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FAQs About
Engineering and Engineering Technology
What is Engineering Technology and how is it different from Engineering?
Academically, how different is Engineering Technology from Engineering?
What is Engineering Technology and how is it different from Engineering?
Perhaps the best way to answer this question is
to look at what graduates of these distinctly different academic programs
typically do working on an engineering project in the real world. A
standard engineering project involves the design and subsequent
production/construction of something (a product, system, building, etc.) to
meet a specified need – for example, an incinerator to destroy toxic waste
generated at a factory during a manufacturing process. Engineering graduates
– “Engineers” – would principally work on the design of the incinerator,
while Engineering Technology graduates – “Engineering
Technologists/Technicians” – would principally work on construction-related
project issues (for example, working with craftsmen on the fabrication of
the incinerator’s smokestack or installation of electronic controls, etc.).
Engineering Technology graduates would also typically oversee or conduct a
multitude of test and measurements to verify that the incinerator is being
properly constructed based on the Engineer’s design. Finally, once built,
Engineering Technology graduates would typically be closely involved in both
operating and maintaining the incinerator and associated control systems.
Thus, while an Engineer’s work often focuses
on producing a set of design plans (engineering drawings and specifications,
etc.), Engineering Technology graduates focus on helping to bring those
plans to life. As such, Engineering Technology involves more practical,
hands-on work efforts and activities compared to Engineering.
Academically, how different is Engineering Technology from Engineering?
Quite different, a fact that is critically
important for students to understand upfront, particularly from the
standpoint that, due to its more applied nature, it is often difficult to
transfer credits earned in an Engineering Technology program to an
Engineering program. Thus, students should make a careful, conscious choice
regarding which academic path they seek to pursue.
A key factor that may come into play in making
this choice is the fact that Engineering is relatively much more
academically challenging than Engineering Technology. As a result, the
entrance requirements are relatively much higher for students seeking to
enter an Engineering program, while once enrolled, the required coursework
in Engineering – particularly the required math and science courses
encountered during the first two years – is quite challenging (Note: While
we do not mean to discourage you from pursing Engineering studies, we do
want to let you know upfront of the academic challenges involved in such a
pursuit.)
Additionally, it should be noted that while the
basic “entry-level” (first) degree offered in Engineering Technology is the
two-year Associate’s degree, for Engineering, the entry-level degree is the
four-year Bachelor’s degree.
Finally, because of the more applied, hands-on
nature of Engineering Technology, ET students' coursework typically consists
of a “50% / 50% mix” of classroom lecture and hands-on laboratory
experience. In contrast, Engineering students spend by far the bulk of their
time taking lecture-based courses, aimed at giving them a thorough
understanding of the math and scientific principles and theory necessary for
performing engineering design work.
The two basic degrees offered in ET are an:
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Associate’s (two-year) degree, with graduates considered to be
“Engineering Technicians.”
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Bachelor’s (four-year) degree, with graduates considered to be
“Engineering Technologists.”
(As might be expected, Engineering Technologists
generally earn more money and have both greater and wider job
responsibilities than Engineering Technicians, due to their having completed
more academic coursework.)
There are about as many schools offering
Associate’s degrees in a particular ET discipline as there are schools
offering Bachelor’s degrees in that same ET discipline. However, relatively
few schools offer both an Associate’s and a Bachelor’s degree in the same ET
discipline. Thus, students should carefully consider which degree program
they wish to pursue. In particular, if you plan to begin with a two-year
Associate's degree in ET, and then continue on for a Bachelor's degree in ET
at another school, you should carefully check on the ability to transfer
credits from one school to another.
Like Engineering, Engineering Technology is a
wide-ranging field of study with students typically majoring in a specific
discipline. For the most part, similar academic disciplines are found in
both Engineering and Engineering Technology. And like Engineering, the three
most popular academic disciplines are:
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Civil Engineering Technology
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Mechanical Engineering Technology
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Electrical/Electronics Engineering Technology
Beyond the “Big 3,” the next most popular
academic disciplines in ET are:
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Architectural Engineering Technology
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Computer Engineering Technology
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Construction Engineering Technology
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Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering Technology
Finally, a host of other, more specialized
academic disciplines in ET – such as Environmental ET and Telecommunications
ET - can be found at select schools. See our
School Listings Page for further
details.
A “Pre-Engineering” program is a two-year
program in engineering – typically offered at a community college – at the
end of which students transfer to a four-year college to complete
upper-level engineering coursework and earn a Bachelor’s degree in
Engineering from that second college. Depending on the specific school
involved, students may be able to earn an Associate’s degree in Engineering
from the first institution; however, the clear intent of pre-engineering
programs is for students to continue on and earn a Bachelor’s degree in
Engineering (in this regard, please note that the Bachelor’s degree is
considered the basic entry-level academic requirement for employment as an
“engineer”). To ease the transfer process, such pre-engineering programs
typically have a written agreement in place with at least one local
four-year college
offering Bachelor’s degrees in Engineering to ensure that program graduates
can easily transfer to that college without losing academic credits.
The answer is state-specific. The typical
conventional set of qualifications required to take the necessary PE exam is
a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, along with four years of professional
experience under a PE. If you majored instead in Engineering Technology,
some states will allow you to sit for the exam once you have sufficient
professional experience under a PE (typically longer than the four years
often required of Engineering degree-holders), while others states will not
allow you to sit for the exam at all, no matter how much professional
experience you may gain. (NOTE: As a practical matter, it should be
noted that only a fraction of all practicing engineers pursue becoming a PE,
as it is not a mandated requirement to be a PE to practice engineering in many
settings, particularly when working within industry, as most engineers do).
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