Best school for electronics engineering? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: jackbob
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2012, 07:36:01 am
content: I am 16 and have two years of high school left so I have been recently looking into schools that offer electronics engineering. I like all types of electronics engineering but have the most knowledge and experience in power electronics. I have heard it also referred to as analog electronics. I want to design and build high power electronics such as power supplies, inverters, and motor controllers. It is also starting to become more common in the automobile industry for electric cars which increases demand for this job. I have taken several engineering courses in high school and I really don't feel college is for me. I would have to take two years of a foreign language and I feel that colleges waste too much time and make too much work out of classes that don't really pertain to what it is that I am trying to learn. I would much rather go to a technical or trade school which is more hands on and gets right to the core of what it is you are trying to learn. Does anyone know of good reputable technical schools that offer such a course? I found ITT tech but their class descriptions are very short and not very descriptive on what type of electronics courses they offer.

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2012, 08:00:07 am
content: your users country is listed as 00, so perhaps tell us what country / state you live in, its not very good us reccomending one thats on the oppsite side of the planet

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2012, 08:03:10 am
content: Are you in the US? I think it is usual for US colleges to require a very broad program of study.If you are up for a bit of adventure, you might consider looking overseas for a place to study. The universities in the UK, for example, will let you focus purely on electronics and won't make you study all sorts of other crap. (Mind you, there is nothing wrong with studying a foreign language.)Just to give you an idea, here is the prospectus for electrical and electronic engineering at Imperial College. It is one of the top schools, but there are many others to pick from.http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/ugprospectus/facultiesanddepartments/electricalengineering/eleceng

author: jackbob
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2012, 08:35:38 am
content: Yes I'm in the US in Los Angeles California. Traveling to another country would be hard but make it more interesting I suppose. I just don't like all the unnecessary classes and courses in college and it's also less hands on and more lecturing. Taking a foreign language isn't bad but it's very unnecessary for learning electronics. It is always a plus to be bilingual but not required to learn electronics. I would much rather take two more engineering classes, auto, or some other industrial tech class rather than a foreign language. I personally feel forcing someone to take a foreign language is a waste because that person is doing it because they have to rather than want to and they probably aren't getting much out of the class. Same with all the crap classes in college, people sign up for electronics and have to take a sport?? I mean really? and people pay for that. Im sure a technical school is much more expensive but at lest it cuts the crap and gets to the actual class. there is also a much higher rate of people having a steady job after getting out of a technical school.

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2012, 08:56:57 am
content: Yes, I know moving overseas to study is a giant leap and quite daunting, not to mention probably expensive (but college isn't exactly cheap in the US these days...). I just thought I'd mention it as a possibility. Perhaps you can see from the prospectus I linked to that it is all engineering and "no unnecessary crap"

author: jackbob
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2012, 11:25:59 am
content: I know there's is a lot more to the job than just the electronics, communication and enjoyment are very important. Over the past few years I have been volunteering for an audio company and will be hired with them this summer and if anything i learned how inportant communication is. The company is a huge company who is doing the audio for the Super Bowl tomorrow and it is one of those very few places today where you could probably work your way up to one of the managers without a degree but with many years of experience. I could stay there but I feel I could do better with electronics, the audio just isn't challenging enough. Although the company does have its own repair department too where techs fix the equipment themselves rather than sending it back to the manufacture. I may look into it but I'm more into the design rather than fixing equipment. Will a technical school like ITT tech give degrees or no? If not then what do they give?

author: TerminalJack505
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2012, 11:28:54 am
content: You might check out DeVry University. They have several locations in California. At one time, somebody (maybe them) claimed that 50% of EE degrees in the U.S. came from DeVry.Their EE program is pretty much wall-to-wall engineering-geared classes so that may be right up your alley.Last time I checked it cost about 60 grand to graduate and required something like 168 credit hours. It's been a while, though, so that might be totally wrong.

