Starting at RPI as an Undeclared Engineer

It's very self-explanatory.

OK.

So the live button live, the camera and the microphone. If they're green, that means that you can be heard.

Uh-huh.

On the slides going in the two opposite directions mean that you have control the slides. But we now have participants in our session, so I do want to welcome everyone to starting at RPI as an undeclared engineering major. My name is Randy Moore and I'm one of several assistant directors for undergraduate admissions at RPI, and I'm also the School of Engineering.

Of liaison. So I'm going to turn the session over to Kelly and Karen who will be doing the presentation today. And if you have any questions, since we will not be able to hear you, please type your questions into the chat and we will answer those live. Anything admissions related, I will be able to answer anything related to the school of engineering that would be answered by Kelly and Karen. So ladies go ahead, take it away, it's all yours.

You want me to start, Karen, or you got it?

Well, I'm just going to introduce myself and then I'm going to turn it over to Kelly. I want to thank everybody for joining us today.

We're both hub advisors and you will become familiar with that terminology if you come to RPI as you will be coming to visit visit us specifically during your first year. So again, my name is Karen Lewis and I'm going to turn it over to Kelly to start the presentation.

Cool. Thanks, Karen. My name is Kelly Stats. I'm also one of the Hub advisors. And here's a brief overview of what we're going to be discussing today. What is the SOE Hub? What are majors? How will we support our undeclared students? Some general housekeeping for incoming students. And then of course, we'll leave room for some questions and please write those in the chat and we can answer along the way.

What is that? So we have we are a team of experienced advisors to support all first year engineering students. Some of the services we provide is course registration assistance.

Will be all in your e-mail in July and really trying to help you with that and through our other communication.

Applications that we use, we're also here to help with minor and major declarations, so as an undeclared student, that will definitely come into play. Form signatures for changing majors or a minor major declaration as well.

But also, of course, overrides are prerequisite overrides that could come up as well. And then full circular support for all majors. So we're here for all majors to help guide you. And if we don't know, we know where to find out. So that is how we support you as advisors.

Here is the team. So this is the *** Hub team. All of us are assigned majors for Undeclared. It'll be primarily Karen and myself, so you'll be contacting us. And then once you declare major, you could still be one of our students or you'll transition to another Hub advisor who specializes.

In that major.

All right. Where is the hub? So in the Johnson Engineering Center or the JEC, we are on the third floor. Sometimes you can walk in on the third floor. So just make sure you know which floor you're entering. We are down the long hallway past the Dean's office and you'll see the Ansell Lounge and we are through that lounge. So sometime soon to wait out there and you'll check in with some of our work study if they are available and generally in the middle of campus we are located.

All right. So here are the SOE hub or SOE majors. So we've recently established aerospace this year and we're super excited. So now aeronautical engineering, aerospace, biomedical, pre Med, biomedical, chemical engineering, civil computer and systems, electrical engineering, environmental engineering, industrial and management, engineering, materials, mechanical, nuclear and undeclared. So we have a lot of options.

And to go through all of them and Karen's going to share a little bit more about how do we explore these majors and what's the timeline and what it looks like to declare the major.

OK, this is where I'm going to take over. So basically, we encourage students to keep an open mind. When you come to RP is an engineering major, it's perfectly fine to not know exactly what discipline you want to focus on when you first get here. And our course structure is designed to allow you to kind of explore different options while you're here because there might even be majors that you're not familiar with. So our jobs as hub advisors is to kind of inform you about those options that you have now. We also offer a one credit seminar class.

Which the course descriptions listed there, but basically it is a weekly one hour course that you would attend and they have guest speakers featured in every major within the school of engineering. So every class features a different major. So it's important for you to be able to learn about those and from who better than people who are actually in that discipline or or in that career field. So we have RPI alum, we have guest speakers, we have faculty, everybody kind of contributes to give you a broader picture of what those majors look like.

If you come as an undeclared engineer, you will actually be automatically enrolled in this course, so it makes it quite easy for you to explore those opportunities.

OK.

All right. Now in the hub, we also offer some supplemental programming that will expand your horizons a little bit. The 1st is called industry Hour. Now this has been something that the hub has been running for the past four years.

And what we do after the course, better World engineering. If we're featuring a specific major like industrial engineering, for example, Industry Hour would feature industrial engineering alum and students. And what we do is we invite them for a virtual interview so we could talk to the alum about what they've done since they've graduated. And we also talked to current students about what their experiences are as industrial engineering students or whatever major we're featuring that week.

And we allow opportunity for questions and answers and just an overall discussion about experiences overall. Now we also because not everybody is able to sit in front of a computer screen all the time. We've also modified that program into a podcast called Engineer, Engineer and far now Kelly's going to put the Spotify link into the chat if you're interested in checking that out. We also are on a YouTube you if you e-mail.

