Maximizing Your EE Education: Honors, Internships, and Minors

[pete5383]

Hey everyone. School's about to start, and I talked to my advisor a little bit. I'm going to be having some extra classes in the next couple years (I'm a second year Electrical Engineering student), and I was wondering if anyone has any advice:

One thing he mentioned is the Honors program. He said that if this next semester goes well, I should think about doing the Honors EE. I have a good GPA now, and to graduate with honors, I have to take three "Honors" classes. Does this make much of a difference when I start looking for employment?

Another thing we talked about is internships. He suggested I get one if I could, but that most are during the summer, and I (kind of) need to go home in the summer. Unfortunately, home is on a farm 4 hours from the University, and there is little EE internship oppurtunities in the rural area. He also mentioned that I could do an ungraduate Research project with a faculty member. I could do one a semester, so I could get anywhere from 1 to 5 if I wanted to by the time I graduated. Does this help out much on a resume? Compared to say, a fulltime internship?

The other option I was thinking about was to get a Physics minor and a Csci minor. This would basically just require taking some more classes, which would bring my schedule up to about 16-17 a semester, instead of 12-13 a semester, which is what I'll be taking most semesters if I don't take anything more than what's required.

So, there's what I'm contemplating now...I think I could probably handle two out of the three options and still not be too stressed...this isn't an urgent matter as I won't be registering for spring classes until later in fall, but I like to try to get advice and feel ahead of the game. Thank you all!

 

[kdinser]

From talking to friends who are in the profession, I would say that the honors classes wouldn't come close to giving you the edge that an internship would. An internship represents real world experience and anyone that would hire you knows that your education only shows that your qualified to learn the job. The honors classes would just show that your a little better at learning then your competition.

I think research projects would also do more for you then the honors classes would in the eyes of a potential employer, but I'm just guessing at that one.

I'm an EE major also, my school doesn't offer an honors EE program, to small I guess. I'm planning on doing an internship next semester and through the spring/summer and trying to do some research and special topics classes this semester and next.

Good luck man, I doubt you would regret doing the honors classes, I'm sure you would come out with a deeper understanding of the material, but in the real world, I don't think it would make much difference.

 

[pete5383]

So your thinking that the Honors program basically wouldn't be worth the hassle if I could get an internship (or do some research)? Any thoughts on if minors would help out any?

 

[kdinser]

I'm not really sure about minors. I could easilly get a math minor with just a couple more math classes, but that would cut into some EE electives I could take that interest me more.

 

[pete5383]

(sorry to keep asking questions, but this forum is a good information mine :)

Do employers see electives, and do they look favorably upon someone who takes a bunch of unrequired EE classes just for the sake of wanting to learn more? Or does anyone know if minors (such as Phys or EE) help out more?

Edit:
While I just thought of it: is there much double majoring between EE and Statistics? Is it helpful? Thanks again

 

[Maxwell]

While I just thought of it: is there much double majoring between EE and Statistics? Is it helpful? Thanks again

Statistics and Probability play a HUGE role in EE. Especially concerning noise analysis. This is very useful in the fields of Communications and Controls sytems. I don't know of a place that offers a major in "Statistics," but taking extra statistics and probability classes is a very good idea. It has helped me TONS.

 

[pete5383]

The school I'm going to now, the U of Minnesota, offers a B.S. in Statistics...you think this might be something to consider? I could get the double major fairly easily (since both degress are math heavy and overlap a fair bit). Would a EE/Stat double major be better than EE with a Phys and a Csci minor (which is another option I was thinking about)?

 

[Maxwell]

It depends heavily on the field you are planning to specialize in. CS is always a good background to have, that's for sure, but if you're planning on going into something like digital signal processing or communications, I think statistics/probability would help you more.