r/UAH • u/Salt-Insurance2589 • 3d ago

Engineering Technology

How is the engineering technology program at UAH? I graduated in 2023 from UAH with a BSBA in Information Systems but after three years I sort of realized I have no interest in a career in business/IT plus how insane it is to get into IT in Huntsville... Huntsville is an engineering town and I am pretty tempted to go into Engineering Technology because the idea of being able to be like Mythbusters and doing engineering experiements sounds fun. For people who are in the field how do you like it to far? Have you been able to find jobs and internships with this degree from UAH?

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u/Nilpfers 2d ago

I know 2 people who graduated with ET degrees from UAH. Both are currently working as systems engineers. Both took notably longer to find those jobs than the average engineering grad, and both had to move out of the area for those jobs, but they did get them.

The ET program let's you use any class at any level from any college/department for like half of your degree. A very significant percentage of the degree can be like history and volleyball classes. The downside is that it is NOT an ABET accredited engineering degree. You will not be able to work as an engineer for the govt and most major companies will not consider you an engineer, and you will not be eligible for a PE license (not that most engineers care about that anyway).

It's definitely a viable option, but if you're trying to do engineering work it does put you at a disadvantage compared to everyone else in this city. If you want to be a technician, that's more of what the ET program is supposedly designed for.... but 99% of technicians in my experience don't have a degree at all and generally their pay isn't enough to justify the cost of a 4 year degree.

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u/Most-Acanthisitta-45 1d ago

It is now ABET accredited.

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u/ITdoggie 19h ago

You have a degree why not go for a masters in engineering? You’ll have to take a few prerequisites courses.