics.

Then, of course, build in that rigor, take APs, honors, um, IB classes, and, um, and to show that you are capable of doing science at a rigorous level. Um, If you don’t have any of those courses at your school, challenge yourself to the degree that your school offers. Um, you also, if you have it available to you, maybe there’s an opportunity to take a community college course in the summer, something like that.

But college admissions officers actually do get a, what’s called school profile. So they actually know what courses are available at your school and, um, in at certain grade levels and things like that. So, um, we’re looking at the context of your school in terms of challenging yourself. Again, challenging yourself in math, um, making sure that you are taking as full of a math progression as available to you.

Um, most engineering programs are going to be looking for you to at least have pre calculus. So if you are not in track to take precalculus, that might be a conversation with your school counselor. If there is there a way to get you on track to take precalculus by senior year. And then, of course, if you are on track to get beyond pre-calc, continue onwards.

Take calculus, AP calc, AP calc BC. And if there’s courses beyond that, um, and you’re at that point, you do that too. So that, that academic foundation is really important. And making sure that you are, um, able to be successful in the classes that you’re taking. So, and by successful, I mean, being able to achieve A’s and B’s.

If you are really flailing, and You’re consistently getting C’s, D’s, then the class is too challenging for you and you’re not absorbing the material. It’s going to look much better for college admissions. Then you’re at a class that is an appropriate pace for, uh, pace and level for you. Um, of course, you know, sometimes you hit a really tough unit and you do get a C here or there, right?

Um, but then making sure that you’re learning from that, experiencing your, um, the experience, you’re getting extra help all that time. Um. Making sure that you prepare yourself for the SAT and ACT. Not every school requires test scores nowadays, but that can really be a helpful tool. And a lot of STEM based programs will be looking for those test scores.

Pursue extracurricular activities that align with your interests and be a leader. And so I’m going to talk about this on some other slides too.

It is definitely important to demonstrate some interest in engineering and to explore engineering. Colleges are accepting you into this program and they want to be sure that you really want to do it. So if you have the opportunity to do robotics or tech club or some sort of research opportunity, Take advantage of that.

However, you do not need to spend all of high school doing only engineering things because you think you might want to do engineering. Um, colleges are looking, um, at the bigger picture. They want citizens who are going to contribute to their campus in a number of different ways. They want you working.

unique individuals. And I’m going to talk a little bit about that in the next slides. Um, so you be true to who you are in the activities you do. You don’t need to only be in tech activities. You can be in sports, you can be in music, be in theater, um, you can pursue your other passions.

So this is kind of a similar question. What are admissions officers looking for? Um, so like I said, that competency in math and science, um, but not just math and science, uh, We kind of were talking about right before we, I started my part of the presentation, those kind of holistic skills and mindsets that you need, uh, as an engineer.

And so you do need to have writing skills. You do need to have critical thinking skills. So you have to have that, you have to have that, um, success across the board. And that’s especially true if you’re applying to really top, top tier, um, programs. institutions where they’re going to be looking for, you know, all their applicants are going to be competitive.

Um, also for any schools that are lean a little bit more liberal arts, they’re going to really put a heavy emphasis on kind of that rigor and that strong grades across the board in all subject areas. Um, so demonstrated interest is an interesting topic. It’s something I think sometimes people put a little too much weight on.

Um, colleges do want to know that you genuinely are interested in the topic that you want to pursue. Although I will say, many people change their majors. So, like, we have our, our representation here in NICU. So no one’s expecting you to definitely, definitely stay in one specific major for the most part.

We’ll talk a little bit about that later on. Um, but they want to know that you’ve thought about it and that you’re, that you do have some reasons for pursuing engineering and definitely that you have some reasons for pursuing that institution. Um, so whether it’s a visit in person, a virtual visit, that you’ve taken some time to learn about that school.

Um, and then I, like I mentioned the last side, big part of college admissions is. You’re entering like a small city or town that is this campus that this is campus community. Um, so yes, they’re, they’re in a bigger city or town, but there is, it’s, it’s his own camp, it’s his own campus community, right? So it’s really important for college admissions counselors to be able to see, see you as someone who’s going to bring something to their campus.

