Best Colleges for Skiing?

It is a four year degree. Although, it is not an accredited engineering degree. Because it is multidisiplinary, it does not give students the opportunity to really become a master in one particular area, rather they have a broad knowledge of different disciplines. It is a 2+2 program, and many students pick a discipline, and transfer to a full on engineering program after two years. I am undecided at this point, and I am still a freshman.

This degree is highly sought after in the manufacturing industry of all types. The medical device is one that comes up a lot in the classroom in fact.

Here's a very recent article in the New and innovative program. It's short, you should read it.
http://readme.readmedia.com/Congressman-Paul-Tonko-Explores-SUNY-Delhi-Mechatronics/12774216

Ethan Snow wrote

I'm hoping with my background in Mechatronics, which is a multidisciplinary field of mechanics, and electronics, that I can work with a lift company. I will have experience in everything from CADD to Statics to programming PlCs

What we will see over the next 10 years is an explosive growth in the need for people with deep embedded circuit and software design. What I see based on where the technology is going is like the early days of the microprocessor, if you could spell 8080 you could get a good job, today it is multicore micro controllers and SOCs. When you can get a full up Linux OS running on a $40 Beaglebone the Internet of things will be a reality, but who will program it? These new systems take a heck of a lot more expertise than your Daddy's PC ever did. That's where the jobs will be. With the nation wide rise in Makerspaces where anybody can build anything and incubate just about any idea, with kickstarter raising funds for just about any idea - we are on the cusp of a revolution like nothing else. Startups are everywhere right now, most are crap though. The telecom boom of the 80's & 90's will pale in comparison. The only question in my mind is how "open source" everything will effect it. I have some theories on that but that is way off topic. Those people who are multidisciplinary will always succeed. Those who are deep in one field don't last long, just ask an old cobol programmer, he's probably driving a cab.

Z, apparently you did not read the articles I posted. If you want to get an MBA and sit in a cube at Apple or Google and get worked like a dog and then spit out have at it, I would only wish that on an unimaginative gloid.

So this would slot into being a mfr engineer.  Medical devices continue to be a sector which is not being off shored as much.

Something to look at is quality engineering which is related but I think is more protected from off shoring becuase even after you ship a production line to China or India you still need quality engineers stateside

Ethan Snow wrote

It is a four year degree. Although, it is not an accredited engineering degree. Because it is multidisiplinary, it does not give students the opportunity to really become a master in one particular area, rather they have a broad knowledge of different disciplines. It is a 2+2 program, and many students pick a discipline, and transfer to a full on engineering program after two years. I am undecided at this point, and I am still a freshman.

This degree is highly sought after in the manufacturing industry of all types. The medical device is one that comes up a lot in the classroom in fact.

Here's a very recent article in the New and innovative program. It's short, you should read it.
http://readme.readmedia.com/Congressman-Paul-Tonko-Explores-SUNY-Delhi-Mechatronics/12774216

If you are planning to work for a major company, this program will be very limiting. Your odds of ever getting off the bench or off the manufacturing floor are not good as you will be competing with a plethora of kids with engineering degrees. Even if you converted this to an engineering degree later in your career you will for ever be behind those who got their engineering degree in the first place. However, if you want to apply this to the ski industry you most likely could. As I said in my earlier post, an engineering degree from a good school combine with  PE license would be the optimal. I have hired a lot of engineers, I never hired anyone with an engineering technology degree, I never had to - there were always good engineering graduates available. We did hire ETs to work in manufacturing or in the labs as tech help for the engineers, but I usually left that up to the leads in those areas. What I have seen in larger companies is that these are the first guys to get RIFed. I would consider this as a 2 year program to transfer into a 4 year BS in engineering. But you better make sure your math and physics are top drawer otherwise you will struggle.  

You are confusing me. In earlier post, you said that "those who are multidisciplinary will allways succeed" and now your saying that this degree will be limiting if you want to work for a large company. Students with this degree go to work for GE, and Siemens all the time. In fact, the guys at Siemens already love me so much they gave me PLCs and HMIs for automating my lift.

This brings me back to the MBA. My math skills have never been extremely high. If I get off the manufacturing floor, I will want to go into management, not necessarily the high tech engineering.

I visited many colleges, and different degree options in Engineering.  I didn't even consider Delhi until I visited it and discovered the program. It's just a good fit for me. If I went full on hard core engineering, I guarantee you my GPA would struggle to maintain 2.5. I'm just not that kind of Guy. The fact that Delhi is,close to Plattekill is just a bonus

Ethan Snow wrote

You are confusing me. In earlier post, you said that "those who are multidisciplinary will allways succeed" and now your saying that this degree will be limiting if you want to work for a large company. Students with this degree go to work for GE, and Siemens all the time. In fact, the guys at Siemens already love me so much they gave me PLCs and HMIs for automating my lift.

This brings me back to the MBA. My math skills have never been extremely high. If I get off the manufacturing floor, I will want to go into management, not necessarily the high tech engineering.

