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Industrial Design Degree


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I wasn’t sure whether to ask this here or on the high school board.

My dd 17 has been interested in engineering for a while and is obsessed with the robotics team she is part of. She has been thinking about studying engineering for several years, but wasn’t really sure about which branch. She’s been doing more CAD with PTC CREO and Onshape for the team, and in the last year or so has been considering civil engineering and architectural engineering, and is also interested in the design aspect. Now she has started researching Industrial Design and is thinking that might be a better fit.

I wondered if anyone had experience with this degree, and could give us some advice or information. We are in Missouri but are having some trouble finding a university, in state, that offers an Industrial Design degree. She is also looking out of state, and has found some options in Kansas, but we need to be able to afford it of course. She looks like she is on target to be a NM semi finalist, and there is a Bright Flight scholarship offered in our state, so we are trying to put those things in our calculations also. To be honest I don’t know a lot about finding stuff like that out. My oldest dd is doing Speech Therapy and Spanish degrees, junior this year, and that was pretty straight forward to research.

We are also wondering what types of careers/jobs it could lead to.

We would really appreciate any advice on how to search this out. 

 

 

Edited by TCB
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This is mostly a bump for you.

I know that University of Cincinnati it talked about as one of the top schools for industrial design. Probably not the cheapest, or the closest (if you are in MO), but maybe their website will be helpful? If she is super interested, I have a friend who is currently at UC in Industrial Design and I can see if she would be willing to text or email about it.  One thing that impressed me is that they start work toward their major their freshman year so they get a feel right away of if the work appeals or not.

https://daap.uc.edu/academic-programs/school-of-design/industrial-design.html

This is from their website about the types of careers:  

"Industrial designers are employed where products are planned for mass production. Since many goods are mass produced, there is a wide range of opportunities. Jobs have traditionally been divided into fields: (1) as a consultant or (2) on the design staff of a corporation.

Furniture, appliances, housewares, electronic equipment, tools, toys and packaging are considered consumer products and nearly always require industrial design services while being developed for manufacturing and marketing. Other items not meant for the consumer market such as machine tools, medical equipment, business machines and displays are also designed by industrial designers.

Transportation design includes automobiles, hybrid vehicles, semitrailer trucks, trains, airplanes, water craft, and transportation systems. Special consideration is given to the exterior aesthetic, interior environment, comfort, functionality, safety and customer needs. Transportation industrial designers manage the creation of new concepts through the design process, which includes concept proposal, 3-D development and production release."

Here is a profile of the type of person they think will succeed in industrial design:
"People who are successful in industrial design have visual and kinesthetic/tactile learning styles. Industrial designers must be intrigued by how things work, enjoy putting things together and not be intimidated by the need to generate alternate solutions to complex problems. Product design involves the synthesis of a variety of diverse requirements and values into a coherent creation. Among such requirements and values are functional suitability, aesthetics, technical performance, economic resources and constraints, social and cultural issues, environmental concerns and human comfort. They must be attentive listeners, possess strong communication skills and be comfortable interacting with many different types of people. Industrial designers must have excellent time- and project-management skills, and must understand business planning. They need to know how to create informative and persuasive proposals and maintain good client relationships."

Edited by cintinative
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Industrial Design is sometimes under the department of Mechanical Engineering. 
 

e.g. 
https://mae.mst.edu/focusareas/designandmanufacturing/

Ming Leu

Bailey Professor

573-341-4482 | mleu@mst.edu

272 Toomey

Research Interests

Rapid prototyping, additive manufacturing, intelligent manufacturing, virtual reality, CAD/CAM, robotics, mechatronics and automatic control. 

http://catalog.missouri.edu/undergraduategraduate/collegeofengineering/industrialengineering/
“Industrial engineers in manufacturing organizations address many issues including designing workplaces, considering both the capabilities of machines and humans. They may design computer-integrated manufacturing systems that include automation and robotics. They may also control production, optimize inventory, design quality systems, evaluate new product proposals and build new or improved production facilities.”

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industrial design and industrial engineering are not the same thing. FYI.

Industrial design tends to focus on the outward appearance of the thing--the sports car, the appliance, etc. It is related in ways to graphic design and interior design.  Your classes will be more "art" related.

Industrial engineering tends to focus on the robotics and automation. Your classes will be more "science" related.

Edited by cintinative
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@cintinative Thank you so much! That is all really useful information for us. I’m going to have dd look at it all and if she thinks it is what she is interested in maybe we could get in touch with you and see if your friend would mind answering some questions via email. Thank you so much for your help!

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RIT has a good program for it. I would definitely look at Cincinnati. Obviously Georgia Tech is amazing, but killer to get into. 

I do not know offhand about Missouri, but some states have a compact that's similar to the WUE but that only applies to majors that aren't offered in state. So... I'd look into that if industrial design isn't offered in state anywhere. I have no idea if that's a possibility, but that's the first thing that springs to mind.

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1 hour ago, Farrar said:

RIT has a good program for it. I would definitely look at Cincinnati. Obviously Georgia Tech is amazing, but killer to get into. 

I do not know offhand about Missouri, but some states have a compact that's similar to the WUE but that only applies to majors that aren't offered in state. So... I'd look into that if industrial design isn't offered in state anywhere. I have no idea if that's a possibility, but that's the first thing that springs to mind.

Thank you! I’ll check into that.