That’s going to be compassionate. That’s going to be service oriented. That’s going to Take on leadership roles and add some spice to the campus and everybody has their own way of adding to campus, right? So someone might be more of a quiet leader. They might be someone who Leads from the background and plans and, um, encourages others can really delegate, um, some people might be louder, uh, leaders.

They might be the ones that are advocating that are, um, really, uh, leading groups or teaching workout classes or whatever they’re excited about and interested in. Um, and then of course, we did the boss talk to those, those soft skills, um, soft skills and it’s really. I think sometimes we think engineering is just the math and science, uh, but there really are those, those critical skills, uh, such as the communication problem solving collaboration, but also humility and ability to, to fail and bounce back because the classes are hard in college and you probably get some rough grades and being able to accept that and move forward, um, that and have that resilience, that’s going to be key.

So in terms of extracurricular activities, this is kind of a common misconception. I think that people think that they need specific activities. It is not about which activities you participate. It’s about how you’re engaged with them. So I kind of thought about what are the characteristics of impactful activities?

Um, One is that they’re driven by genuine interest and passion. Uh, admissions officers are, to be honest, mostly not engineers. They’re people, people, and they are able to read, uh, how genuine you are in your application. And they want to really genuinely see what you’re excited about, what you’re interested in, because that’s what you’re going to continue to pursue during college, after college.

That’s the impact you’re going to continue to make. So it needs to be driven by an actual interest or passion. So if you’re really, if you’re genuinely interested in, um, learning about other cultures, then maybe Model UN is a good, is something that you want to dive deep in. If you’re genuinely interested in working with children, maybe you want to do volunteer work to go, um, help out at the local elementary school.

So following your passions and your interests, and they don’t need to be related to, you know, interest. We all have passions that are very different at RPI. A lot of students were really interested in music. So we had a lot of musicians, um, very different, but in some ways similar to engineering, um, service oriented.

So a lot of colleges are looking for people who do give back and you don’t need to give back in the same way. Um, as someone who goes and volunteers with the homeless or volunteers with children. Um, my husband, for example, He’s an engineer, he’s a software engineer, and, um, he made a website for his, uh, sports team in high school, and that was, that was a way that he gave back to his community.

Um, leadership, taking on leadership roles, whether they have a title or whether it’s just you helping lead some sort of initiative, um, giving back impact, um, influencing the community that you’re a part of or that you’re passionate about. And like I said, it doesn’t necessarily mean, you know, some global impact, but impacting something, some sort of community around you.

And then aligned with a mission or vision of your dream school. So if you have a dream school, you know where you want to go. If you want to go to MIT or something like that, go to their website, look up their mission and values, and see if what you’re up to is aligned with what they’re, what they’re, what’s important to them.

Because missions at every school is going to be a little bit different. Um, so career exploration is important. And that is the main. purpose of engineering based activities, um, besides if you’re just genuinely hyped up about like robotics or tech club, all those things. If you are hyped and that is what your main interest is, go for it.

But otherwise those extracurriculars around engineering really can be for career exploration. They don’t need to be the primary thing you’re involved in.

So this is kind of a tricky question in terms of whether certain majors are more competitive than others. This really depends on the school. So at certain schools, you’re going to find that, um, certain schools within the, so there’s different, most colleges or universities have like schools within the school.

So they have like the engineering school, the business school, the school of humanities. And so at certain schools, if it’s a school that’s known for engineering, the engineering school is going to be more competitive than the business school. However, if you’re at, if you’re looking at a school that’s known for business.

So if you’re looking at a school that’s known for business. and is highly ranked for business, the business school might be more competitive than the engineering school. So that’s really, it totally depends on the environment. That’s why it’s really helpful to actually talk to admissions officers.

Admissions officers love talking to you. They love to be like honest and straight up with you. So, um, having those conversations and getting a vibe of what it looked, the dynamic looks like at that school is really helpful. In terms of the majors within engineering, That really depends on the institution as well.

Of course, if a certain major is more popular and has more applications, it may be easier to get into. So for example, mechanical engineering tends to be very common and very popular. So that might be a little bit easier, uh, harder to get into than say nuclear engineering, which is very specific and specialized and people really have to kind of know about it to apply to it.