The more skills you have the more options you have. If your math skills are not very good, engineering may not the best choice and you are likely on the right track. You should be able to land a job with the path you are taking and you should be able to get a job in the ski biz, that was not my point. I was looking beyond the initial job. Working for someone else your options will be more limited with a Technology degree rather than an engineering degree.  If you want to create and run your own company, be your own boss and be successful you don't even need a high school diploma.

Companies like Rockwell and Siemens in the automation business give colleges automation equipment because they want to seed the market with potential customers trained on their equipment. It is how they lock their equipment into customers bids, they know those companies can't afford the time or money to train staff so they will buy what ever their technicians are trained on. Manufacturing in this country is facing a labor shortage as their current work force is aging out so this is a way to help increase the odds for future orders. A small PLC with integrated I/O may cost them less than $50 to build and the programming software costs nothing to duplicate so it is a cheap investment and they can write it off.

You mention companies like Siemens and GE, these are two good examples - at Siemens you will find that although they have a big US footprint they are a German company and very nationalistic. You might get a low level management position running a local service center, but much more is a stretch. Highest level management jobs will go to Germans. Only one of the seven Siemens board members is not a German, and she is a US women (a diversity twofer). With GE, it's the same thing - I don't recall ever running into a GE manager without an engineering, mathematics or physics degree except in the finance area. Although GE doesn't seem to care what the nationality of their high level management is.

I did not mean to discourage, but just to give you some insight - you asked for an opinion. If you don't like mine - go elsewhere, opinions are free and internet opinions are worth what you pay for them

Just to prove that a engineering degree pays..My daughter's summer internship is paying her 1k a week...this has warmed my heart..

I would also recommend an engineering degree, having worked as one for over 30 years. While there is nothing wrong with, ET it is much more limiting and some unfairly view it as "soft". You can also take electives in another discipline if you dont want to be too specilized.  My views may well be out of date given my age, bu thats my two cents.

Tom

peetex, I appreciate your insight. I have heard many similar opinions, and ultimately I have to do what's best for me. Even if I am My own boss, and start up my own company, My tech degree will give more skills to do so. The reality is that I'm more likely to go work for a small company if not the ski business.  There are small MFG companies all over NY state.  

I have a friend who has an Electrical engineering technology degree, and he now makes 200k a year working for Siemens in their global marketing department. Every week he is in a different part of the world.

Believe be, I know about those Germans. I practically had to learn another language before I could even start programming my PLC. All the YouTube tutorials are in German.

I pretty much agree with Ptex on the value of a tech degree vs an engineering degree if you want to work for a large company you are going to be bound to the mfr floor.  Maybe that is a good fit for you - I know many people that prefer that.  In that case an MBA does help you get into the management side and it doesn't need to be a big name mba as Ptex suggested if you are working for smaller operating companies.

My MBA is from Seton Hall which I did part time at night while holding a job and getting my employer to pay for the majority of the tuition costs.  

You seem to know your know strengths and weakness and if math is an issue your path makes sense to me.

One route to look at as well is to go into the sales side of automation.  You could work for a company like Siemens where you help customers learn to use their PLC's or one of their distributors.  You start as an application engineer and work your way up to more senior sales or sales management roles.  Your degree would not be an issue in that career.  That is basically the path I took and I like the aspect where I am working with many different customers in different industries that are doing cutting edge work.  I enjoy my job and the pay is good especially for living upstate. The key is to find something you are good at and enjoy doing and to do that you need to know yourself which to me it seems you do.  You are on the right track.

When you graduate if you are interested in that type of career path we are always looking for applications engineers.  In our company many of them have after a few years moved into mfr engineering roles or into sales.

I got into Clarkson!!  

Congrats!

Of COURSE you did , now go and do good things !! , meet new people , expand both your academic and personal horizons and make new friends .

Awesome Sno, congratulations!

Best of luck

Don't try to grow up too fast.  Some day you may understand being a kid is a really good gig.

Congrats sno. You definitely going?

Seems like a great opportunity.

Nothing is set in stone just yet.  I really want to go, but will make the final call once I figure out how much it will cost.  Don't want to run up too much student loan debt.  

My parents told me that having a manageable amount of debt is actually good because if you have a job that pays well, it will be relatively easy to pay it back and you build up your credit score, which helps things down the line.  If I had 30,000 that's paid off over a 10 year period, that's 3,000 a year and basically $255 a month when factoring in interest, quite manageable with the earning potential of an engineering degree.  Being an only child, it's a lot easier for my parents to afford college because they only have to pay for it once.

Clarkson mechanical engineering graduates average 62k salary right out of college and that's only an entry level position with a bachelor's degree.  I'm also considering civil engineering, and engineering and management which is a combination of engineering and business.  If you're a civil engineer, you don't earn as much as a mechanical engineer with a bachelor's degree, but if you stay for your PE, you can earn much more.  

I would like to get internships every summer, and it isn't unheard of that Clarkson School students get one after that year.  Those pay 12-25 dollars an hour, which the low number is quite a bit better than what my current summer job pays.

Congrats poco loco!