SOE hub at.

RPI, you'll find us on YouTube as well, where you can find previous sessions of the Industry Hour program. You'll see Kelly and I, and we are fabulous hosts, so that is something that we really encourage students to do to check out. It's completely optional, but you should check it out for the mere fact that if you're looking to explore and learn.

Peer peer support and help and alum relations is really helpful.

Got it.

So one of the biggest questions that we're asked, and I think it's rightfully so, is how much the engineers make and what majors do better than others. Now we do have a very close relationship with our Career Center and they furnish us with this information annually. So this is just for your reference or information as to what RPI graduates are currently making in their careers. And you know, we could always have a broader conversation about that.

And even referrals to the Career Center For more information about what our graduates are doing. So this is something that we incorporate into Industry Hour. We do have a presentation done by Career Center that give you more specifics about what everybody's doing post grad, just to let you leverage your decision a little bit more clearer.

Now this information is something that we also offer.

Not every major in the school of engineering provides A1 credit intro course, but we do have some that are aligned for the fall semester and we have some that are set up for spring as well. And if any of these are remotely interesting to you, you're more than welcome to register for them. With them being one credit, usually graded pass fail, it's a minimal investment of your time to learn a lot of information.

So we as advisors will talk you through the process and will ask you what you think you might be interested in and make recommendations based on that. Another thing that we have is we kind of created a template that didn't really exist for undeclared students previously where we encourage you to explore those options and actually incorporate them into some of your general studies. So the way that the hub actually advises students that are undeclared as we look for common courses that are in the majors that are interesting to you and we.

Specifically streamline those so you're not going to.

Lose any ground by taking some of the courses. Everybody will advance at the proper rate, so you know graduation won't be jeopardized because you're not deciding what you want to do right away. We usually encourage students to declare their major by the end of the year, and most of them are willing at that point because they feel a little bit more equipped with the knowledge of knowing exactly what each major entails. So we work hands on with you, constant conversations about.

What did you like? What don't you like? What have we ruled out so far? So all of us is kind of an organic evolution to where you actually will end up, and even if you come in as a declared student.

If you change your mind, it's quite seamless to change majors for the most part. There's a lot of elective requirements that you know. If there is a course that's not directly applicable to, your new major will fulfill a free elective, for example. So there's different ways that we can manage your schedule to make sure that you don't lose any progress.

And this is just a note that we always try to have if we have the opportunity to talk to students before they get here. This is something we just mentioned because it's makes your process, your transition to college that much easier. If you're planning on bringing APIB summer classes or even dual enrollment credits, check out the admissions website because they have the incoming transfer credit high school certification form. It's a mouthful.

Form that you can download and it does require a guidance counselor's signature. So we encourage you to get the process started with dual enrollment credit by downloading that form now because by the time you graduate and you're not with your guidance counselor any longer, it's kind of a difficult process to reconnect with them. So APS you contact College Board make sure you get the transcripts in if you're taking any summer classes independent of high school this summer, we also have a transfer process for that and we're gonna be here to support you in July.

But at the same time, if you could get a head start on those, it would only help you.

So with this.

There's questions in the chat, so I just want to make sure we get to those. But that those I didn't mean to rush, you care.

No, no, no, no problem. OK, So what questions do we have?

I'll, I'll say them and then you answer. How's that? All right, cool.

That sounds good. And feel free to jump into Kelly.

Yeah, yeah, of course. All right, cool. So the first question we have is how easy is it to switch between schools if you find engineering isn't a good fit, such as engineering to School of Science, things like that.

So for the most part, it's pretty streamlined. There are some major restricted majors that apply like they require you to apply, So you're going to want to double check with an advisor before you take a leap to do that. But we do support you through the process. If you're starting out as a school of engineering student, we're not going to leave you high and dry. We're going to make sure that you're familiar with the process. But there are some majors in Haas.

For example, I believe ITWS and Game Simulations. Both of those require a little bit of.

A portfolio like there's certain art majors that do as well. Computer science does not allow students to declare in the school of Computer science until after they complete certain coursework with a with a preferred grade. So there's a couple of caveats, but for the most part, if you were switching into engineering, it's quite easy. And if you're switching to other majors, like within management and business and most school of science majors, it's quite seamless.

Cool. How easy is it to switch from engineering majors so one engineering major to another?

That's quite easier because we deliberately set it up because we don't expect you to know what you'd want to do.

Usually we discourage you from taking any very major specific courses if you're unsure of your major.

We would start with your physics and your math courses and you know chemistry and the core elective courses that you're all engineering majors require. So then.

