college question - CoasterBuzz

I was just wondering, what University or college is the best for engineering, to be successful in the rollercoaster industry. And what are the rollercoaster companies looking for on a resume?

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Titan da' mac daddy of dem all!

I'm sure if you had an engineering degree from MIT and have lots of experience designing rides, you'd have no problem. Good luck!

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WOOD: It does a body good.

Caltech, Cooper, Columbia (somewhat). There are a lot of good colleges, especially in my area (NYC). Good luck.

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How many rides must a man go on, before you may call him a fan?

KRAZYKOASTERFAN said:
. And what are the rollercoaster companies looking for on a resume?
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Titan da' mac daddy of dem all!

Experience sonny. I applied to Premier and they were like...why don't you contact us in 5 years.

Check out various ride design websites for biographies on their designers. The Gravity Group in particular demonstrates that you don't have to go to a big name engineering school to make it. I agree with the experience factor. That will be your main selling point when trying to get a job. Just be ready to work your butt off in engineering. It's one of the hardest college majors out there. I'll be diving into that in about 9 months!

Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh has a phenomenal engineering department (usually competes with MIT for the #1 rank), yet somehow I ended up studying english. I don't think that's going to get me any coaster designer jobs.

And it's near Kennywood!

It's not the name that's important. It is the experience that is what they'll look for. You can have all the education in the world, but until you work on coasters, you probably don't know anything about them.

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

You shouldn't go into engineering to design coasters. There is a lot of math involed, and no room for mistakes.

I'm looking into engineering also, and looking into electrical or mechnical but remain undecided.

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Last 2002 public ride on MF's front row

SteelMonsters said:

You shouldn't go into engineering to design coasters. There is a lot of math involed, and no room for mistakes.

That doesn't make too much sense. If you want to design coasters, there's really only one choice, and that's engineering, regardless of how much you don't like math or what little room for error there is.

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You must be this dumb to ride Viper. -SFGAdv.

If you decide to take that route, make sure there are other engineering jobs that interest you. The coaster business is limited, and it would be a shame to go through college basing your future on designing coasters only to end up with a job you hate.

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Jonathan Hawkins
Starcoasters.com
"There is a cluster of bees at the top of the lift. Sorry for the inconvenience."

Unless you want to build a ride like Ron Toomer ;)

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Corey
"Have you ever tried backing out of a drive-through bank?" - George Carlin

hmmm...

engineering = lots of math, no room for mistakes
coaster design = lots of math, no room for mistakes

Seems like a good fit to me. As fun as I think it could be to design coasters, I don't think they're going to like my methods: put a big hill here, a slightly smaller one there; if it doesn't make it over the hill, I'll just shorten it. It works in RCT!

I'll be going in as an undeclared Engineering Major. Once I get a feel for the program, I will decide between Mechanical or Computer. If I select Mechanical, I will probably proceed to Aerospace but my love of coasters has prevented me from ruling out the possibility of going down that path. Time will tell...

I'm going into this field also.

I've accepted the fact that I will have to work my way up to get the job I want. I'm going to attend University at Buffalo next fall. Their engineering program is incredible and they have so many fields.

Go into Civil. It seems as though that will get you the farthest.

Good Luck! Hey, maybe we'll work together some day!

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Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana

Mechanical and electrical engineering (as said above) are two good areas to hone your skills in. If you can't get a job designing them, maybe you can get a job working for Consign or Allen-Bradley writing programs and designing controllers for amuesment rides (among other things).

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

I say don't worry about the college that much. Look for other things like their co-op program, and what degrees are offered. I think mechanical gives you the most options personally. Of course you can decide based on exactly what you want to do, but I know people who design/work at coaster companies that are mechanicals.

I'm a mechanical engineering senior at the University of Louisville, its not MIT, but its a fine school I think. Engineering is engineering, I think experience is what makes the difference though.

I am starting out at a local community college for computer engineering. GO OWENS! If I need more education, I am planning on going to the University of Toledo which has an pretty good enginering department. I know a few years ago roller coaster enginering was a class there, I'm not sure about now.

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AkA somewhatchewy
"Some guy walked up to me on the street and asked what is punk. So I kicked over a trash can and said, thats punk. He kocked over a trash can and said, so that's punk? I said no, that's trendy." Billy Joe Armstrong, Green Day

rentzy387 said:
I'm going to attend University at Buffalo next fall.

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HEEEYY!!!! My alma mater! You will have fun at UB.. The Engineering program is excellent, Campus life is vibrant, the professors (When I left 2 years ago) are good. Lemme know if you need any helpful hints :)

SteelMonsters said:

You shouldn't go into engineering to design coasters.

A lot of you guys misread the intent of this statement, and he is 100% right.

Don't go into engineering just because you want to design coasters, because odds are, you won't ever get the job, and you'll end up designing water filtration sytems or some other mundane as hell subject. It would be like going into the Air Force just so you can be an astronaut, but not knowing whether you like flying planes or not. There isn't anything wrong with going into engineering but just know what you are getting into.

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If the shoe fits, find another one.