Professional and Career Topics

I think we can all agree that real world experience is definitely a benefit for students. I personally think it would be difficult to cram two 8 week internships into junior year, given that the average semester is about 16 weeks long.

Presently, it seems like its possible to get about 8-10 weeks of experience via a summer internship. Most students seem to get these after sophomore or junior year, which leaves less time to tailor ones schedule to different classwork after each experience. 

However, there are certain schools that operate on quarter schedules each year, leaving one quarter open each year for an internship. The trade-off here is that earning a bachelors can sometimes take an additional year. Some of these schools even used to charge the students tuition during the quarter that they were working. 

Earning experience is a good thing, but figuring out how to best incorporate it into an already busy academic journey is an art. 

My school did a co-op program, which was a 5 year program combining a bachelors & 2 semesters of internships. It was a great idea in theory... in practice it made it impossible for civil engineering students to graduate in the intended 5 years because the school refused to be flexible on when the internships were fit into the schedule and many of our classes were tied together by prerequisites & only offered during certain semesters. This was pretty silly on my schools part and something that they eventually resolved, but not before I dropped into the regular 4 year program & did summer internships instead. I definitely agree that having some experience is ideal for students, but I think I'd rather see educational institutions do more to facilitate and encourage that for students.

I think we can all agree that real world experience is definitely a benefit for students. I personally think it would be difficult to cram two 8 week internships into junior year, given that the average semester is about 16 weeks long.

Presently, it seems like its possible to get about 8-10 weeks of experience via a summer internship. Most students seem to get these after sophomore or junior year, which leaves less time to tailor ones schedule to different classwork after each experience. 

However, there are certain schools that operate on quarter schedules each year, leaving one quarter open each year for an internship. The trade-off here is that earning a bachelors can sometimes take an additional year. Some of these schools even used to charge the students tuition during the quarter that they were working. 

Earning experience is a good thing, but figuring out how to best incorporate it into an already busy academic journey is an art. 

Thanks David!

Q. What and how might be done by ASCE, ASME, IEEE, etc., and ASEE to bring engineering education

into a comprehensive framework that makes projects consistently meet their requirements?

Engineering knowledge is necessary but not sufficient to assure project success.

• First, consider those in need of such:

a. Those still in university.

b. Workplace to age 30.

c. Workplace 30 to 50.

d. Workplace above 50.

"What was, was.

What is, is.

What will be, will be!"

--Arnold Horshack, on "Welcome Back, Kotter."

Cheers, Bill

My school did a co-op program, which was a 5 year program combining a bachelors & 2 semesters of internships. It was a great idea in theory... in practice it made it impossible for civil engineering students to graduate in the intended 5 years because the school refused to be flexible on when the internships were fit into the schedule and many of our classes were tied together by prerequisites & only offered during certain semesters. This was pretty silly on my schools part and something that they eventually resolved, but not before I dropped into the regular 4 year program & did summer internships instead. I definitely agree that having some experience is ideal for students, but I think I'd rather see educational institutions do more to facilitate and encourage that for students.

I think we can all agree that real world experience is definitely a benefit for students. I personally think it would be difficult to cram two 8 week internships into junior year, given that the average semester is about 16 weeks long.

Presently, it seems like its possible to get about 8-10 weeks of experience via a summer internship. Most students seem to get these after sophomore or junior year, which leaves less time to tailor ones schedule to different classwork after each experience. 

However, there are certain schools that operate on quarter schedules each year, leaving one quarter open each year for an internship. The trade-off here is that earning a bachelors can sometimes take an additional year. Some of these schools even used to charge the students tuition during the quarter that they were working. 

Earning experience is a good thing, but figuring out how to best incorporate it into an already busy academic journey is an art.