The math department switched Christian’s adviser on him last week. He met with his new adviser late Friday afternoon. Christian worked hard to make a plan to finish his degree by spring of 2014 that would prepare him to go on to a PhD program in Electrical Engineering. His previous adviser thought it was a fine plan. Our friend Igor (PhD mathematical physicist and all-around really smart guy from Russia) thought it was a fine plan. I thought it was a fine plan.
A professor in charge of graduate research in the Electrical Engineering department at Stanford thought enough of the plan that he said, “I would be delighted to meet you to show you Stanford and talk about research opportunities…”
A professor who runs a research program in Control Theory in the Electrical Engineering department at Cal Tech said, “It looks like you’re doing the right things academically.”
The new adviser was very interested and engaged during the advising session, but developed a plan that would take entire fifth year of college to complete. I think part of the problem is that Christian’s previous adviser told him to add Electrical Engineering as a second major because, if he did not, the University would not allow him to take many of the Electrical Engineering classes he needs. He explained that to the new adviser, but she pushed on anyway because I think she really believes that is his best path to getting what he wants.
The kids and I have spoken about this often. There might be some circumstances where it makes sense to take another year to get a second Bachelors degree having to do with a desire to get into a graduate school that requires a specific bachelors degree for entry into a program. Still, there are a LOT of good schools in this world and it most often makes more sense to pick a different school that allows a student to take leveling classes before or after they are admitted to a Masters degree program. The result is way better.
I worked with a girl started with a Bachelors degree in English then took two years of classes (part time) at a good regional university that lead to her acceptance into a Masters degree in Mechanical engineering. She did it by getting good grades and getting to know the people who had the power to accept her into the program. I got a weak (because I did not work hard, not because the program was bad) Bachelors degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing when I got out of high school. I took quite a bit of math and science before I switched to business, then got an associate degree in electronics, something that flies completely in the face of the advise I am giving here, but I thought that is what I needed to do to get a job.
Ten years after I left school, Bachelor and Associate degrees in hand, and after I worked my way into an application engineering position, I got recruited by a professor at University of Texas at El Paso to set up a machine vision lab. When I got there, he asked me why I did not get a Masters degree in Industrial Engineering while I was at it. I explained that I only had an associate degree and a Bachelors degree in Business. He said that would not be a problem, I could take some leveling classes to pick up the stuff I did not have and demonstrate I could handle the workload. Two years later, I was accepted into a top ten Industrial Engineering PhD program at Texas A&M. I did not finish there because of life, but they were very happy with my academic background.
The point is it most often does not make sense to get a second Bachelors degree when it will take an extra year and a lot of extra money to do it. Christian has done a ton of due diligence with respect to what he wants to do when he finishes here at NCSU. He has talked to advisers at school, highly qualified people he met in his internship work over two summers, and even me. He has started contacting people in charge of graduate programs where he wants to go. He developed a study plan very early and has continually reviewed and revised it based on input from others and research about the schools and areas of study he wishes to pursue.
We spent about two hours last night to write a concise email to his new adviser to explain all this. We had some heated discussions about what should be in the email. Christian did all the writing. He wrote a first pass, then made lots and lots of revisions. In the end, the email was much shorter than the first draft. He made his case to the adviser. In his meeting with her, Christian could tell she was a very good adviser who tries to get things right for her charges. She has already given him some good advise about changes he could make that he plans to implement. This kind of iterative approach works very well in these kinds of situations and we have great hope Christian can put together a plan that will get him what he needs while it avoids wasting time and resources.