Decision. If you were finalized by spring, we would jump into some of the more major specific classes.

So that part is quite easy.

Study abroad. We get this question all the time. Now we're happy Study abroad is so popular.

Since COVID but for engineering specific, when studying engineering, is it possible to study abroad?

So long and short, yes, we there's a lot of planning involved. So usually when a student's interested in studying abroad, we encourage them to connect with us about that so we can refer you to the information sessions that happen on campus each semester.

Play.

Usually students, I would say they generally study abroad during their junior year and preparation is at least one semester earlier, maybe two depending on your major.

And sometimes, if you're taking very engineering specific courses, you might be a little limited on where you can go, because obviously not every college is an engineering or STEM school. But we do encourage students to maybe reserve humanities courses or free electives to increase flexibility when they're planning their study abroad experience.

Cool. Umm, we have a how easy is it to switch a computer science? You kind of hinted on that certain coursework you need a certain grade in order to switch over into computer science. But thankfully the school science also has their own hub. So we highly encourage you to talk to them as well. But in the process and come in as undeclared engineering, we can we can help you through that process too.

Any required courses in English, humanities or social science disciplines? I guess they're referring to our Haas requirements, so I'll I'll answer this one. The School of Engineering requires 20 credits of Haas, that's what we call it, or humanities, arts and social sciences. So there's certain there's specific requirements within each and that's where in the summer we'll kind of go over those.

Some things are specific, some things are are more general. So it depends on what your goals are and what pathway you select.

For your house requirements, it's flexible with restrictions. So we kind of go through that with you over the summer. But the answer is yes, you have 20 credits or five classes of host requirements.

OK, can you test out of classes if you do not have AB or sorry Apib or dual enrollment?

I.

Generally, no. We usually require that students complete the courses. We do accept fours and fives for AP as of now, so if if you don't meet that criteria, you're more than welcome to to speak with the school that you are dealing with specifically regarding that that credit. But.

Usually the answer is that we really prefer and feel that you would be better suited to take the course at RPI.

Cool. Sarah has done her homework and she's already looked at some of the templates. So her question is or the student's question is if you're debating between Mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering, should you take Intro to Engineering Analysis and or enter the ECSC? They're both for credit classes.

What I would personally do is actually postpone both of those courses until spring because they're offered in both fall and spring. And your progress would not be delayed by delaying those courses with the majors that you're referencing. And when you're here and you have the opportunity to mingle with students in your cohort and then upperclassmen as well and you're like I said, you're more than welcome to take the better world engineering course and just a note on that.

Undeclared engineers will be automatically enrolled, but any student in any major in the school of engineering is welcome to enroll in that course as well. So even if you come in and you're like, I think I want to be a mechanical take the course because you might discover different majors, it's perfectly acceptable. But for you specifically, I would wait and maybe take some math and science courses while you're kind of figuring out what you want to do. Now Intro to engineering analysis. I don't want to get too far in the weeds.

Play.

But it does satisfy both the requirements for electrical and mechanical. So if you wanted to air on the side of caution and take an engineering course at the same time, IEA as we're referred, we refer to it a lot of acronyms. Get ready.

Would be the the preferred course just because it would satisfy both requirements?

Cool. All right? At one point, do you have to choose a major within engineering? Slash? When do most people do so?

So we usually put a hard limit on your actual third semester. So be fall of sophomore year that you would have to declare because that's when the major specific things start to really become prominent. However, most of our students usually declare after our Better World engineering course, believe it or not, spring semester we have a lot of course declaration or major declarations and if not, some students might want to hold on for another semester because they're comfortable with their advisor and they want to continue working with them and and that's fine as well.

But they'll generally declare after their first full 2 semester.

Cool. And then the last one I see in here is how is FYE first year experience program fit into Hub? Are they the same?

No, they're separate.

We're we're like a partnership.

So there's two sides of things. There's the student life side, which will support you with.

I I would say like housing and more of like the life, the life part of your experience as a student. Now on the flip side, we're all things academic. So we're minors, we're majors. We're talking about things that you know, if you're struggling in a course, we're the we're the ones that are going to support you and point you in the direction of resources and FYE does that as well. They're all-encompassing in that specific way, but.

The academic side is really our specialty. So that's where we would encourage you to connect with us because we know the faculty and we know the department.

Intimately, then you know that the first year experience would. So we partner together when applicable, but for the most part we support you academically in that realm.

Cool. Next question is, is language a required course? Is there an opportunity to major in engineering and minor in finance? So the first question is, is language required? Of course, no, it is not required.

RPI offers.

Mandarin.

