Colleges for Roller Coaster designing?

I heard Texas A&M is good, but is there another good college for designing roller coasters?

I would maybe guess a college in California or Ohio.

I saw a coaster show with college students from a Ohio college riding Gemini.

On TLC channel last September, I saw a professor from a SoCal school with he students riding Top Gun at PGA.

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"Duff Man Says... Ohhhhh Yaaaaa!"
Current Favorite Coasters:
1)Raging Bull 2)Millennium Force 3)Medusa (SFMW) 4)Vertical Velocity (SFGAm) 5)Dueling Dragons (Ice)

Beware, just because California and Ohio have a lot of coasters, doesn't mean it's a good state for collages that give courses that have to do with the correct field of engineering for coasters. There are many fields needed in the design of a coaster, I don't know what they are, but I'd imagine that one major one would be structural, another not-so-major, but needed would be electrical. Beware though, coasters in a state does NOT make the state a better choice for choosing which collage to go to as Stealth appears to be sugesting.

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Hey, SFGAm management, can I buy a couple cages of Sky Whirl?

*** This post was edited by TrBiggar on 8/21/2001. ***

i would go with a college that is good in enginering, or somthing along those lines. Acctually this would be a good question to ask Arrow Dynamics.

Any that is good in the fields of physics or engineering. I dont know if there is any completly dedicated to roller coaster designing though.
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-Ryan
AIM: illeminemepill

I believe Ron Toomer went to Purdue (Aerospace), for what it's worth.

Do you always have to put down my replies TrBiggar?

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"Duff Man Says... Ohhhhh Yaaaaa!"
Current Favorite Coasters:
1)Raging Bull 2)Millennium Force 3)Medusa (SFMW) 4)Vertical Velocity (SFGAm) 5)Dueling Dragons (Ice)

And we all see how good Ron Toomer did in designing coasters... :) Multiple coaster designers and said that Structual and Mechanical Engineering are the ones that deal closely to roller coaster design.
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.:| Brandon Rodriguez |:.
http://www.coasters2k.com

StealthmF5m3 said:
Do you always have to put down my replies TrBiggar?

His reply wasn't necessarily a putdown, just pointing out that good schools for the disciplines needed for coaster design, weren't necessarily going to be right by roller coasters.

Now, as it turns out, California DOES have some good schools as well as good coasters.

There are a LOT of appropriate sciences involved in coaster design, depending on what part of the process you want to be involved in. Structural and mechanical engineering; materials science; electrical and computer engineering; even computer science...

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--Greg
My page My other page And my coaster page

Almost any state can offer you a college that will provide you with a degree in mechanical or civil engineering, which are the disciplines most likely for a future roller coaster designer. No where is going to provide you with any courses specifically directed to design of coasters, though some professor might use a roller coaster example or two. For coaster specific information you need to get a job in the field and then learn on the job. This is the case in alsmot any sort of engineering. You learn basic principles in school, and then you learn the specifics on the job.

I know one college student who is planning on going into coaster design and doing it well. He is majoring in mechanical engineering. He has spent 2 years as an opertor at a park including one year when he was able to work with the engineers on the start up of a major coaster. This summer he has advanced to the maintenance department and is the evening shift mechanic for a coaster and several flat rides.