So, however, so that’s good to know, but. Please, please, please, please, please do not try to manipulate your acceptance by applying to what you think might be a less competitive a major unless you are truly interested in that other major. So, for example, computer science is super competitive, right? Um, if you’re interested in computer science, but you’re also super interested in math, um, you can get, pursue a computer science, uh, career with a degree in math.

Okay? So in that case, that might make sense for you, particularly if you’re super passionate about math, right? However, choosing to do a math major because you think that maybe you can slide into computer science later is not, is going to prove to make your life more difficult because, um, because you’re going to have to do a transfer process once you get to school, and that’s different at each institution, which will be on the next slide.

And, um, you start off in the wrong classes and all that jazz. It’s really, it’s making your life harder. You might as well get accepted to the program you want to be in. So that brings me to the next question is what are my options if I’m not admitted to my major of choice? So once again, obviously this depends on the school.

Really, when you’re looking at school, that is really helpful thing is to make sure you know your school’s policies for switching it around, changing majors, changing schools. Some schools are very flexible with this. So at RPI, they were pretty flexible in terms of switching, um, generally within the first couple of years.

Um, you had to meet certain requirements to switch, um, in terms of like certain grades and certain classes. So it wasn’t, you know, absolutely guaranteed, but there was a little bit more flexibility. Certain schools are significantly more strict about switching colleges. Um, And so you really need to know how, what are the policies for the school?

How difficult is it to switch around? Um, and if you’re someone who doesn’t really know exactly what you want to study, um, if you think maybe, maybe engineering, maybe science, maybe business, then you want to look at a school that has those flexible requirements or maybe has an undecided major. Um, or if you know, you want to do engineering, but you like biomedical, but you also like electrical, but you also kind of like marine engineering, kind of have all these different ideas of what you like.

Um, then you want to look at a school that has an undecided engineering major, and that has that flexibility for you to kind of make that decision as you go. And as we learn more, um, being at the institutional and certain, a lot of colleges, if they have an undecided major will have some sort of program or coursework to help you kind of figure out what you want to do.

Okay. So, um, have that humility with yourself of knowing how solid you really are in, in your career choices when you’re making these decisions about which schools you’re going to apply.

Lydia: All right. Thank you so much for that wonderful presentation from the both of you. So, that’s the end of our presentation portion of the webinar. I hope that you found that information helpful and remember that you can download the slides from the link in the handouts tab. Now we’re going to move into our live Q& A where I’m going to read through questions that you all submitted and paste them into the public chat so you can see and then read them aloud so that our panelists can give you an answer.

So my first question is what if you’re interested in engineering, but you’re not that great at math. Maybe you’re interested in science or vice versa. Maybe you’re good at math, but you’re not that great at science. Is that a deal breaker? Or is it really critical that you’re strong in both of those subjects?

Hannah: I think it would really depend on what you mean, like what it means by strong versus not strong, right? Because I think sometimes we’re really hard on ourselves, I think, especially when it comes to math and science. Um, there are plenty of students who are B, even C students in math and science that end up going on and becoming engineers.

Um, however, that means, that does mean that you might not get accepted to. Um, start at a top 50 university for math for engineering, but there there are so many pathways to get to a career in engineering. And I have said, as you know, when I was schoolhouse, I sent many students on to careers in engineering, um, through the state schools through, um, community college, continue to build those skills and then transfer to schools like R.P. I. Um, so I, Sometimes it takes people a longer time to develop those skills and to learn those things, right? So in high school, all the advanced classes are accelerated classes. Not everyone learns at an accelerated pace. I certainly don’t. Um, and I thought I wasn’t good at math in high school, but that, but even though I was in accelerated classes, it was just hard for me to keep up with the pace.

Um, and the teen brain is still developing. Those executive functioning skills are still developing, um, until age 25. Bye. So not everyone is going to thrive in a subject that they could potentially thrive in. So, um, I think it does impact potentially whether you’re going to be able to get into like a top 50 school right away in engineering.

But to be able to pursue engineering, it is definitely still something that you can do. You just have to, you’re just going to have to keep working at it and keep developing those skills.