As a language that you can take, it's also part of the pathway if that's something you're interested in. So Chinese 1234 and I believe there's five if you want to go that direction, but it is not required. There's other Haas courses that you can take for those requirements.

For the other question is major engineering and minor in finance, the answer is yes. Sometimes. Most engineering programs or all have 12 credits of free electives. Those free electives are anything you want to take. So typically students will fulfill a minor with those courses. Typically minors are 16 credits. So it's potential that you might need an additional course to complete that minor and fit that in your your academic plan. But when we go over your four year plan during your student.

Advising meeting which is required in the spring semester, that's when we can kind of finalize where you would take that. So we do a lot of training of your curriculum and your academic planning in your first year because as a hub we have you for the one year and then you move on to your faculty advisors. So we want to answer as many questions as you can as we can for your academic plan during this time frame. So a minor in finance is a great example. Definitely bring that up to your advisor.

It may not affect your first year coursework, It probably won't. I would stick to the template and then later on when you have those free electives, that's when you can plug in those courses.

Cool. Next question is can you get into the get to the classes you want?

That's a layered question. It kind of depends. But the answer overall is yes, especially the engineering coursework, we we will find a way to get you in those courses things in the School of Science and School of Haas. That's where we can support you in finding some other options or some open sections, things like that. So in that July time frame we mentioned to develop your fall schedule, that's when we're kind of you know do some problem solving.

Figure out which courses fit where, and to make sure that you're meeting certain criteria. The templates for your majors are templates, and for some things can be changed. So yes, you're looking at your fall template for a certain major you're interested in. Some may really need certain courses, but some majors don't, and it's very flexible at RPI in that first year to switch some things in that spring semester and take them in the fall. For example, we highly encourage our undeclared engineering.

Students to take physics one in the fall, if you can.

And then like our friend Sarah mentioned, IEA or Intro to Engineering Analysis or enter the ECSC Electrical.

That's kind of where we'll develop. Are we going to take this in the spring or we're taking physics in the fall? So those are the types of courses that we can move around. But again, that's where advising comes into play and we can go through those options. So that was a really long answer, but.

Just contact us.

OK.

Can you talk more about the required summer of courses and then a semester of a Co-op away from RPI? Is that a program changing at all? How much support do you get to find opportunities? And does a study abroad count for the Co-op? There's a lot going on there. Karen, do you want to answer this?

OK. Liam, you're referring to what we call as Arch. Arch is the summer that you would stay on campus and it happens after your sophomore year. So you would attend classes fall and spring of your sophomore year and then you would stay on campus for an additional semester in the summer and take courses. And then during junior year you will have an away semester. And depending on your major, most majors in the school of engineering allow you to allow you to choose what you're away semester is.

But some of the smaller majors have specific requirements with course arrangements, so they might put you in a position where you would say you're going away in full or you're required to go away in spring. If you're in XYZ major now you can do a Co-op. Generally with RPI terms, a Co-op is actually a summer end of fall or a a spring and a summer. It's two semesters. Most students who do their away semester often look for internship opportunities.

Jump from an UK?

And the Career Center is a support for that process. We encourage students to start their relationship with the Career Center on campus during freshman year. They do resume critiques and they have a catalog of all of the relationships that we have with like with career general stuff, and you can pretty much go.

Right when you get here, and all during sophomore year, we encourage students to attend the job fairs. There's two.

On campus, there's one in the fall and there's one in the spring that is sponsored by the Career Center and basically study abroad is an acceptable.

Option for an away semester for Arch. There are things that are being looked at with the program and might change over the course of the year. We haven't been updated about anything pertaining specifically to changes at this point, but study abroad. If you do have a study abroad opportunity, depending on the time of it, you might not participate in the summer rather.

You would study abroad at that other school. So all of those are options and that's something that we do talk to students a lot about during their first year because a lot of times students want to prepare for the future. So we are equipped with that information and we do get the updates as they come in. So at this point, that's, that's where it would stand.

Next question is, are there any majors that require high high school class credits?

I'm going to say no if if that's the questions. Like for evaluating your math that you took in high school to place you in a certain math class. We don't offer that or a specific engineering courses. Everyone comes in taking Calc One and following the course curriculum for whatever major you're interested in.

OK, what kind of help do we get when selecting courses in our first year fall term? Are the core classes pre selected? What do we get to choose is a hoss core elective. So the answer is yes, we are here to support you. So July is a very busy time with registration. So keep an eye on your e-mail and then creating that RPI e-mail is critical. That is where we will be doing the majority if not all of our communication. So once you have your RPI credentials you'll create a Webex account which that's where we do across campus the majority of our communication.