author: bfritz
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2012, 06:14:58 am
content: I do not suggest the Tech schools for engineering.The basis of modern engineering is math. You are taught the math, so that you can understand the physics behind why things work, and how they work. A tech school will sidestep the calculus and therefore much of the ability to understand the physics and just teach you to use this equation to calculate that. You will not have the kind of deep understanding that you will get in a true undergraduate engineering degree.DeVry and similar Technical Institutes will get you an Associate degree. With that degree, fresh out, you will likely be considered to work for as a technician in an engineering environment, taking direction from others. You will likely not be asked to design or have much responsibility for what is done. Most of the people I've dealt with that have these degrees, are happy just soldering, or doing some simple troubleshooting. Their skill sets have not been adequate for much more.I understand that you may not think you need the english classes, business classes, etc. The truth, is that you will benefit from them. If you work as an engineer, you do not just dream up the best way to do something, and build it. You always deal with constraints. Sometimes the more important constraint is time, so you end up buying costly off the shelf solutions. Other times the constraint is expense, so you design out every penny you can. It is helpful to have the business background so that you understand the tradeoffs and can communicate effectively with the business people.I have met people in my career that were great engineers who did not possess a bachelors degree in electrical engineering. They are very few, and very special people, who happened to learn electronics as the industry was changing, with the advent of semiconductors. I think learning today without a bachelors degree from an accredited college would be even harder.Do not discount the other things you will learn in college. Part of the value of college is to expose you to other viewpoints, interests, and ideas, so that you learn how to think, and how to learn. These are the skills that you will someday learn are of more likely long lasting value than the engineering courses. For example, I learned to program Fortran using punched cards... Not a lot of that is directly applicable today! I can however still punch hollerith code without a punch card machine! But I did learn the ideas behind programming in a high level language, and have moved to assembly and C++. Don't underestimate the value of the true college / university experience, it is more valueable than you likely think.If you doubt this, try and find a friend of the family, or someone who is willing to talk with you, that works at somewhere that does the kind of thing you'd like to do. Ask them what someone with an Associate degree from DeVry might do, and what someone with a BSEE might do. I know that in some places, Boy Scouts have a group called Engineering Explorers. Adult engineers working at local companies typically take time in their evenings to teach some classes and have events for the Explorers. You typically learn about something, and then see how it might be put into practice, and usually have some sort of lab exercise to go along with it. These people would be a great resource for you to learn from, and get good advice from.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2012, 07:01:52 am
content: Quote from: jackbob on February 05, 2012, 08:35:38 amAs an Adult,why should you have to take a sport?I can understand it in the context of a High School,but a College is supposedly at University level.Universities in other countries are proud of the sporting achievements of their students,but as far as I know do not compel them to take part.Languages are another matter--- French & German manufacturers in particular,seem to leave their translations to "somebody from the office" who just happens to know another language!Trying to work out a circuit description translated by someone with no knowledge of Electronics gets old pretty quickly!If you can read the information in the original language,it helps a lot.

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2012, 08:10:43 am
content: There are engineering degrees in the UK (and doubtless other places) where the teaching is combined with a foreign language like French or German. Many of the technical lectures are delivered in those languages ("total immersion"), and you either learn quickly or you won't learn at allI would rather have enjoyed a course of study like that, but sadly it was not available to me at the time.I wholeheartedly agree with what vk6zgo said there. Engineering is about many things, but one thing it is not about is rote learning of technical skills. It is about analysis, and mathematics, and deep understanding of physical principles, and learning on your feet, and business skills, and communication skills, and economics, and various other things (safety and the environment being biggies these days). You would no more expect to be taught how to use a soldering iron in an EE degree than you would expect to be taught how to weld pipes in a Mech Eng degree. (But you should learn anyway, since it's fun. The whole point of a university education is they don't spoon feed you. If you can't learn for yourself, you don't have what it takes.)

author: johnboxall
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 06, 2012, 10:11:04 pm
content: Take the second language! Learn Mandarin. Think about it. An ability to deal with the Chinese directly as an engineer will make you a very desirable graduate. Any company who spends money manufacturing in China is going to want engineers who can visit the plant, talk with the local manufacturing guys and cut through the 'lost in translation' or 'Yes. Yes. No problems. OK. But no, different is OK' crap to solve problems a lot easier than being fobbed off by the local team and local translators.

author: jackbob
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 07, 2012, 02:23:25 am
content: I didn't think about all that I would miss going to a technical school. Now that I think about it, it is very hands on and they show you how but not why. They don't really get too much into theories and the mathematics behind the engineering. I am very good at math an science in my high school and maintain a 3.5 or higher throughout the year so I can do it. I guess it's something to look into. I don't live far from cal tech, which is what I wanted to go to a couple years ago because I do enjoy aerospace but I like electronics design better. I am also taking college credit classes in high school and currently taking digital electronics in high school. The class is extremely easy for me but gives me college credits so I like it. We don't really design anything but build schematics and we work with multisim software which is cool because it's used in the real world and provides experience. Thank you all for your help I will consider a college that does power electronics or something similar.

author: chscholz
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 07, 2012, 03:35:58 am
content: Here is jut one out of many lists of academic ranking of engineering schools...http://www.arwu.org/FieldENG2010.jspAnd as with all such lists, take it for with a large grain of salt, but at least check the "methodology" button.Quote from: jackbob on February 05, 2012, 07:36:01 am

author: Randall W. Lott
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 29, 2012, 05:25:17 am
content: I studied at a tech school and got my Associate Degree, then transferred as a Junior to the best engineering university in my state.My electronics knowledge was far beyond that of my peers, but my math was slightly below. The technical community college that I went to had a phenomenal program.My professor for digital electronics actually showed tests from MIT and explained that they were very similar. I loved the class sizes. There was only 6 people in my graduating class and I got plenty of one on one time with all of my professors.If you plan on getting a straight engineering degree and not a technical degree, you have to take additional math before you'll be ready to continue.