Nikki: Yeah, I think, uh, along that same line, um, you can not be strong in math or science in high school and then, you know, go to college and adapt to this new kind of teaching style or a new classroom and you might thrive in it. You never know. Um, math and science are an important part of engineering, um, but also to provide you with a little bit of comfort.

I know that like from my engineering friends who pursued that as a career, um, that’s not a lot of what they do on an everyday basis, right? Yeah. Mainly like what you need to do to get the degree and graduate. Um, but after that, it’s not going to be like your entire life. It depends on what you do. Um, but that’s what I hear.

Lydia: Great. Um, so my next question is, how do you decide which engineering major is the best fit for you? For the students who, they know they want to do engineering, but they’re not sure which one to pick.

Nikki: I think it is a lot about your interests and your passions. And as Hannah was saying, Um, You know, getting to explore the different careers as much as possible so that you can learn about them early on and kind of get that exposure, um, figure out what each career is about and how those each align to your interests or your values, um, so that you can decide from there.

Hannah: Yeah, take advantage of any opportunities you do have to take. Get involved in any extracurricular activities. Um, if there, if you have the opportunity to attend any sort of STEM days, um, I know I live local to GE, which now is all separate or whatever, but for a long time, they’ve had, um, like specific STEM days where students can come and learn about different careers.

Um, there’s also different types of summer programs, both ones that cost money and ones that don’t cost money. Um, for students to learn about a variety of careers, um, and then taking the opportunity to learn from professionals, um, around you, uh, ask people, you know, if they know anyone who’s an engineer, a lot of us somehow know someone who’s an engineer.

Um, and there’s even, uh, another thing that you can do is watch YouTube videos. I know that sounds kind of crazy, but like, not everyone has access to a network where they know a lot of engineers. Bye. Um, but YouTube is kind of that place where you can access a network that you didn’t have. Um, so search for day in the life of a chemical engineer, day in the life of a mechanical engineer.

And a lot of times those, those videos actually will pop up.

Lydia: Great. So I’m going to just pause from our Q and A for just a second to remind our audience members that CollegeAdvisor is here to support you. We know how overwhelming the admissions process can be. And our team of over 300 former admissions officers and admission experts are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process and one on one advising sessions.

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Now we’re going to get back into the Q& A. So my next question for you all is We know that a lot of students use the rankings to determine which schools might be a good fit for them. You know, like you said earlier, Hannah, the top 50, you know, engineering programs. But are there any other things that might be helpful for students to look for when deciding which university is best for them based on the engineering program?

Hannah: Well, one simple thing is looking for ABET accreditation. So you want to make sure that the program that you’re applying to is accredited. So that’s ABET, A B E T. Um, and then making sure that you’re taking a look in and seeing which programs that they offer, and then especially looking at that undecided option if you are undecided.

If you are pretty certain that you want to do engineering, but you don’t necessarily know which type of engineering, You might want to go to a school that offers more engineering, uh, disciplines. So taking a look into the actual School of Engineering and which majors they offer is really helpful because the school might be really, really well regarded for engineering, but I have two engineering majors.

So that’s, that’s something that you can look at. I also really recommend looking into the research that they’re doing at that school. Research, as you could tell here from Nikki’s, um, portion, is a really, really, really great way to get your hands dirty. into the mix, learn in a hands on way. And so if there’s research that lines up with your interest, that can be a really good incentive to want to go to that institution.

Um, and then also looking into how accessible research is. So certain schools, if they have a very large graduate population, Graduate student population, it might be very difficult to have really any research experience as an undergrad. That’s not always true, but looking at schools that are very, um, that very much focus on undergraduate research is a really good thing to look at.

Another list of rankings that I really recommend is the R1 Research University. status. So it’s are the number one. Um, that’s a list of schools that are specifically research focused institutions and that are kind of acknowledged for contributing within the research space and producing high level research.

Um, and there’s always a new list that comes out each year. You can.

Nikki: That was a great list. I just have one more thing to add to that. And I would say, um, like, uh, how well connected they’re University can be or how much they help prepare their students for life after college, right? Because you’re going to graduate with this degree and then go out on the job market and realize it’s worth it.