That's where we'll start and then we'll determine what majors were kind of selecting that we'll have kind of a virtual line. It's all going to be virtual. So you'll log in, you can e-mail us as well and we can kind of help with with certain questions. But there's pretty standard in terms of math and physics with that first semester with the Hass core elective majority of you will will be taking a Haas inquiry requirement. This is a requirement to be completed in your first year. This is for first years only.

You all will have options to take a Haas course in that first year. The specific majors might need certain things, but for the most part, everyone's taking a Hudson Creek class.

Yes, you do get to choose. So you will have to register these courses your yourself and we'll train you how to do it with your course registration numbers and how to submit those into the system. Press submit so that you're officially registered for fault. You can always make changes, but again, that's what we're here for. We can talk you through that.

Cool, OK, What advice would you give students who are hesitant to commit at such a tech focused school?

Karen, you want to answer this?

I think you have to trust your gut more than anything.

I mean, when I look at schools and I talk to students, this is going to be your home for the next four years, maybe longer depending on what programs you're pursuing, but.

You have to feel home, you know. And coming without knowing your major is one small piece of it, because you're going to want to feel like you're connecting with the people socially. You're going to want to feel that if the major that you're in right now or unsure of majors.

That there's other options to support you in the event that the one that you picked didn't work out. So I think that advocating for yourself and trusting your gut is are the biggest things I would advise students.

Umm, I don't want you to come here if you feel.

Intimidated and crazed and all of these things. Umm, obviously butterflies and nervousness is normal, but if there's something visceral in you that's telling you something otherwise, then you know. But.

You're you were accepted to the school for a reason, so I wouldn't question whether or not you belong here, but you have to feel good about it. So I think that's really what I would. I would say it's not, it's not a tech answer, believe it or not, for the tech school.

Next question is do you take cluck tests? And the answer is no, we haven't seen them. I don't believe we accept those.

Are we still able to do a five year program if you enter undecided? Yes. So that five year program is a separate application piece that happens during your junior year. So Co term or your master's program you will apply. There's a is AGPA requirement at your junior year around that time to the program you want and it could be anything. You could pursue an undergrad and mechanical engineering and do a master's program in biomedical.

Everything is possible as long as you meet the requirements and you know you're properly accepted.

Umm. And we already answered, umm, the classes you want questions, so I'm going to skip that.

Oh, go ahead.

Let me clarify one thing too.

The the beginning of registration during the summer.

We everybody is going to be assigned a time ticket, but it's random, but in the future.

You will be assigned a time ticket. Now, sometimes freshmen don't get into the classes that they want. I'm going to be completely honest. I mean major, specific classes. If you need IEA in this semester, we're going to get you into IEA. There's no way we're going to allow you.

To be delayed in your progress, but sometimes elective courses that are very popular might fill up quickly.

And every semester you accrue more credits and our time ticket system is based off of the number of credits that you accrue. So you're basically climbing a ladder because obviously our seniors are going to be graduate or who are going to be graduating the following semester are going to be the first to register because they need very specific coursework, so.

You know, generally freshmen might feel a little bit of strain in that aspect, but as things progress through the curriculum semester by semester, those things improve, and generally elective courses become easier to obtain. And we don't have a ton of elective courses in the beginning anyway. You usually have one on your schedule, if that. So there's different ways that we as advisors can make recommendations to support you in the event that you don't get a course that you want.

We try to, of course, you know, support that. But the other thing that I also would love to mention is yourself. Advocacy will take you far here. If you feel passionate about something and you explain that to a faculty member, they listen. And that's something that I would definitely encourage students to do. So, you know, there even if a course is full, there are ways that you can always say, hey, will you consider overriding me into this class? So that's something that we as advisors support students through that process of how to ask.

And also advocate for yourself. We try to empower students to feel confident about what they want and how to get it.

Great answer, Karen.

All right. Can engineering students minor in Japanese or theater production?

We don't offer Japanese theater production. There's things more in the arts and we have our impact building, which I highly encourage you to be involved in. But we haven't seen those miners Sunny Brown in Japan is possible. We mentioned earlier about the study abroad process. I recommend looking at the website as well too, but that is possible. We just don't want you to be delayed in your coursework at all. So there's a lot of planning in place to make sure that you were on track to graduate.

And also the RPI players. There's a theater club on campus, so that is something that a lot of students get involved with and really enjoy. So even though it wouldn't be academic related, it would still be socially related. So something you should check out when you're here.

Forgot that it was good. Are students allowed to take two different engineering courses at once? It depends on what you're asking.

The answer is yes, you you can you know take course work in other departments. Actually a lot of our majors require technical electives or free electives which you could use those to take classes and other types of engineering. So I advise chemical engineers and we have an engineering elective which actually.

