Page:Engineering as a vocation (IA cu31924004245605).pdf/69

 branches is so marked, that it is not uncommon to see graduated civil engineers employed on work considered the proper employment for mechanical or electrical engineers, while the latter are often put on work of a strictly civil engineering character. The mining engineer receives such a diversified training that he is to be found everywhere doing all kinds of work.

In every school where various branches of engineering are taught it is usual to have the courses identical for the freshman and the first half of the sophomore year. In the second half of the sophomore year there is a slight difference and a final separation in the junior year. However, a number of studies are the same even in the third and fourth years, but the hours are different, some branches taking a three-hour course while others take only one or two hours.

Each school varies the standard curriculum slightly according to local influences. The majority of graduates find employment near the school and the curriculum naturally reflects to some extent the industry of most importance in that section of the country. Some of the older schools have a large number of the alumnæ employed in a certain line of work, and as the alumnæ are always loyal to their alma mater and give her graduates the preference when assistants are required, it is natural that the school will lay stress on the line of work in which the greatest number of graduates find