It’s kind of difficult sometimes to get a job. Um, and so you want to make sure that you have the support and the resources to be prepared to step into that job market. Um, make sure that the schools that you’re attending have things like engineering career fairs so that when you’re a senior, you’re getting ready to graduate.

You can go out and network. Um, Or they have like some kind of a career center that you can go visit to get feedback on your resume, practice interviewing skills, help you set up your LinkedIn, things like that.

Hannah: And just to add one more thing, just also make sure it’s a school you want to go to otherwise.

So, so one of the things that I kind of catch sometimes having students doing is getting so caught up on the major that they’re not paying attention that this is to the fact that this is a place they’re going to live for four years of their life, that this is a community they’re going to be a part of, that this is where they’re going to make lifelong friendships.

Um, so making sure that this is the type of community that they want to be a part of, whether it’s a big campus or a small campus or rural campus or city campus, um, make sure that you are considering those other factors too and not getting too So locked in on the major that you’re dismissing all of those other factors because that’s what ends up leading students to end up transferring schools because they got so locked into one factor.

Lydia: I would definitely echo that part because, uh, For most people, whether you’re an engineering major or not, college is a time where you probably change the most quickly in terms of figuring out who you are and what your interests are and things like that. So while you may feel certain that this specific major is the one that you’re going to pursue, sometimes, for better or for worse, it just ends up not being what you want to do.

And it can be really disappointing if you base your entire decision of where you’re going to spend the next four years around this idea that that was what you were going to commit yourself to so Obviously choosing a school that has a strong program and when you’re interested it can be a plus But like Hannah said that shouldn’t be the end all be all of the decision that you make Um, so nikki earlier you were talking about career and the workforce and you know You The options that we have for jobs after graduation.

And something that I hear a lot from students is their parents are telling them that they need to major in something like computer science or engineering, because it’s got the job security, you know, it’s automatic job. As soon as you graduate, what do you have to say to those students? One, is that true?

And two, is that a good enough reason to major in engineering? Let’s say this is a student who otherwise they do have, uh, You know, a strong background in math and science, but maybe that’s not the thing they’re most passionate about. Is it rational to choose a major like engineering, just based on the idea that it’ll give them job stability and a solid income,

Nikki: I think it’s definitely a fair worry to have because you are going to college and spending four years and probably a good amount of money on your education, you want to make sure that you get something in return for that.

And that being a solid job. But I also think that college is a really unique time in your life where you get to explore your interests and maybe do something that you never thought that you would do, um, before. Um, so. For you, that could mean like you double major in engineering and also art. Plug for Brown.

Brown’s a really great place for that. Um, and like any school that really encourages your exploration of the things that you’re interested and passionate about. Um, and I think that just having a bachelor’s degree really opens up the doors for a lot of things for, for you. Um, and you can always work your way into some kind of a job.

Um. In the fields that you’re interested in with determination. And now there’s like YouTube University as well, where you can get certifications online and maybe you didn’t study engineering and you can study, you know, like something else in your undergraduate and then go on to get your master’s in engineering.

Um, it is a very, um, weird time in your life where you’re learning a lot about yourself. And so I think if you’re not sure about it, or you feel like you’re just going into it for the job security, it might not be the best decision for you. Like, I want you to really think about it, um, and make sure that you’re making an informed decision about your, your major.

Hannah: And I think that’s why it’s, that’s why there’s this space at the, um, for schools that have undecided, undeclared majors, that Um, where you have a couple of years to actually do that exploration while kind of fulfilling requirements, and you’re not going to be delayed grad graduation because you have that time to explore.

Um, so that’s the schools that have that option, which there are a lot of schools. that offer that. Um, those can be the schools for you if you’re not certain. Um, and then once you’re at school, you can learn about, there’s so many like subspecialties like. bioinformatics. Like I didn’t know that that was a thing, you know, um, before I worked at RPI building sciences, I had no idea that was a thing.

Um, so there’s all these different career paths that you can start to learn about when you get to school and you can learn about the career prospects and network and go to career events and talk to talk to employers and get a sense of what your options are. Um, colleges are really great space to be able to actually do some of that exploration that you really don’t necessarily have access to in high school.

