If the thought of designing bridges, developing cutting-edge technologies, or creating innovative solutions to real-world problems gets your heart racing, you're on the right path to pursuing an undergraduate engineering degree. But with the competitive nature of engineering programs, it's essential to navigate your journey with purpose and strategy. And look, you’re also probably interested in the top programs out there, like Stanford, Berkeley, Michigan, Duke, and Georgia Tech, which means you’ll need not just amazing grades and scores, but a slate of impressive extracurriculars that show your dedication to engineering. Here's your guide on how to prepare for the exciting world of engineering:
Reading List for Columbia Engineering Majors
Columbia University is one of the few colleges that asks applicants for a list of the books they’ve read, but that doesn’t also give you an opportunity to explain your choices. Instead, it’s a list devoid of additional context. Everything you have to say needs to be in the titles and authors, which means being strategic about what you include is critical.
Best Colleges for Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical engineering is at the nexus of medicine and engineering. Professionals in the field are involved in pursuing advances in technology and medicine that improve — and save — human lives as doctors, inventors, engineers, and more. They are responsible for leaps forward in human society, and are literally changing the world.
Best Colleges for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
If you’re interested in electronics and want to be able to design hardware and software in the future, you may want to study both electrical engineering and computer science in college. We’ve compiled ten of our favorite dual programs, double majors, and majors with a concentration combining electrical engineering and computer science. These are often interdepartmental programs and are great for students interested in entrepreneurship, tech, product design, and physical technological goods.
Best Colleges for Chemical Engineering
Chemical engineering is a course of study that brings together math, chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering all in one package, plus a big dose of technology and product design. Chemical engineers dream up and design processes for producing and transforming materials, bringing their ideas from laboratory to production.
Classes to Take in High School for Mechanical Engineering
It’s never too early to start exploring your academic interests, especially if you are looking into often competitive fields like Mechanical engineering. Before applying to an engineering school, it’s helpful to gain some skills, pack a resume, and have a competitive transcript. Many engineering schools are competitive to get into and taking the right classes in high school can help your application stand out in a crowd. So what classes should you be adding to your course cart if you are a hopeful mechanical engineer? Let’s break it down.
Best Colleges for Electrical Engineering
Electrical engineering is the study and design of electronic, electromagnetic, and electrically-powered machines and technologies. It is regarded by some as the largest technical profession in the world, and it encompasses everything from huge systems to tiny electronics. Graduates with degrees in electrical engineering can work in nearly any field that intersects with technology and physical products.
What Classes Should I Take in High School to Become an Electrical Engineer?
Engineering is a hot field right now. More and more students are dreaming of becoming engineers. If you hope to be an electrical engineer, going to a great undergrad engineering program should be your first step. However, these programs can be competitive. With more students becoming interested in engineering these programs are also getting more selective. To really stand out as an applicant, you want to show that you have the skills and knowledge base to hit the ground running as an engineering student. But how do you do that? Let’s break down some of the classes (and extracurriculars) that you should get on your transcript.
Best Colleges for Environmental Engineering
If you’ve looked into majoring in engineering in college or majoring in environmental studies, or possibly a dual major combining the two, you’ve probably seen environmental engineering pop up as an option that merges them seamlessly. Cornell, the first school on this list of the Best Colleges for Environmental Engineering describes Environmental Engineering well when they write, “Environmental engineers are called upon to understand, arrange and manipulate biological, chemical, ecological, economic, hydrological, physical and social processes to balance our material needs with our impacts on the environment.”
Classes to Take in High School for Aerospace Engineering
Ok, first off, let us just say you are cool. Not a ton of people know in high school that they are serious about Aerospace engineering. It’s a fairly specialized major, meaning not every college is going to have a program in it. Future aerospace engineers thus have to start planning a little earlier than your average engineer. Many of the schools that offer this major are highly competitive, so you should make sure you are the best candidate you can be. Part of this is choosing the right classes to take in high school. So what classes should you be taking? Let’s break it down.
