What is First Year Engineering (FYE) Really?

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At Purdue University, the College of Engineering has what we call First Year Engineering (FYE). This is something that isn’t as commonly seen at other universities, and we often get many questions about how First Year Engineering works, and why it works so well. This blog will hopefully answer many of your questions about FYE.

First Year Engineering means that you do not decide what Engineering discipline you will pursue until after you have completed FYE. The benefit of this is it allows you time to truly understand what engineering has to offer before having to worry about specific classes and a career path. Within this first year you will be in classes with engineers planning on pursuing all different disciplines, and you will be taking classes that work on the fundamentals of engineering problem solving.

There are multiple pathway within FYE, all of which take different classes, but all count towards the FYE requirements. The five pathways are the Main, EPICS, VIP, Goss Scholars, and One Semester.

ENGR 131 & 132 - "Main":

I put main in quotes because there is no one pathway that is better than another, they all have different things to offer, and the one that is best for you is dependent on what you would like to get out of the experience. This “Main” pathway is most commonly taken and you will take two main classes, ENGR 131 & 132. You will take ENGR 131 in your first semester, and 132 in your second semester. These classes are very focused on working in teams, so you will be in a team for the entire semester, completing various milestones towards a final product project. Within these classes you will also learn more skills in Excel and MATLAB, which is a programming platform.

ENGR 133 with EPICS or VIP:

EPICS stands for Engineering Projects in Community Service, which is a service-learning design program in which teams partner with community organizations and work on a project with them. VIP stands for Vertically Integrated Projects and focuses on research and design projects within interdisciplinary and vertically integrated teams, which are comprised of first year students through seniors. Whether you choose EPICS or VIP it will be a hands-on project based pathway and will be accompanied by ENGR 133. This class combines the content from ENGR 131 and 132 into one semester to allow more time in the second semester to work on these hands-on projects.

ENGR 161 & 162 – Goss Scholars:

There are two ways to participate in this First Year Engineering pathway. The first way is through being a student within the honors college. This is an additional portion to your application and must be indicated on your initial application. Decisions for admittance to the honors college are typically announced by the end of February. Admittance to the honors college includes many other things besides ENGR 161 & 162, and to learn more information about that click here. Another way to participate in honors engineering is applying to be a Goss Scholar after accepting your admission offer. Honors college admits are automatically considered Goss Scholars, and do not have to apply for it again. ENGR 161 & 162 are focused more heavily on robotics and computer coding using both MATLAB and Python. Within this pathway you will also earn the credits for your physics mechanics requirement without needing to take an extra class.

No matter which FYE pathway you decide is best for you they all lead you to the same outcome of completing FYE and moving on into your selected discipline. One main thing that all the pathways offer to students is a way to learn more about what engineering is, all the different career paths that can be achieved with an engineering degree, and what disciplines could get you to that career path. There are events called EYM, Engineering your Major, that expose students to the different disciplines, some of which are disciplines that students may have never heard of before. Often, high school will give you an idea of what engineering is, and where you want to go with an engineering degree, but many students don’t fully understand the options and flexibility that can be found within engineering. That’s why I think the First Year Engineering program is so important. I personally was someone who believed I knew exactly what I wanted to do within engineering and ended up changing my mind after learning more about the other disciplines. I also know many other students who have also changed from what they came to Purdue intending to do.

One last thing that I hear a lot is coming from students who say they know what they want to do, and don’t need to take the time in FYE. First Year Engineering isn’t just great to determine what discipline you want to go into. Again, it helps teach problem solving skills, how to work in teams, and allows you to meet other students that you likely wouldn’t get to meet if you started in your intended engineering discipline. You also likely will be able to take some introductory courses to your major during your first year, depending on if you have room in your schedule. If this is something you are wanting to do, I highly recommend talking with your advisor to see if it is possible for you. I personally took one class before entering my discipline and it was nice to get a look into the major during my first year. If you would like more information about FYE click the link here.

To conclude FYE is something that makes Purdue unique compared to many other engineering programs at other universities. It’s a great opportunity to start off your engineering career by getting a broad look into what engineering really is. The way I like to think about it, is it gives students the opportunity to take a small step before they take their giant leap at Purdue, and into their futures.

Alena Megregian, Civil Engineering

WE Link Leadership Team


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