college plans

Roller coasters are my life and I plan to become a mechanical enigneer and design roller coasters in the future. Just wondering, does anybody have any advice for any good colleges for this or any tips at all. Thanks a bunch!

Harvard! J/K, I don't no where, but there are probably a ton of good places.

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I live in Miami Beach. It's not so much fun when you live here! Get me out! Lack of coasters, lack of cold, lack of elevation, lack of intellect, lack of English.

I dont know but i hope Kent State has a good program cause thats whre I'll end up going, lol.

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Top 5:
5) S:ros Sfdl 4) Raptor 3) Apollos Chariot 2) Magnum 1) Millennium Force

DREXEL BABY!!!!!!

mech engineering all the way!!!!

mike

-will be attending drexel university for mecheng this fall on almot a full ride (cause im so damned smart and charming :) )

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Kent doesn't offer engineering degrees - just engineering technology. You could go to Kent for your first year or two and get your math, science, and electives out of the way, but you will have to transfer somewhere else (Ohio State) to get an actual engineering degree.

A friend of mine is attending OSU in that very major.

I'm at Pitt doing a Structural Engineering major with the intention of going into coaster design. There are a few schools around that have specific "roller coaster design" degrees, but you're going to have to look long and hard for them, cause they're not very well advertised and I can't for the life of me remember where I saw it

I heard Purdue is pretty good. If it is that is my #1 choice but I wouldnt mind a school that will get me further....

Actually, the college that you attend doesn't NEARLY affect your ability to land a job as much as what "other" things you do while in school. I *strenously* suggest that you either co-op or do lots of summer internships. Try to get on with Disney or a transportation company (Amtrak?). That would greatly improve your chances.

That being said here are some "Top Ten" engineering schools.
Massachuettes (sp) Institute of Technology (bka MIT)
California Institute of Technology (aka Cal Tech)
Georgia Institute of Technology (aka Georgia Tech)
Stanford University
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Illinois- Urbana-Champaign (*my* alma mater)

There are others (I suggest serching the US News and World Report site) but I know these are annually ranked highly.
lata,
jeremy

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Besides, if we were really shutting down people we disagreed with, would Jeremy (2Hostyl) still be around? :) I think not. - Jeff 1/24/02

I highly reccommend internships over co-op. That's what I'm doing right now (with a transportation company) and I know I'm learning a lot more and have a lot more responsibility than any of my friends that are co-op

What if you arent good at math? What could ya do?

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If you aren't good at math, then don't try to be an engineer. Engineering is all math skills.

For good college reviews try princeton review, they're good.

Remember folks, these Top Ten Engineering colleges are amongst the best colleges in the nation and are invredibly hard to get into, I mean, some of them turn down perfect SAT scores. That's not saying that it was a good student that got them, but that's just for you to get a view on things.

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Why ride rough coasters when you can ride smooth ones?

There isn't any gentle way to state this : If you aren't good at math, you're out of the game. It's like, I was a really good football player, but I wasn't big enough, so I wasn't able to play Division I or NFL. That's life. However, the good news is, math is an acquired skill. Some people may have a gift for it, but you don't need a gift for it to be good enough to become an engineer. You need to get to work. I struggled with math until I reached the point where I needed it, and then I just busted my butt and learned how to do it. If you really really want to get into ride design, this means you really really need to be an engineer, so you really really need to become good at math, so get busy. Take every math course your school offers, hire a tutor, and work three hours a night at it for the next two years. Over learn it. Declare war on it. Master it. Engineering is competitive. So compete.

Another thought on this topic. All you guys out there hoping to get into ride design ought to start pondering this : We may be the last generation to be riding wheeled coasters. The next breakthrough in coasters may be magnetic levitation. So take the courses and develop the background needed to design maglev coasters or other kinds of rides.

Does it help that I work for a little company called Maglev Inc.? ;)

PD: That's a terrible excuse to not pick co-ops. I co-oped and I supervised the capability testing of an entirely new assembly line. One can get a ton of responsibility and experience in botu interships and co-ops. It just depends on the company. (Your friends just must have poor co-ops). I would daresay that a co-op is likely to get *more* responsibility, simply because a co-op is committed to the company for more than just 3 months.

CFK: While it is best to have good SAT/ ACT scores, that's not all that is required. Furthermore, most of the so-called top engineering schools have people there with "moderate" test scores. While MIT and Cal Tech might be extradordinarily hard to get into, the state schools are usually 'easier' in theat respect. Thing is, every brainy kid across the nation applies to MIT because it *IS* the top "geek school", but a kid from Georgia is not likely to apply to Purdue as both are about the same and GT is hella less expensive than Purdue (in state tuition compared to out of state tuition. MIT is private so price is the same no matter where you live).

But CFK is right about one thing, if you dont like/ aren't good at math, leave engineering alone. You will be frustrated and miserable (actually, even if you *like* math, you'll still get frustrated and miserable sometimes ;)). To get my undergrad degree (Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering) I had to take no less than SIX math courses. And all the other *core* courses built on those maths. Not saying that it cant be done, but be perpared to work.

College aint like high school!
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Besides, if we were really shutting down people we disagreed with, would Jeremy (2Hostyl) still be around? :) I think not. - Jeff 1/24/02

what ever college i went to it would have to be near a big coaster park

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I just want to ride as many coasters as posible

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2Hostyl said:

College aint like high school!

Exactly - college has all those half naked girls and parties... oh, wait - that's those Girls Gone Wild tapes :)

Anyways... just be sure you actually like math and science enough to make a career out of it - don't go into engineering *just* to design coasters... because odds are you won't be (at least not right out of school, and maybe never). 4 years of school (or 5, or 6, or 7...) an 40 years of work is a long time to spend in a job you are not happy with...

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Hopefully you have plans about how you are going to get the coasters you designed built. If you want a good school, then take structual engineering at Stanford. Hey, it is also near PGA, SFMW and a 5 hour drive from SFMM!

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My boyfriend is getting his bach. in mechanical engeneering (I'm pretty sure....) at Kent State. Believe me it is ALLLLL math... I could never do it!

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*** This post was edited by NoLimitChic on 6/19/2002. ***

Wow, thanks. I heard from somebody that being a ride op for a year or two might help my chances of getting a job with a major roller coaster company. Is that true. I plan on being a ride op anyways but I'm just wondering.