Is the requirement is to take something outside of chemical engineering, so depending on your major, it might actually already be a requirement.

Does an AP adequately adequately prepare you to skip a college level course? It depends. If you take the Calc AP exam BC and you feel really strong about it, I would say keep moving on. But it really it depends on how you feel about the coursework. Things like chemistry, we can keep moving, but math, if that's something that you feel you might need additional work, maybe we take Calcu in the fall. If you brought in Calc One. If you brought in calc One and calc 2, that's when you have to assess.

Do I keep moving forward in the curriculum or do I retake calc to retake? I will say if you decide to take a course that you brought in credit for, you will forfeit that credit, so then you will get a grade for it and that would be implicated into your GPA.

Hope that makes sense.

I have one more thing to add to that.

Yeah.

We have a lot of students ask that question. It's probably one of the most popular questions pertaining to AP and Kelly's completely right. If you feel like you kind of scraped by to get that four, maybe we would have a bigger conversation about retaking the class here at RPI. However, if you decide to be ambitious and go forward, which so many students do it, I would even say a majority of them do so.

We give you a two week window at the start of every semester. Not just your first one here as a freshman, but every semester.

It's the add drop period where you will be in the class and say for example you ended up in differential equations because.

You got a four or five on the BC score.

So.

If you're in that class during those two weeks and you have the syllabus and everything looks completely foreign to you, and you're really concerned and lost right from the beginning, that's when you would come back and talk to us and we would say, OK, let's figure out what you want to do here. Would you like to go back to Calc 2? Is that a better space for you? Do you want to start over? And we could drop differential equations and replace it with an alternate class. So even if you commit to something by registering it for it in July, when everybody's registering, we do have time, even at the start of the semester, to make changes.

Flip side goes for the same thing as well. If you're in Calc 2 and you're like what was I thinking I should have moved forward, we can work that out with you and find you an alternative course as well. So I don't want you to feel like you're locked in right at the beginning because we do give you that flexibility to work things out and we're busy but we're we have drop in hours and you could schedule appointments. You can always e-mail us and we would we would make time to make sure that you feel comfortable about things moving forward.

Cool. Another question we get a lot is dual majoring in engineering and option.

Go ahead, Karen.

OK, so this is a question we do get a lot, and there's a mixed answer for a lot of different circumstances. We do offer dual degrees, however.

Not every single major plays nice with one another.

Engineering upon engineering, we do have a pre formatted aero mechanical dual, so that's aerospace or aeronautical with mechanical it's streamlined because there's so much overlap in course material that a lot of students.

Find that they can do it within the four year time frame without taking any crazy amounts of additional coursework.

Duels with Haas, which is your humanities, Arts and Social sciences are another dual that most engineering majors can support without doing anything too crazy because you would utilize your free electives and your Hoscore requirements towards that duel.

Science gets a little bit more complicated. It depends on the programs. We usually encourage students to check out the course catalog to see what kind of courses overlap and.

When you get here, we could always sit down and hash it out to see what it would look like. And another factor that influences whether duels are feasible is if you're bringing credits in. If you want to duel with physics as an Arrow student, it might work, but if you bring physics one and physics two and some of your science courses in, it makes it that much more manageable. So those are the things that we generally talk about in this office when you get here because we we want to make sure you understand that not all duels would happen in that four year time frame.

The other thing too, duels are an option. However, we do not allow dual declarations until spring. So it's not something that's necessarily going to happen right away because we want you to get your bearings here and kind of, you know, get the rhythm of the school, find your friends and your social networks before we dive into even more coursework. So that is something that we definitely talk about early on, but there's not really action right away.

Cool, all right? What accommodations for Arch are made for an athlete whose season is both semesters?

The answer is you still have to submit some type of.

Exception or through the Arch office so you'll you'll be accommodated. However, you need to reach out to the Arch. You have an athletic advisor to Cam Wine who is excellent and.

Cam is fully equipped to help you with this process, so nothing to worry about right now, but the answer is yes, you will be assisted in some way.

You just have to do some paperwork on on your end. Does that sound OK, Karen? OK, cool. Next question. When I was on tour, a sister school was mentioned if I wanted to continue with studying Spanish. Is this correct or available?

You can.

Students have done cross listed, not cross listed.

Cross register.

What word am I thinking of? I just raced it. I was close with schools in the area such as you, Albany, if you were to take Spanish and transfer that in as a Lang credit.

It depends on what you want to do with those credits. Does it count towards your host? Does it count towards your free electives? There's still requirements you have to complete at RPI. You can't transfer in communication intensive courses and things like that, so we'll have to talk through that with you. But yes, it it is an option.

