Looking back

Introduction
Throughout high school I was always told that I needed to think about the future and what I wanted my career to be after I received my high school diploma. MSOE does this with their curriculum and guidance services. This school is for people who know where they want to go and what it is going to take to get there. Students with visions of their future will understand that a plan for reaching that future is required. That's what MSOE is great at, helping you see define a future and potential career and showing a real path on how to get there.

With a very well defined path, there are shortcomings. This does not allow for a student to deviate very much from that path. There are decisions to be made about courses to take and electives to fulfill, however, the education is based upon a journey towards a specific career in a very technical field. If a prospective student is looking for a diverse exposure to many subject areas and trying several different paths before starting out a career developing education, this school might not be the best fit.

Campus Life and Social Life
The social life at MSOE is not what some of the other schools in the South Eastern Wisconsin might experience. The campus life has a wide variety of things to do and get involved in. There are a lot of great events that get you out and meeting people and making new friends as long as you want to get involved. It's not a party school, but after all, you get what you pay for, and you're paying for education at MSOE, that's what a student needs to focus on while attending. It's not long after starting at MSOE that a person learns quickly how to manage their time and balance a social life with academics. Advertisement
Academics
MSOE is respected among engineering colleges because they hold the standards of education very high. The coursework is challenging at times and can be stressful to complete if you like to procrastinate. To excel at MSOE, a student must make a conscious decision to become focused and not lose sight of that through the years. The faculty and staff are very knowledgeable although there are times when the shortcomings of being taught by industry professionals are apparent. The biggest lesson to learn through college is that asking questions is the best way to learn and that no one knows everything.

Student Body
The student body at MSOE is typically a very intelligent group. This by no means suggests that they are not athletic or active, quite the contrary, MSOE has some great sports programs to compliment the great academics. People who attend MSOE are very tech savvy and love to be on the cutting edge of new things. It's a sharp group of people, which amounts to a very diverse mix of opinions generated as a result of the coursework.

In Closing...
I'm currently 6 years out of MSOE and I can say that the school was a great technical start to my career. Attending MSOE was like everything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it. I made the effort to be social, to focus on my academics, and to see all that the school had to offer. I have great memories of classes with great discussions about technical processes as well as other classes with profound thoughts about the metaphysical. I went into MSOE thinking that I was going to be trained to be an engineer by the time I graduated. I came out of MSOE understanding that college is about so much more than learning to do a job; it's about experiencing life and opening your eyes to a diverse array of experiences. I think it's that perspective that has ultimately helped me in my career and allowed my to advance to my current position and caliber of living.