Would you send YOUR kid to this school?

[Mike OTDP]

The problem is, I saw far too many students who wasted time taking useless courses...and like many "core curriculum" schools, VT has two distinct tracks of "core" courses.

[TabascoKid]

The inflation of "core" classes is one of the forces that is driving ABET to push for making a master's degree the minimum education level for engineers. The touchy-freely crap that students are being forced to take in the "core" curriculum is pushing out the classes engineers *should* be taking. A civil engineering degree is properly a 5-year program now, but no school wants to advertise that.

[Aglifter]

A&M was pretty open about it being a 5 year course to become an engineer -- there might have been a theoretical means of doing it in 4 (I think by taking the max load at all times, and going in the summer -- AKA committing suicide.)

I don't remember there being too many "core course" that you couldn't just test out of. Frankly, if there was such a thing as a good high school education, that's where most of those course belong -- I still don't think it's a bad thing to make an engineer take some art courses, sport classes, etc, however.

[Termite]

A&M was pretty open about it being a 5 year course to become an engineer -- there might have been a theoretical means of doing it in 4 (I think by taking the max load at all times, and going in the summer -- AKA committing suicide.)

I don't remember there being too many "core course" that you couldn't just test out of. Frankly, if there was such a thing as a good high school education, that's where most of those course belong -- I still don't think it's a bad thing to make an engineer take some art courses, sport classes, etc, however.

Aglifter,
If the A&M you are referring to is Texas A&M, then I'd say there's a good reason they don't have many courses you can "just test out of". In spite of the Aggie legacy and jokes, it's a very good school. After all, Texas A&M is one of the six senior military colleges specifically recognized under 10 USC 2111(a).

[Aglifter]

heh... Texas A&M (I deny the existence of any others, unless needed for keeping the non-Ag administration in line for copyright purposes...) put the AG in me...

What I meant is that I tested out of a great deal of courses -- AFAIK, most of the engineers/hard science majors tested out of the Chem I, Bio I, Calc I, English, Government, TX history, US History, etc.

[308Mike]

What I meant is that I tested out of a great deal of courses -- AFAIK, most of the engineers/hard science majors tested out of the Chem I, Bio I, Calc I, English, Government, TX history, US History, etc.

No doubt saving you a SIGNIFICANT amount of $$$$$$$.

[Dedicated_Dad]

...Texas A&M is one of the six senior military colleges specifically recognized under 10 USC 2111(a).

Another is VT. Boy was a Cadet. We've been told by several Senior Officers (including a General and 2 Admirals) that the VT Cadets tend to do better in Service than even "Service Academy" grads - possibly due to the discipline required to stick to the discipline required when 95% of the student body is partying. No question it would be infinitely easier to handle the military-school crap if everyone was doing it, and infinitely harder when most are not.

VT has a pretty good "general studies" program - they have to declare before the end of sophomore year, and the GS classes are pretty much all required crap. They have their share of PC nonsense, but not as bad as some...

G*D knows how much has changed since Cho - one thing for sure, my kid will be able to protect herself and won't be sitting under a desk waiting her turn to be shot...

DD

[Steamforger]

I don't know about how certain someone can be of a major before they take courses in it. I went from biosystems engineering (essentially, chemical engineering, but using bacteria, etc instead of distillation columns) to biochem... and looking back, I should have gone into architecture, as much as I enjoyed it, and as little as I've used biochem.

I've gone this route (got a fairly useless Poli Sci degree the first time around) and ended up in an architecture program. Wish I knew I could have done this fresh out of the Navy, instead of in my mid 30's, but at least I got here. I almost broke the 250 credit mark this semester.

[Mike OTDP]

Hell, when I went to Virginia Tech (1980-1985), it took 203 credits to graduate in Engineering...and 184 in anything else. A light quarter was 17 credits. 18-19 was the normal load. So even then, it was effectively a 4.5 year program.

I'm actually a supporter of core curricula...but not of the double standard. All students should have two years of calculus. A year of chemistry (the hard sort). A year of physics (the kind that requires calculus). And if the liberal arts students can't hack it, too bad.

Otherwise, we need to stop issuing degrees in Engineering...and confer peerages instead.

[Termite]

All students should have two years of calculus.

I disagree. There are many degrees where that is not necessary. Accounting, business admin, nursing, etc.