All right. Is there a major difference between a coop and an internship?

It's the timing of it.

Usually an internship. If you think about a summer internship, it would happen during the summer obviously.

An internship during a regular semester would just be a semester long, and I'm not sure if other schools define this differently so that I want to make it clear that that this is how we define it. But Co-op is generally A semester and a summer, so I've had students actually do.

A summer.

And then into fall.

Or I've done, they've done fall and then they'll wait and then they actually will continue at the following summer or you might do it spring into summer. So a Co-op gives you a little bit more of an opportunity to get to know the company that you're working for. And a lot of times you know students will come back after a Co-op and kind of say that they have a a job offer at the end of it for when they graduate. So and and the same thing applies towards internships as well. But I think co-ops give you and give the employers a bigger picture of who you are as an individual.

Your capabilities are so there. It's duration more than anything else.

OK, do you have a pass or fail program for freshmen? It's not specifically for freshmen. Pass, fail or we call it pass no credit. That is an option for students. There's a deadline every semester, but it depends on the class. If there's a named course on your curriculum, you cannot pass no credit to class. If it's an elective, such as a hot, selective or a free elective, a technical elective, then you can pass no credit as it will account towards your free electives.

Or if you, you know, do not pass the credit, then it'll be a no credit. So the answer is yes, we have passed no credit. It's not specifically designed just for freshmen.

OK, is it possible to study classes in the School of Science while majoring in the School of Engineering? Is it possible to major across multiple schools? Yes, naturally. As an engineer you're taking School of Science classes, so math, physics, chemistry, If, if, if your major requires it.

Differential equations? Multivariable calculus. So the answer is yes, you will be taking a school of science courses. Is it possible to major across multiple schools? Yes, if you're considering double majoring or dual majoring. I think that's what you're asking.

Yes, we just have to come up with a plan. So as Karen mentioned earlier, as long as you bring in not as long, but if it helps if you bring in transfer credit to really design that dual or potential double degree.

Then we can map out that academic plan with you, Karen. Is there anything I missed?

OK, how do you find out about research opportunities? Is research common? Can under class and participate in research? Yes, first years it might be a little challenging. However, there are things where students will go to a club and find out that there is a spot because the professor is running the club or something like that. So we definitely recommend talking to people.

Seeing what's out there, especially professors in your first year. Chemistry loves our students. So do you want to participate in some chemistry research? You can ask the professors to see what they have.

Umm, some professors may not offer it to a first year because they want to see, you know, your record so far, see your coursework you've taken, how well you've done so far, or what area you really wanna specialize in. And if that's their area, then you found the professor for you. And at least to start that conversation so that by your second, third, fourth year you have those opportunities. And it's possible to earn credit for research. A lot of our students do research, so just it may not happen in your first year, but it it will.

So just keep talking to professors and making those connections and it'll happen.

Our introductory courses taught by faculty or Tasmania faculty. They're taught by our faculty, especially those one credit courses. They want to make sure you're getting the information from that department so they're taught by faculty.

All courses at RPI are taught by faculty. The only thing that ATA might support would be like a mentoring section.

Generally, you know those might be TA run, but every single physics, chemistry, all of your engineering courses are all taught by faculty.

Students have Co-op or intern at the same company.

Maybe there's there's Regeneron, that's local. There's other local companies.

Knowles Nuclear Labs. There's lots of options in this area, so it's pretty common for RPI students to have an opportunity there or have that be their first job after graduation, but not always.

Randy, maybe you can answer the acceptance date.

Question.

As far as that is concerned, we have not discussed at all making any changes in regards to moving up that May 1st date. If there are any changes that will come through, we'll make sure that's definitely announced to individuals, but right now we're pretty much keeping it at that May 1st deadline.

Cool. Could you describe RPI's interdisciplinary programs?

I'm not sure what you mean specifically. Naturally our programs are interdisciplinary. Some majors more than others, like they're capstone design project are with other majors and that final semester. Typically students take that class when they're about to graduate. And you're working with students and other disciplines like such as industrial engineers and Mechanical Engineers. So it's possible.

But yeah, naturally, our our programs are interdisciplinary.

For AP, do you have tests for the purpose to see if you were comfortable with the material rather than being moved around between classes?

I'm not sure what that question means.

OK.

Now, we generally don't have any kind of preliminary tests. What we usually advise is to review.

The syllabus, when you actually register for the class, once it's loaded into LMS and let us know if you have concerns, I think that you know there's a lot more to deciding whether or not you want to stay in a course. A lot of it could be.

Do you feel that the teacher might give you, you know, might be teaching in a way that you are adapted to learning or you know, there's different things that come into play?

