MGCCC / MSU Engineering program?

[jkmjr]

I was hoping to get some opinions. I think this is brand new so there may not be anyone with any info. It seems that MGCCC will be offering a B.S. Degree in mechanical or electrical engineering from MSU. The first two years are your typical pre-requisites from MGCCC and the second two years are MSU classes. The instructors will be from MSU but the classes will be in Gautier at MGCCC. The degree will be from MSU. My son is leaning towards engineering and may pick mech. or elec. He has spent some time in Starkville and really does not care for the town. My BIL hated Starkville. This is not a dig on Starkville, but my son would be much happier on the gulf coast. What do you guys think?

[Odis]

I don't know if this is any help or not but my son is a freshman at State and majoring in engineering, he's been too busy trying to keep up (at least that's what he's telling us) to worry about where he is, calculus and chemistry are kicking his butt, when I was in school (at State) one of my best friends and roommate majored in electrical, same story, he was so busy just trying to keep up that it wouldn't have mattered where he was, can't tell you the number of times I came back to the apt. on a weekend night at 2-3 in the morning and he'd still be up studying, guess that's why he's 52 years old and not too far from retirement, he works a 4 day, 40 hour week for the government and has done very well

[jkmjr]

Very good point. I am worried about him struggling when he hits those more complex courses. He has never had to study in high school and has had the highest math average in his class since jr. high. Math has always "CLICKED" for him, but I keep warning him he is going to get his ass kicked in college. We will see!

[peewee]

He is looking at two great fields. I loved my time in Starkville but any free time I had was spent on the refuge and surrounding forest. I think it's great they are offering the courses on the coast. He could always try it and see if he needs to move up there he could. The only problem with that is if he grades get too far behind his GPA may not look favorable to some employers. One of my best friends was similar to what you described. He was in top 10 in his class at Warren Central and thrived in math. Majored in Mech Engineering and it kicked his butt. He dropped out and didn't finish college.

My advice if he decides to stay on the coast is to look at what type of support labs are available. The math lab at state really helped me. Remember the majority of instructors don't have time or don't care to go back and explain a whole lot. You either get it or you don't. If the lab on campus only supports the basic math up to calculus (which I suspect since it's a community college) I would defiantly move to Starkvegas.

[novacaine]

A lot of excellent points and truths have been previously mentioned. I am an old 50 ish yr old civil major from MSU. Math came easy in high school, never carried a single book home in high school and made good grades...........thought i could handle engineering with no problem...........they sent me home with my tail tucked between my legs.
The problem that most youngsters entering college dont understand is that its their first REAL JOB. I mean that its the first real job that matters, that you should concentrate on and try to be excellent in. Once i went home and slaved on the farm with the rest of the minimum wage workers with bleak outlooks for future advancement...........well if figured it out and went back to MSU to dive into my new real job again.
Engineering students dont play hacky sack or throw frisbees (do they still make those)on the drill field, they work by studying and grinding for 18 hrs a day until the finish line is crossed. Tell your son that Calc I-IV,Differential Equations,Physics I-III,Chem I-II.................that the easy math. It gets serious after that.
Let him go where he is comfortable with his surroundings, he will be able to concentrate on school with less stress.
Looking back now, it was probably one of the funnest jobs i have had. If i had started out correctly, it would have been the easiest job also. There arent many college majors that have almost 100% job placement.
Good luck to him.

[curlytail]

My son was like the others that have been described, great grades, math came easy... all to say, he realized real quick at MSU he was not as smart as he thought he was. He graduated 2 years ago with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. As I type this, he is in Singapore with work and has traveled the world with his job. The route he took was the coop program. Not sure if the MGCCC will offer that program or not. It provided him with the ability to get some valuable work experience and not get "burned out" with just school. He also had a job coming out of school in his major, a feature a lot of his friends did not have.

[msudawg8087]

A lot of excellent points and truths have been previously mentioned. I am an old 50 ish yr old civil major from MSU. Math came easy in high school, never carried a single book home in high school and made good grades...........thought i could handle engineering with no problem...........they sent me home with my tail tucked between my legs.
The problem that most youngsters entering college dont understand is that its their first REAL JOB. I mean that its the first real job that matters, that you should concentrate on and try to be excellent in. Once i went home and slaved on the farm with the rest of the minimum wage workers with bleak outlooks for future advancement...........well if figured it out and went back to MSU to dive into my new real job again.
Engineering students dont play hacky sack or throw frisbees (do they still make those)on the drill field, they work by studying and grinding for 18 hrs a day until the finish line is crossed. Tell your son that Calc I-IV,Differential Equations,Physics I-III,Chem I-II.................that the easy math. It gets serious after that.
Let him go where he is comfortable with his surroundings, he will be able to concentrate on school with less stress.
Looking back now, it was probably one of the funnest jobs i have had. If i had started out correctly, it would have been the easiest job also. There arent many college majors that have almost 100% job placement.
Good luck to him.

