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Tulane University to Reduce Engineering School
baldbobbo writes "According to University President Scott Cowen of Tulane University, the School of Engineering will be greatly reduced. I have to wonder, as a student who can graduate in May 2007 (the deadline for those students to still receive a degree in any of the cut majors) with a Computer Science degree, but wants to stay an extra year, should I transfer to another university, graduate on time, or switch majors?"
~100 faculty laid off from the Medical School downtown. ~50 faculty laid off from the main uptown campus, nearly all from Engineering. Cut programs: Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Computer, and Computer Science. Remaining: Biomedical (which was, in fact, our strongest), and Chemical.
Also, previously there were the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the School of Engineering. Now it's going to the the School of Liberal Arts, and the School of Science and Engineering.
Leaves me wondering where exactly I stand, having a recent degree in a program that no longer exists. I'm more worried about the kids who were planning to go back next semester in one of these programs, and only find out today that it doesn't exist!
Actually, Tulane is cutting a ton of programs because of the hurricane and the fact that they spent nearly all of their reserves repairing to be able to open next year.
A couple of things.
First of all, once you've had your first job, no one really gives a crap where you went to school. They care about what quality of work you did at your last job. They care that you *did* go to school. That's about it.
Second... someone talked about the 'reputation' of your school. No one cares. Tulane is a name-recognition school, and in most parts of the country no one will even know that it no longer has a CS program. They'll either recognize the school name or not. Did you know that UC Irvine has a great CS program? Or DeAnza College? I thought not. No one knows (or really cares mostly).
What you should be worried about is what kind of education you're going to get in the next two years... because that's what's going to determine how you do at those first few jobs.
Talk to your faculty advisors. Talk to the faculty. Find out which of them are staying and which of them are going to jump ship. It's reasonably likely that all the good CS staff will jump ship, since there's no longer going to be a career path at the school for them. No department = no research = no publishing = no career. That's what you should worry about -- losing all the good teachers.
If the teachers are going, you should go. If they're sticking around until you're gonna graduate, stick around with them (assuming you like the place and the program).
This seems like the same thing they pulled with the footbal program earlier this year. A lot of people think they are faking it. Scott Cowen has proven to be one of the most underhanded manipulative college presidents in history. I half think that he did this just so he could hold a press conference and claim that it was a historic restructuring of an american university. He actually said 'this is a move that will forever affect Tulane University for the next ten to twenty years' Another thing is that he is pushing his student community model, he's tried this before but it was rejected by the students. Right now, its just him and the board.. which eats out of his hand. I wish that the kids from yahoo and netscape would ante up some money to buy cowen out of Tulane.
Perhaps you have you are not famaliar with the credit hours standard which is common amongst United States colleges and universities. The GP is talking about 30 additional credit hours, not clock hours. A typical courseload is 15 credit hours per semester, 30 hours is usually a full year. Thus, one year plus 30 credit hours adds up to a full 2-year program. 2-year masters programs are fairly common in the United States.
-Turkey
I really appreciate the feedback...very nice to hear from active engineerings (thus the reason for posting in the first place). I've tried contacting my advisor, but he's a little busy finding a job, so please cut down on knocking on the mod's. They understand at least. Second, you have to understand that New Orleans has been my home my whole life. The most time I've spent away from it was the time here at Mizzou (and I was forced here because of my parents, not because of its "outstanding" CS program) and Field Training for Air Force ROTC (which just happened to end about 4 days prior to Katrina's wrath upon my house that I stayed in during the storm). The last time I've spent a full week in the city was before July 24th. I was put through the equivalent of officer's boot camp then a hurricane, then spending thanksgiving and over 3 months away from my main computer (I've been using my OLD laptop with Debian since), most of my clothes (been wearing donated rags), my family, and all of my friends (I didn't know anyone in Missouri). Again, thanks for the feedback. It will really help in making a decision about my future. I really want to stay home, but if it means having to make up so much work (especially since I've accumulated a lot of hours in CS, and very little humanities or anything else), I'll have to do a few 20hr semesters just to catch up to a sophomore, much less a junior. (For those who asked, my minor is history...I was going to try to make it a second major, thus the extra year). For the third time, thanks.
-Bob
Disclaimer: I have a BSc. EE
In my experience, the engineering degree puts you above people with CS in the interview process early in your career. The core bits are crossed over, such as algorithms and discrete math. It is likely an engineering grad, especially an EE, will have taken more advanced mathematics courses than a CS grad - or at least, the default path through is much more math intensive.
Maybe I am wrong, but that is my experience. Exceptional people always stand out no matter what their majors, but you need to get to the point where you have that opportunity.
Another key point: It is very easy for a EE with a strong C++ or SQL background to apply for a develoepr job on high level systems. (Communications programming, DBA). It is very difficult for a CS person to apply for hardware engineering, firmware engineering, or control system positions.
..don't panic
As someone who has switched schools, I can tell you the parent is completely correct. Plus in addition to all the lost credits you'll have (or should I say won't have), there's the problem with not having pre-req's for some classes and planing your schedule becomes a serious pain. Plus you have to be able to come up with every sylabus from nearly every class you've taken so the school you're going to can evaluate the course to see if they even will consider it equivalent to one of their courses. Plus it's not fun leaving friends behind to start fresh.
All in all it's a rather traumatizing experience, but if you really want to switch you have go through it.
I can imagine that the stress that precipitated it was extraordinary.
Are you referring to hurricane Katrina?! If you think this is based on market forces and faulty prognostication you're nuts. They are fighting for survival. This link says that 86% of students will be back when the school reopens next January, which is more than they could have hoped for. Naturally they've suffered damage to facilities, lost students and faculty, and can expect lower enrollment for years to come.
Do you really think they used "activity based planning" instead of damage control mode to decide they had to close five undergraduate programs?
Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. -Groucho Marx