Let this tardy post be a lesson to you: good intentions lead nowhere; you have to sit yourself down at the computer and actually begin to write! That being said, it helps to get a good headstart on your writing over spring break when the homework deadlines aren't as looming...
The two most popular methods of getting your engineering degree is (1) attend a four-year program from start to finish or (2) get your first two years out of the way at a community college and complete the last two or three at a baccalaureate program. I chose the second option and am currently halfway through my final semester at a CC, so that means that I am getting ready to transfer to a full-scale nuclear engineering four-year program in fall 2010. This is an exciting process which thoroughly fascinates me, but before I dive into the exact transfer process and my applications, you probably need to know a little bit more about the community college + university idea, which will be the topic of discussion for this first installment of the transfer trivium. In the second post, I'll describe the exact idea of transferring in Florida (which is where I live, by the way), and finally, I'll talk a little bit more about my personal transfer application process. With luck, I'll get this entire idea out of the way within the week, so we can get back to the nerdy stuff relatively soon!
Before getting into the more technical stuff, check out this quick video about getting started at a community college...
For engineering students, the CC track is popular but it certainly has its pros and cons. The positives of attending a CC for the first two years is that you get your math (all the way to Differential Equations) and science (Chem I and II, Organic I and II, Physics I and II, biology if so inclined) courses completed in a smaller class environment and with professors who are there just to teach you and who are genuinely interested in your comprehension of the material. The other positive is that it is astronomically cheaper than attending a state university for the first two years, once you factor in tuition cost, room and board, transportation, etc.
The negative of a CC for the engineers are that your advancement into higher level courses at a freshman or sophomore level is limited at best; for most schools, it's non-existent. Let's look at the engineering-related courses a civil engineering student at a state university would complete in his/her first two years of study...
- Technical writing
- Calculus I, II, and III
- Differential equations
- General chemistry I and II
- Physics I and II
- Statics
- Thermodynamics
Got that? Now let's look at the first two years of courses that an engineering student at a community college would complete...
- Calculus I, II, and III
- Differential equations
- General chemistry I and II
- Physics I and II
Notice what's missing? That's right - two crucial engineering courses, namely statics and thermodynamics, which are staples for almost any engineering program. This CC engineering track doesn't change regardless of the intended field of the student, but the state university program does, which means that a CC transfer student could be two to three to even four classes behind the state university program!
Don't get me wrong; I love the CC idea and I don't regret my choice to begin this way. However, it is something that transfer students have to be prepared for. That being said, CC students are shown to be better prepared for a state university experience and perform better than the high school freshmen. So what can engineering students do about it?
There are several excellent CC/state university articulation and cooperation programs that exist throughout the nation, and this topic is a very diverse field of study for educators and engineers alike. Research is constantly being performed to determine how to better prepare CC engineering students for a state university, and it is an ever-changing and dynamic study. For now though, CC's are starting to take the initiative by offering cross-enrollment agreements, allowing a CC student to take engineering courses at a nearby state university, and promoting engineering organizations on campus to educate students about the many opportunities available in engineering.
So now, hopefully you have a general idea of the community college and state university education track, commonly referred to as the 2+2 agreement. In the next post, look forward to my breakdown of what exactly the 2+2 agreement means in Florida and how students transfer. Finally, you'll get to learn a little bit about my personal transfer process and how exciting it is! Feel free to drop me an email or comment about your thoughts or questions; I look forward to hearing from you.
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