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Engineering majors

Run&Blade

HB Legend
May 6, 2005
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I am old and college was a long time ago so keep that in mind.

I see a lot of engineering majors doing internships for entire semesters some are on their second full semester internship. These are all during the academic year, not talking about summer.

Do they go to school for 5-6 years to make up for the lost class time or is there not many classes to take so it is all on the job training. Just seems odd how a school can charge full tuition and the student is doing an internship and has no contact with the school at all.

Seems like a scam in some ways.
 
They don't charge tuition for internships. It's not a class. You get no grade. It certainly slows the progress towards degree, but you get paid for the internship, so it's not a bad deal. It certainly extends the time required to get a degree, but it also greatly improves your resume and, more importantly, allows you to find a job function in engineering that you really enjoy, hopefully preventing you from job hopping after college to find a job you enjoy. I see no downside other than extending the time before you make real, full time money.
 
Not an engineer, however I did my internship at a hospital. 80% in cardiac rehab, 10% ER, and the last 10% was split between oncology, sleep deprivation, and the OR.

I was actually graded on the paper I wrote as the internship was required to graduate. The funny thing is, I got to walk with my class however didn't complete my internship until the summer immediately following the graduation ceremony.
 
I am an engineer and just mentored a couple interns over the summer. It's a great way to learn just enough about an engineering career path without committing to it, and it's great for employers to get to know a young person without committing to a full time hire.
 
The co-op process (taking a semester off of school to work an internship) is a very valuable tool for engineering students because it provides exposure to several months of work instead of just 6 weeks with a summer internship. Quite often, it leads to job offers after graduation.
 
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