I am an ID’er who’s in the early stages of my career. I have a really strong desire to get an engineering degree from MIT, but to be honest, I am mathematically challenged. Actually, I think it’s not so much that I can’t grasp mathematical concepts, but instead, I just never really cared about math until now. I now find myself insatiably curious to find how things work, and I think I have developed a mechanical aptitude and an appetite for technical know- how. I was also a decent math student, not a complete failure, which makes me think that there is a possibilty that with some serious studying I can bring my skills up to par. Anyway, I just want to hear it from someone else’s perspective.
be serious - MIT publishes all thier syllabus and the professors class notes online…
Whats funny is that I’m considering the same thing right now. I have been in contact with some admissions people and professors. They all suggested getting your basic math and science requirements out of the way at a community college with cheap tuition and then get your core engineering classes done as a transfer student. You get the same degree as someone who spent twice as much.
In fact, depending on where you went to school, some of your other liberal arts classes may transfer as well. You could have an engineering degree in 2 1/2 years.
If your interested and have the time, I’d go for it if I were you. My goal is to become a “design friendly” engineer. One who won’t sacrifice aesthetics and function for ease of manufacture. I think its a niche that needs to be filled by people like you and I- creative people with a strong desire to learn what makes things work and ways to make them work better.
You may be that rare person but I’m guessing MIT engineering would be WAY too hardcore for most IDers. I have a degree in film and one in industrial engineering and the engineering was very hard. If you pass a course in differential equations and are still sane, you may have a chance. But what about the Stanford grad program instead?
[/url]http://design.stanford.edu/PD/grad.html
Thanks for the responses everybody!! Much appreciated…by the way, that Stanford program sounds excellent. Thanks for the link!!
you’re welcome. If you can get in, you HAVE to go.
Wow I’m totally on the Flip-side of that scenario but aiming toward the common goal. I graduated from Rensselaer with a Mech E degree 4 years ago and now planning on aiming my mechanical aptitude toward creative applications. I just finished Appling for Design programs including Stanford’s.
Anyway so yes I think you could do Mechanical engineering though be aware that’s its a lot more then knowing how things work…there’s many hurdles to jump like Diff EQ, Dynamics, thermal Fluids, calc physics, materials chemistry… The math part was painfully hard, but it enables some of the cooler applications down the road.
MIT is a great program but don’t fixate on it, like ID some other schools may be a bit less theory focused and more into creative application, ie RPI, duke, Stanford, GT
Glad I stumbled in on this discussion. I’m currently a second year student taking only a few courses as I try to figure out what the hell I’m going to do and where to do it. I completed first year engineering, but the shear load of math drove me a little crazy. However, I know that I have to get some kind of engineering degree so that I can actually have some knowledge about the things I hope to design as well as some say in how they are made.
So, would you guys recommend the engineering bachelors + ID masters route, the combination program route, or the dual major route? I’m really looking for flexibilty of jobs, because I want to do a lot of different things. Anyone in the Stanford program that could comment on the balance between engineering and product design? Other school suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks.