So a lot of high schoolers have maybe never even heard of ceramic engineering or glass science. We've really changed our first year curriculum dramatically in the last couple of years, to try to update it for the skill sets that our employers are looking for, and the needs of our current students that are coming in. One of the main features is that it's very easy to change between those six engineering degrees after the first year, so you don't have to declare in one of those engineering degrees. You can come, you can take the first year courses like intro to engineering, our engineering foundations class, which is all labs in all of those disciplines. And you can kind of figure out which of those engineering majors make sense for you and then declare that at the end of that first year.
The professors here Alfred encourage you to get involved and get dirty. You're going to be getting involved in things that you don't fully know a lot about, and it's alright to make mistakes while you're doing that allows you to learn in the process. That's what engineering is, is figuring out your mistakes in the past and learning from them. Ceramic engineering is the use of complex materials of all different sorts within the realm of industry for multiple different purposes. All the fields of engineering are beginning to incorporate each other all the time, more and more often.
Our engineers when they graduate are highly valued. Most of our engineers have competing job offers, because they have such a special skill set that involves both that hands on skills and equipment and techniques that they get right away, combined with this unique area of expertise. So a lot of employers are just asking us for more and more of our grad students. Their outcomes are really great in terms of salary and placement and then moving up in their positions after they leave here.
Here at Alfred, you see a lot of students going out and getting these internships, these coops these opportunities to actually get involved. It allows you to see the opportunities outside of college and be able to apply the knowledge that we have learned thus far to be able to see what industry is going to be and see if this is the type of job field you want to be aiming towards. Or if you want to redirect yourself while you're still going to college. From the given curriculum here offered in the hands on experiences that I've been able to get I feel that I'm well prepared for being able to go into industry.
