Queen's engineering physics graduates' job prospects

[geminiarcher]

Hi,
I am a Chinese student who has just been admitted to Queen's university(engineering physics).
I plan to be an engineer in the future but I don't know if I could get a job easily after graduating from engineering physics.
What is more, someone told me that the engineering physics in Queen's ranks first of its own kind in Canada and third in North America, is it true? Is engineering physics really that good?

 

[dacruick]

The girl who works beside me is an applied mathematics engineer from queens university. They do have a very good program, and I'm sure you can find a job, and if you cant, it will be for other reasons than what program you graduated from. I also go to Waterloo, which has a very good engineering program as well. I also do not know what engineering physics is. is that a mechanical engineer?

 

[CaptainQuaser]

Eng Phys is not like Mech Eng, its a lot harder and generally geared towards people going to grad school. Eng phys students take an option (mech, ece, materials, etc) and its basically like doing two undergrad degrees one in engineering and one in physics. If you just want a job out of undergrad you might choose a different option that is easier a lot of people end up switching out of eng phys into a different program after a few months when they realize they can't hack it, that said you don't actually choose your engineering path until second year at Queen's

 

[Choppy]

The important thing to keep in mind is that regardless of where you get you degree, it's not going to do the work for you. Obtaining a degree in EngPhys will qualify you to apply for certain jobs, but it won't guarantee you a job. No degree will.

Canadian universities are ranked annually by Maclean's magazine (kind of a Canadian version of Time). I usually take such rankings with a grain of salt though. What a magazine thinks is important is not neccessarily the same as what is important to you.

 

[mgb_phys]

Make sure that the eng physics qualifies you as an 'engineer' -
In Canada professional engineering certification is taken very seriously. In a lot of companies, and especially in government, you must be a professional engineer to rise above a certain level - even in areas where you do no actual engineering.

(assuming you intend to live/work in Canada)

 

[Mathnomalous]

I'm currently enrolled in an "Engineering Science" 2yr program. Besides the usual calculus battery + linear algebra + diff eqs the core of the program is heavy on physics (the 3 core physics courses are titled "engineering physics"). However, as you noticed, the degree awarded is an associate's since this program is designed to send you to a 4yr college. So... what exactly is engineering physics? The Wikipedia entry is helpful but not conclusive.

 

[CaptainQuaser]

Anyways, I am currently TAing the second year eng phys lab at Queen's. Yes it qualifies you as an engineer, as I mentioned above its basically two degrees, a couple of the graduate students in my lab came out of the eng phys program and wear their eng ring with pride. That said, a typical eng phys student takes 7-8 courses a semester as compared to 5 for a physics major or engineer major. It is a lot more work for the eng phys program and is considered the most prestigious at this school. Because of the extra course load a lot of students drop out mid way through first term in their second year to have more of a social life. They switch into mech eng, or ece or some easier program.
At Queen's you are a general engineer first year, its in the second year you choose which path to follow, those who think they are particularly bright out of their first year courses tend to come into eng phys, though its a pretty small program compared to a lot of the engineering tracks, as it is seen as particularly hard.

 

[i2000s]

Anyways, I am currently TAing the second year eng phys lab at Queen's. Yes it qualifies you as an engineer, as I mentioned above its basically two degrees, a couple of the graduate students in my lab came out of the eng phys program and wear their eng ring with pride. That said, a typical eng phys student takes 7-8 courses a semester as compared to 5 for a physics major or engineer major. It is a lot more work for the eng phys program and is considered the most prestigious at this school. Because of the extra course load a lot of students drop out mid way through first term in their second year to have more of a social life. They switch into mech eng, or ece or some easier program.
At Queen's you are a general engineer first year, its in the second year you choose which path to follow, those who think they are particularly bright out of their first year courses tend to come into eng phys, though its a pretty small program compared to a lot of the engineering tracks, as it is seen as particularly hard.

How about the graduate study and academic prestige of the Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy in Queen's U? I am also interested in the physics department of Queen's graduate school. Thanks.

 

[glueball8]

From a Chinese Newpaper, it says that Queens Engphy is just behind MIT and Caltech. Though its not very well known in Canada unlike Engsci(which includes a phy option).

 

[twofish-quant]

One thing that can throw people off is that in China, there is a very clear ranking of schools based on the cutoff scores for the national entrance examination. In North America, there isn't a clear ranking of schools, and school rank doesn't mean nearly as much because the difference between a "high ranking" school and a "low ranking" school is much, much smaller in the US than in China.

 

[CaptainQuaser]

How about the graduate study and academic prestige of the Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy in Queen's U? I am also interested in the physics department of Queen's graduate school. Thanks.

Prestige I don't really pay to much attention to, it also depends on you're field.
The particle physics group here (SNO lab, etc) is very strong, and I hear the PI of that project (Art McDonald) is on the Nobel watch list for the contributions to discovering neutrino decay or something like that.

The condensed matter group is fairly young, a lot of the profs are in their tenure year this year. That said the research is very promising, and good students here out of a masters can go about anywhere, (someone out of my lab just got full funding at Cambridge, others go to MIT, Berkley, etc)

Its really just about finding a supervisor and research group that will enable you to succeed.

 

[iratern]

I'm interested in that program as well, but I can't really find much info on it other than Queen's own site. I would like to know if it's the right program for me, I got accepted to U of T physical sciences and I am considering to specialize in physics, but I am also really interested in Queen's EngPhy. Is there anyone who knows a lot about the program and how is it compared to U of T's engsci physics option? or to their physics specialist program?