You will take ESC100 (Exploring Engineering) which will give you an introduction to engineering tools and methods and provide you with an overview of the different engineering majors offered at Union College. You will be assigned to a calculus class based on your Math background and this will set you on the road to completing your Math requirements for your major. Finally, you may be assigned to a First-Year Preceptorial course (a required Common Curriculum course) in the Fall or take an elective course based on other interests that you have.
The first year is designed to be pretty common across the engineering majors. It allows you flexibility to explore the majors while giving you the core Mathematics and Science courses that you need for your Sophomore engineering courses. Here is a detailed layout of the first year course options: Engineering First Year Advising.
There is no requirement to have a laptop. All engineering programs have software and hardware available for students in the engineering computer labs and resource rooms. However, many students have laptops as this allows them to work on assignments at different locations and at different times.
Either platform will work well. There are a few software packages that only run on Windows. As stated above, all engineering programs have lots of PCs and/or Macs for your use with all the necessary software installed so you don’t need to purchase a machine for any one software package.
You have to declare an Engineering major when registering for sophomore year courses. This happens around the 6th week of Spring term (mid-May) of your first year. You may have come in as an Undecided Engineering major or made an initial major selection but you may change your designation at any time during your first year (and can change multiple times).
All engineering programs have the Fall term of the Junior year as the default option for term abroad. However, many terms abroad run in other terms and it is possible for engineers to go on these terms abroad with some planning. The best thing to do is to let your adviser know your preferences for study abroad early so they can work with you in scheduling your courses to best accommodate your study abroad plans.