Another thing that I would say on that note, and I know this question wasn’t for me, but, um, is that a lot of the skills that you need to get a job are universal, right? So practicing facing your fears and talking to strangers, um, networking, being able to, um, establish relationships with strangers, with adults in terms of, um, finding a mentor, um, reaching out even when it’s uncomfortable for research opportunities at local colleges.

The practicing those skills of kind of putting yourself out there even when it’s uncomfortable, that’s what’s going to end up landing you a job. Um, and then also that those, some of those soft skills that we were talking about, those are the things that are going to help you land a job down the line. So regardless of what field you go into, you can start practicing some of those skills.

Across the board,

Lydia: I think that was a very solid answer from both of you. I think it’s so difficult these days, especially with how expensive college can be trying to balance the practicality of you know, you want to get a return on the investment, but also You want to do something that you can actually live with doing for the next what 40 years of your life That can be a big commitment so I think that’s a good way to frame it and also what you said Hannah just about the fact that Even if you do pursue something like engineering, which I think in a lot of people’s minds is a highly specialized major Which it is That doesn’t mean that you’re locked into necessarily doing that one thing for your life and Nikki for example with you Like you’ve majored in engineering, but you’re doing something different now so really what regardless of what you major in there is a level of flexibility and Pursuing other things it’s more so about the skills that you develop along the way and So another question that I have for you is I know that we were talking just about how demanding an engineering major can be and the difficulty of the courses and things like that.

So this is a two pronged question. Is it difficult to major in engineering or not major in engineering, but double major in engineering and something else or both? pursue pre med on top of doing engineering because it’s so demanding. And additionally, let’s say that someone is interested in another major like the humanities or something like that, and then they decide to pursue engineering later on.

Is that a difficult transition to make because of the rigor of the courses and the amount of courses you have to take for engineering?

Nikki: That is a layered question. Um, I would say, at least for like the Humanities to Engineering transition, that would be, um, a little bit tough, I’m not going to lie, unless you’re already taking some of like your core STEM classes, which I, I’m not sure that you would be if you’re a Humanities major, um, but yeah, that would be a little bit tough just because they’re, they’re pretty opposite ends of the spectrum there in terms of the classes that you’re going to be taking, you might need to.

Stay at school for another year and that’s totally okay, right? If you end up doing something that you’re really interested in, passionate about, then I think that’s great. Um, I do know of a lot of people who, um, were biomedical engineering majors and also pre med and are now in medical school. So that is very much possible.

Um, but I think that is also partly because there’s a lot of overlap between what you have to take as a biomedical engineer and your pre med requirements. As a pre med, you need to take courses like physics and biology and chemistry and anatomy. And a lot of those things are already built into the biomedical engineering curriculum.

I think if you were to be, say, like a mechanical engineer, There’s not as much overlap, and so you have to be more intentional about taking those pre med courses, um, and it’s also possible to, like, double major in engineering and in something else, um, as long as you’re mindful of, like, the course requirements, and if it’s actually possible.

possible to double, double major. That’s something you could always talk to your advisors about on your college campus or even minoring. Um, because the engineering course load is, um, it’s a lot and they are tough courses, but it’s also nice to have that kind of like break in between your like math and your physics and these really like strenuous courses.

And then, um, At the end of the day, you take your art class and you’re painting and it’s relaxing, um, and at the end of your four years, you graduate with mechanical engineering and a minor in art. Like, I think there are a lot of possibilities. It’s just a matter of the school that you go to and their, their flexibility, like in their, their core structures as well.

Um, like you were saying Hannah earlier about going in like undecided, um, Or if you’re going to a school where you don’t have to take basics, like that opens up a lot of flexibility for you, too.

Lydia: Great. Um, so the next question that I have for you is, how do you all feel that the changes in technology that we’re seeing so much in the past few years, like with the rise in AI and all those sorts of things, How do you feel like that is possibly changing engineering right now, or maybe the majors that students might be best suited to pursue in order to fit with the future job market?

Hannah: I feel like that’s a very opinion oriented question. Honestly, I don’t think anyone truly knows how careers are going to be impacted by AI. This was actually my dinner conversation with my husband tonight. Um, but I, I personally think that engineering is actually a great field to go into in terms of, um, that enduring, enduring those changes because it is so much based on that critical thinking that problem solving.