So it's quite often that students do move things around a bit, but I think really attending class the first day is where you're gonna really get your clear perception of what the course entails.

We do have a 123 calculus thing that we do put in to allow students to brush up on their calculus skills. We put it in the chat over the summer, so that is something we'll share. But it really isn't an indication as to how you're going to perform in your courses. It's just a self guide to, you know, kind of revisiting some of the material you might have forgotten while you've been in high school or even just over the summer.

OK, well, RPI award AP credit for Spanish. Yes, it's usually like a Lang 1000 or Haas elective.

Can you talk a bit about going to grad school a masters of PhD? How do students find research? How many undergrads go on to grad work and info is good so grad and PhD are are different, so grad school masters. Sometimes students will refer to grad school as either one. So some students may say I'm in grad school and they mean APHD or I'm in grad school and I'm a masters program. So sometimes different language but masters that one year program that we talked about pure coursework so.

Some research, but it's typically all coursework. Depending on this discipline, PhD is a little bit longer. If you want to pursue a PhD, we recommend applying. You know right away. You don't have to get your masters and then a PhD. You're welcome to.

But some students will just go right into their pH. D program. That's where we would recommend really talking to faculty and seeing what and Better World Engineering will be a perfect example to ask those questions. You'll have that opportunity to ask faculty from the direct department on what they recommend. Things have changed over the years, of course, but they have that pulse on what the industry is like today. So it gives you better advice. How do they find research experience? You will contact the faculty directly. So we encourage that as much faculty connection you can make, the better and especially.

Look up what they have researched in the past. What are their credentials, what it was, their specialty? And that's something that's interesting to you. Reach out to them and say, how do I get there or what would you want to see on my resume or experience to be a candidate for your research lab.

Umm, we recommend the same thing for the career fairs and and things like that. Even if you feel as a first year I'm I'm not qualified. Well, what can make you qualified? Go up to the companies directly or the faculty directly and ask what would you want to see for me to be qualified?

Can I add to that?

Yeah.

So one of the things that we do a little bit differently than all the other schools on campus is we are only a first year hub. And the reason why we do it that way is because you're going to be working with us logistically on all of the things academic. We're going to get your four year plan situated. So you're going to have a full understanding of what your curricular requirements are and everything that you're going to need to graduate. That is like basically our job during the year that we spend together after.

Kelly mentioned that you'll be assigned A faculty member in the major that you're declaring if you've declared by the end of the year. If you're not, you stay with the hub for another semester. Just to clarify that process too, but anyway.

But.

Your faculty advisor is a key component in all of the things that you mentioned, Liam. Because they went to grad school, they did all the things that you're asking about and the reason we partner with them. We get all the academic requirements, the Haas requirements, everything out of the way. So you can use the time that you have with your faculty advisor to have those conversations. We partner in such a way to make sure that you're holistically supported in all aspects, so.

You can go in and say, OK, here's my plan of study. Now let's talk about research.

Can you help me out? Your faculty advisor might actually be doing research in an area that's interesting to you. Guess how easy it is. You have an automatic appointment with them every year. So that's something that we really strive to to create. So you can have that mentorship starting sophomore year, which is when really things start to ramp up for you as an engineering student.

Cool. Are students able to have multiple co-ops and internships? Yes, we've had students do every summer. Or you know, during their away and the summer after your third year.

Variety of of options, but yes, as many as you want and that is feasible within your plan.

2.

And one more thing to that. The more you do, if they're in the semester where you're normally taking classes, it might delay your graduation. But if you're doing something you love, I had a student years ago who was like an Imagineer and wanted to do consecutive internships because they were enjoying it that much. Do it. And then we're here. We're not going anywhere. We'll be here when you get back to support you and get you realigned. So we definitely encourage those opportunities if you're doing something that you love.

By all means you should do it. It's college. That's what this experience is all about.

What is the average class size?

Depends on the class.

In the first year, you know everyone's taking a lot of similar coursework, so they're probably going to be a little bit larger than some other courses. Some of your hoss classes are going to be smaller, especially communication intensive courses. They're really small to ensure that you're developing those skills.

It's encouraged to take those classes as early as possible so that you feel best prepared for those, you know, more intensive writing labs and things down the line.

Not required, but it is required eventually, but for now.

Highly encouraged, but yes. Simple answer.

Average. It just depends on the class.

And that appears to be the last of our questions that have come through.

Cool.

I do want to thank both Kelly and Karen for giving us such great information about under undeclared engineering majors. I hope that you were able to get a lot of information out of this session. Again, it has been recorded, so if you would like a copy of the presentation, please feel free to e-mail us at admissions@rpi.edu and we will make.

Everyone have a great day.

Thank you guys.