Kay Kinard
Director of Communications, College of Engineering

While your student may have decided to come to Georgia Tech to become an engineer, one question they may still be struggling with is “what kind of engineer?” With eight engineering schools on campus offering 11 different majors, there are a lot of choices, so many students begin their studies at Tech as an Undeclared Engineering major.

To help students become acquainted with the different engineering majors, the college offers a Freshman Engineering Seminar with is part of GT1000 Freshman Seminar. The seminar is designed to help expose students to the engineering profession and undergraduate degree programs at Tech as well as focus on career options.

Students can remain Undeclared for up to two years or 60 hours. “The best piece of advice I can give, is if you think you like a field, go ahead and declare your major,” says Larry Jacobs, associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Engineering. “You can switch - and many students do - but this may make a difference in getting a class that you want or need.” In the meantime, students looking for more information should take advantage of advisors on campus, talk to other engineering students or a faculty member, and explore several websites that can take interests and match them to an engineering field. To talk with the undeclared engineering adviser, students may contact Dr. Jane Weyant at jane.weyant@coe.gatech.edu. Students can explore engineering fields and jobs using online resources including www.discoverengineering.org, www.careercornerstone.org, and www.asee.org.

Why declare a major? During the first year, many of the classes are common core courses, but some majors, such as chemical and biomolecular engineering, do have pre-requisite chains so there is an advantage for students to declare early in order to stay on track for graduation. At times, classes are restricted to certain majors, or in popular classes, there are circumstances where preference is given to students in a certain major.

“While we try to work it out for the students, there are times when a student may have to wait a semester or two to get a class if they have not declared a major,” says Jacobs. “If a major looks interesting, we do encourage a student to go ahead and declare.”

For more information on the College of Engineering, visit www.coe.gatech.edu.