I do think there will be more tools available for people to use in terms of solving those problems with AI, but those jobs, I don’t think are going to be replaced by AI. Um, I think that there’s also a lot more. area, there’s a lot more room for growth for AI than I think that we realize as like lay people.

It’s still very much in its infancy. And I think that the media makes it seem like AI can do anything and replace anybody. And, um, we’re not really close to that from my understanding. So, um, that’s just my lay person married to a software engineer perspective.

Nikki: Yeah, I think also like in the engineering field, it’s an interesting take on AI because we’re, you’re kind of in both spots where like it can help you with your job and do a lot of good.

Um, and be integrated as part of maybe like your everyday job tasks. And then there’s also the side where it’s like, Okay. Engineers can also work on AI and be like part of the background and not like you were saying software engineers, computer engineers like there’s some of the ones that are on the forefront of that work.

Um, so there’s kind of like that twofold perspective there for engineers.

Lydia: Definitely. That makes a lot of sense. Um, so my final question for you all is, do you have like One to three just key tips for students that are interested in applying to an engineering program. How can they make their application stand out?

For example, is it important for them to talk about engineering or STEM in their personal statement? Uh, or are there other things that they should definitely do that maybe didn’t get a chance to talk about earlier in the presentation?

Hannah: So I’m going to say my my recommendation is the opposite of what you just asked

if you’re applying to engineering. And so this is this is a little bit different at like, if you’re applying to liberal arts school, and you’re interested in engineering, you’re going to be one of the few people that are applying to engineering at this liberal arts school, right? So you, if you speak a little bit more about your passion and interest in engineering, that’s going to that’s going to help you stand out.

So thinking about the context of your application. However, If you are applying to a technical school, or a very STEM based school, or a school with very, um, siloed disciplines. So, for example, like Cornell, where they have a school of engineering, it’s very siloed. I imagine their, I don’t know, but I imagine their admissions officers read specifically for engineering.

Um, we admissions officers are reading engineering applications all day long. I don’t want to read another essay about Lego. Um, and how that made you want to be an engineer. I don’t want to read another, um, essay that’s like someone talking about building their own computer. Um, or, um, getting so technical because they expect I know because I work for RPI when I really just, I’m not a technical person, so I’m trying to piece it together, but I don’t entirely understand what they’re saying.

So I know that’s very blunt, but I’m, to be honest, you remember when you’re applying the. Yeah. The people that are reading your application are most likely lay people. These are humanities people who decided to go become, um, admissions officers. Most of them majored in like psychology or education or something like that.

Business. They did not major in engineering. Most likely, not always. I’ve worked with, with people who, who majored in engineering. So just remember that and you’re speaking to them. They really want to know who you are as a person. Um, they want to know, um, what your family dinners are like. They want to know what your, um, favorite thing to do is, or your, um, favorite childhood spot, whatever.

They want to know the kind of, what makes you tick besides being interested in engineering, besides being interested in STEM. Obviously, if you have some sort of specific real, like, strong interest. I’ve had students who like are really interested in like welding. Like that’s a very specific interest. Of course you can talk about that, but Definitely don’t talk about it for the sake of wanting to impress about engineering.

We know you’re interested in engineering from your, um, major that you listed and also from, um, ideally, you know, an activity or two that shows that you’ve done some career exploration.

Nikki: Yeah, I think if you’re not, If engineering isn’t part of like your story or like very core to your identity, then I wouldn’t feel the need to kind of like pull it out of you just for the sake of enhancing maybe what you think are your chances of getting admitted to the engineering school.

Like Hannah was saying, you just be yourself and be genuine. And when you are talking about your passions, like that will come across on its own. It’s when you’re trying to pull something out of you that it becomes disingenuine and we don’t want that. So, um, I’m just echoing what Hannah was saying.

Lydia: All right.

Well, thank you both for an amazing presentation. I know I learned a lot. I hope that everyone in our audience learned a lot as well. So to wrap us up for tonight, this is the end of our webinar. We had a great time telling you more about the engineering major, and this is our May series, so we look forward to seeing you more at our future webinars, and I hope that all of you have a great night.

See you later.