Classes to Take in High School for Engineering
If you want to get into the engineering school of your dreams, you are going to have to show you are serious about engineering and that you have some math and science chops. Elite engineering programs are competitive. Taking the right classes will help your application compete. So what classes should you be taking in high school if you are engineering school bound? Let’s break it down.
What is the M&T Program at Upenn
UPenn is a fantastic school. So much so that lots of people want to go there. In fact, with a 2020 acceptance rate of just 8 percent, it’s one of the most selective schools in the nation. That’s in part because of its unparalleled academic offerings. The school has numerous specialized and interdisciplinary tracks for students interested in things like international business. One of its most renowned programs is the Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology. In this post, we’ll tell you more about it and who should apply.
Top Materials Science and Engineering Undergraduate Colleges & Programs in the US
Materials engineers are detail-oriented and accurate workers with an eye for incongruities and efficient decision-making. If you love to solve puzzles, materials engineering might be for you. Potential career industries for materials engineers include biotechnology, tech, aerospace, research labs, and more. The fact is that materials engineers are highly sought after and can contribute to any industry that ‘creates,’ which is essentially every industry. Fun fact: Materials Scientists and Engineers have some of the highest starting salaries upon graduation from their undergraduate program.
The Best Small Liberal Arts Colleges for Computer Science
Computer science is one of the broadest and most relevant fields today. While most people think of schools such as MIT and Carnegie Mellon when computer science is mentioned, there are a number of small liberal arts schools with strong computer science programs. Nearly every discipline today is and/or can be impacted by computational thinking, and studying computer science at a liberal arts school that emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and communication skills is worth considering.
Top Materials Science and Engineering Undergraduate Colleges & Programs in the US
Materials engineers are detail-oriented, careful, and accurate workers with an eye for incongruities. If you love to solve puzzles, materials engineering might be for you. Potential career industries for materials engineers include biotechnology, tech, aerospace, and research labs, among others. The fact is that materials engineers are highly sought after and can contribute to any industry that ‘creates,’ which is essentially every industry. Fun fact: Materials Scientists and Engineers have some of the highest starting salaries upon graduation from their undergraduate program.
The Best Computer Science Summer Programs 2019
We get the question all the time: how should I spend my summer? While there’s no one answer, there is a direction in which we recommend our students head during their free time, and that is to spend time doing something in which they can learn and demonstrate their new knowledge on their applications. Granted internships are hard to come by for high schoolers, summer courses are not a bad way to go. If you are going to go the summer program route, keep in mind that the program should be rigorous and should also fall under an academic niche you’ve already been exploring. For kids who intend to study computer science in college, there are an increasing number of great programs each year.
The Top Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Undergraduate Schools
A large number of the products that improve our lives are produced by molecular changes that have been carefully designed and controlled. Because of this, a chemical engineer succeeds and contributes to a wide variety of industries. The majority of chemical engineers go on to work in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, biotech, energy, environmental health or safety industries, food processing companies, or laboratories.
10 Best Small Liberal Arts Schools With Engineering Programs
When you think “engineering,” you don’t necessarily picture a small liberal arts school. Think again. While engineering and liberal arts don’t often mix, they sometimes do. Rather, engineering in a liberal arts environment does exist and we’re here to tell you why we think it’s a great idea. Think of it as the best of both worlds. Not only are you able to study engineering and gain an extensive amount of hands-on research, but you’re able to do it in an intellectually stimulating environment with a diverse student body.
The Best Computer Science Undergraduate Programs in the United States
Potential careers for computer scientists include becoming an analyst or scientist of computer research, a software engineer/developer, a database administrator, or a computer network architect. Computer scientists are skilled at every aspect of computer communication, which means they can create frameworks to solve software issues via research, development, or a combination of the two.
Graphic Engineering and Digital Media Design Undergraduate Programs
Graphic engineering and digital media designers are often creatively-minded with a knack and eye for artistic quality, aesthetic, and design. They often thrive in teams, are self-starters, intuitive, and organized. Some popular career paths for graphic engineers and digital media designers include working for animation production studios and interactive software companies, but many go on to work in healthcare, software programming, and pursue graduate degrees in their field. The top schools for students interested in graphic engineering or digital media design are: