Relying on your university to give “real world” experience before graduation.

I have noticed recently a lot of bloggers have started writing about changing the nature of higher education. This may be because one posted on it and everyone else wanted to post their take on it, or it could be as simple as it is close to finals time and they are venting. Either way I commented on one of those blogs and decided to share those thoughts here also.

I am a mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering student and I completely agree that engineering students need practical experience. Although, not at the cost of the curriculum. It seems hard for the professors to teach all of the material they have to by the end of the semester as it is and engineering generally has more credits for graduation than other majors, so taking time for more “real world” experiences would just make it harder to graduate in the standard 4 years. Why not just use the time you would add for the “real world” experience and find a good co-op/internship to get actual real world experience at a company? There is no way a university can effectively show you everything that you can do with what you have learned, more than likely a professor would just end up showing you what he/she is interested in. Co-ops let you choose an experience that specializes in what YOU are interested in.

I was very picky about where I went for my coop (asking older student for their experiences, researching the companies, visiting the facilities), so I avoided the common coop experience of being some engineer’s cheap slave and getting no hands on experience myself. Instead I worked for 2 major companies (the second bought the first during my coop), had my own projects from concept to supervision of field use, have 2 patents in my name, I have been asked to stay on part time until I graduate, and I had a lot of fun doing it. I am not trying to brag, just point out that there are very good coop opportunities out there that can jump start your career and remind you why you are in engineering in the first place.

As for the independent experimenting, that is where a “self-designed” or “self-guided” degree comes in. Just pick what you want to do and how you think it makes sense and voila you have your very own degree, just for you. You can change it around as you see fit, just so you can justify how it maintains a certain direction and avoids becoming a huge jumble of electives.

Finally, the curriculum was originally designed with post graduate experience in mind via the EIT program. I know you are trying to say how the education system needs to be updated, but I thought this is at least worth a mention since I am planning on doing it. The EIT (Engineer In Training) program was made as the road to achieving the Professional Engineer title. After the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (FE) you become an EIT. Four years of experience (usually supervised by a Professional Engineer) are needed before you are allowed to take the Professional Engineer exam. This is set up sort of like a trade with apprenticeship but was intended to be like grad school that was completely real world experience, since that is what most engineers need more than normal grad school with more theory.

As an engineering student I have a different view on higher education because of the general lack of “blow off” or “busy work” classes that most majors have. I think that is what helped me come to these conclusions and they do pertain mostly to engineering students. Basically is comes down to there isn’t wasted time laying around that can be used to give you “real world” experience that wouldn’t be real world anyways. Go out and get experience doing what you really are interested in.