Great post! Graduated from State in Civil as well a few years ago. I was by no means an A+ student and had a hard time getting through it but eventually did. Had somebody tell me before I started the program to just stick with it and be persistent. You can't just walk through high school (and possibly JUCO) and think you're going to do the same in any of the engineering fields up there. He will have to study like he's never done before. He may not be as busy his first 1 or 2 semesters but it will come. As stated above, it may be best he did this at MGCCC if he did not like Starkville that much. On the flip side, he will be able to meet other students at State that he will learn to depend on and work with. By the end of my time at State I felt like I had a group of brothers and sisters because we spent so much time together. Another upside to going through the program at State will be his exposure to the different Mechanical or Electrical Engineering organizations. Not sure if they will do this as much at MGCCC. I can tell you this much...he will look back on his degree and forever appreciate it if he chooses to go that route. I questioned my choice of career path many early mornings as I stayed up writing lab reports but I am very glad that I chose engineering and stuck with it.

[stang67]

Everybody needs to leave home for a while.

[Rowdy53103]

I graduated mechanical engineering back in '05. I would recommend doing the first two years at a CC and then going to Starkville. I went to Hinds my first two years and it worked out well.

He will likely be missing out on too many opportunities staying at MGCCC. Study groups are invaluable; find a good core group of fellow students and stick with them. The selection will be better in Starkville making it easier to weed out the DAs or dead weights. The professors are available for questions 5 days a week, just a quick walk or a couple flights of stairs from whereever he is studying. Profs will likely travel to MGCCC just for class days or the classes will be online. Good luck getting clear answers to homework questions through email or on the phone. Mechanical engineering has a broad range of industries and career opportunities available. Student organizations like ASME and SAE will introduce him to those opportunities. There will be career fairs on campus. MGCCC will not have near the industry participation at its career fair as on the Starkville campus. I doubt the same labs will be available outside of Starkville. The same classes will probably not be offered at both locations, especially the electives from which he will have to choose.

As others have said, he will not have time for anything else if he plans on doing well. Speaking of frisbees, I can recall many a nights studying in the basement of Carpenter and hearing a thud on the window....only to look up and see if was a stray frisbee from a group of business majors on the drill field...

My advice would be to treat it like an 8-5 job and study on campus. If a homework question comes up, he will be just a quick walk from the prof with the answer. Of course, the rest of the night is then spent correcting aforementioned homework.

Nobody skates through engineering school. Unless you are KB7722, that guy rode the gravy train through Starkville on biscuit wheels...

[stang67]

Rowdy brings up a HUGE point -- how are career fairs, campus interviews, interfaces with hiring companies thru club meetings, etc., handled at MGCC? I finished, twice, in ChemE and there weren't many weeks that a company wasn't sending recruiters and sponsoring events. On campus interviews and career fairs are how I got internships and my first job.

I have worked with good and bad engineers from schools all over the country (and world), from SWAC to Ivy League. I've become very convicted in the belief that the school doesn't really dictate how good or productive somebody will be. What a good school DOES DO better than a lesser one is provide ample contact with industry. MSU engineering excels at this. In other words, the MSU diploma will be nice, but less so if he is not in a location to take advantage of the connections they make for their juniors and seniors on campus.

With that said, yeah, for some reason folks from the coast stuck out like a sore thumb in Starkville. Never could quite put my finger on it. Not in a bad way, just a random observation.

[jkmjr]

Lots of very good info. The comments about the networking, study groups, co-ops, and employers on campus seems to be a game changer. I really appreciate the comments.

[SME]

Hi all,

All very good points!

I am Student Life Coordinator at the MGCCC Jackson County Campus, where they are phasing in the Engineering agreement with Mississippi State.

I can tell you both institutions are being very careful to ensure that the rigor expected in engineering will be in place for both of these degrees. State is actually going through the accreditation review process for one of the involved programs right now (I don't remember which), and they are being very particular to make sure all expected standards are upheld. The quality of pre-req classes at MGCCC are of the highest standards as well. MGCCC does plan to provide transportation to Career Fairs, etc. that are held in Starkville and can't be replicated here.

PM me if you need contact information for the counselor here at MGCCC who is working with interested students.

Sonya

[jacksbuddy]

I don't know if this is any help or not but my son is a freshman at State and majoring in engineering, he's been too busy trying to keep up (at least that's what he's telling us) to worry about where he is, calculus and chemistry are kicking his butt, when I was in school (at State) one of my best friends and roommate majored in electrical, same story, he was so busy just trying to keep up that it wouldn't have mattered where he was, can't tell you the number of times I came back to the apt. on a weekend night at 2-3 in the morning and he'd still be up studying, guess that's why he's 52 years old and not too far from retirement, he works a 4 day, 40 hour week for the government and has done very well

This strikes home for me. I graduated from State in Business and can relate to everything else stated here. I was good at all kinds of math in High School and never had to crack a book. college was a different story. When the Engineering professors at State tell the students to look at the person on their right and the person on their left, they are dead serious that two of the three will not be engineers. (Yep, I was one that didn't make it.) They work the students to death during the first two years on studying to weed out the ones who don't really want it. If your son really wants to be an engineer, he will have to step up and prove it early by working his butt off. Which is good training for the later courses. All Junior and Senior level courses (regardless of major) will require a serious work ethic that the Engineering program drives into their freshman students.

So don't let the town be a determinant for your son. Look at the requirements and the work ethic of your son decide where to take the classes. Good luck to him. when he gets used to the rigors, it gets easier to do the work.

Spoken from experience.

[jkmjr]

^^^^^ Great post! Thank you.