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I don't know anything about this specific major, but one thing that I sometimes do with students when I'm teaching juniors and seniors is to have them look up their potential college major at several colleges.  They look at the course of study to see what classes are required.  Then I ask them to look at similar majors to see if they are really similar and if the courses look more or less interesting.  This is based on my own experiences of 'not knowing what I didn't know'.  I was a biochemistry major and one of my roommates was a biology major.  We only had a few freshman classes in common - even though the majors sounded similar, the focus was entirely different.  My alma mater has added a cell and molecular biology degree, and it's courses are basically what I took as my science electives - in other words, it would be possible to switch between a biochem and a cell bio major, but neither of those would easily switch to a biology major because the class requirements are so different.  Botany and Turf Management are essentially the same program, with just a few difference, even though they don't sound the same at all.  Some programs, like 'Packaging Science', combine unusual skill sets (that one requires a good bit of chemistry and also graphic design, if I remember correctly).  

Even though it can be hard to figure out exactly what a class is like, a list of required courses and possible electives can prompt 'Oooh, that sounds interesting' or 'Yikes...'.  🙂  

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5 hours ago, MamaSprout said:

It might be worth looking at Engineering Design degrees, as well. These vary a lot from school to school, so some may lean more heavily towards industrial design.

 

Thank you! We’ll have a look at that.

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4 hours ago, Clemsondana said:

I don't know anything about this specific major, but one thing that I sometimes do with students when I'm teaching juniors and seniors is to have them look up their potential college major at several colleges.  They look at the course of study to see what classes are required.  Then I ask them to look at similar majors to see if they are really similar and if the courses look more or less interesting.  This is based on my own experiences of 'not knowing what I didn't know'.  I was a biochemistry major and one of my roommates was a biology major.  We only had a few freshman classes in common - even though the majors sounded similar, the focus was entirely different.  My alma mater has added a cell and molecular biology degree, and it's courses are basically what I took as my science electives - in other words, it would be possible to switch between a biochem and a cell bio major, but neither of those would easily switch to a biology major because the class requirements are so different.  Botany and Turf Management are essentially the same program, with just a few difference, even though they don't sound the same at all.  Some programs, like 'Packaging Science', combine unusual skill sets (that one requires a good bit of chemistry and also graphic design, if I remember correctly).  

Even though it can be hard to figure out exactly what a class is like, a list of required courses and possible electives can prompt 'Oooh, that sounds interesting' or 'Yikes...'.  🙂  

Thank you! That is really useful! I hadn’t thought of that, but can see it’s a good idea to check the requirements of similar degrees. She isn’t sure at all so keeping options open, or knowing what the options are is a really good thing for her.

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One more thing to look at is if a co-op is required and how much assistance the school provides in placement.

For example, UC requires all students in the College of Design to have a co-op. "Students must also complete five semesters of mandatory professional practice (co-op) and receive a satisfactory (S) for all required work semesters."  

I had a friend whose small Christian college required an internship but provided no help in connecting the student with possible companies. 

I also wanted to link UC's curriculum map for the four years. It really helps to see how "art" focused this is. 

https://webapps2.uc.edu/ecurriculum/DegreePrograms/Home/MajorMap/4286

 

Here is a curriculum map for UC's Bachelors of Science in Industrial Management (business engineering focused) as a comparison:

https://webapps2.uc.edu/ecurriculum/DegreePrograms/Home/MajorMap/2002

And here is the Mechanical Engineering BS curriculum map:
https://webapps2.uc.edu/ecurriculum/DegreePrograms/Home/MajorMap/2393

Edited by cintinative
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Since there are not a ton of schools that offer Industrial Design, I think that makes it easier to find where to apply.

Here is a link of industrial design programs by the professional organization for industrial designers. 
https://www.idsa.org/education/id-schools

 

You’ll notice some are at art schools and others at universities. Is she open to both kinds of schools?

This link talks about the possible differences that between art schools and universities. It also lists some schools in both categories. 


https://www.theartcareerproject.com/schools/industrial-design/

 

I came across this link when trying to find the accreditation link.

info.https://www.myplan.com/majors/colleges-that-offer-this-degree.php?cip=50.0404&offset=20

 

 

 

 

 

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On 5/1/2021 at 10:00 PM, Farrar said:

RIT has a good program for it. I would definitely look at Cincinnati. Obviously Georgia Tech is amazing, but killer to get into. 

I do not know offhand about Missouri, but some states have a compact that's similar to the WUE but that only applies to majors that aren't offered in state. So... I'd look into that g industrial design isn't offered in state anywhere. I have no idea if ggg what’s a possibility, but that's the first thing that springs to mind.

definitely check if your state qualifies for in-state somewhere else.
 

An old friend’s daughter was accepted OOS for industrial design at Georgia Tech, but it was ridiculously expensive for their upper middle class family. They will have two in college the whole time she was in school. There were no in-state options for industrial design, so they looked at colleges with merit aid. She has a sophomore and has had one remote internship. 
 

Here is a link to colleges with national merit scholarships, so you could check against schools offering industrial design. 
 

https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/national-merit-scholarships

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On 5/2/2021 at 12:44 PM, cintinative said:

One more thing to look at is if a co-op is required and how much assistance the school provides in placement.

For example, UC requires all students in the College of Design to have a co-op. "Students must also complete five semesters of mandatory professional practice (co-op) and receive a satisfactory (S) for all required work semesters."  

I had a friend whose small Christian college required an internship but provided no help in connecting the student with possible companies. 

I also wanted to link UC's curriculum map for the four years. It really helps to see how "art" focused this is. 

https://webapps2.uc.edu/ecurriculum/DegreePrograms/Home/MajorMap/4286

This post brings up some important topics to think about when choosing a program. It all comes down to personal preference for some of these things.
 

If you follow the link to Cincinnati’s program, you will see it is a full 5-year program. You will want to check how programs work with scholarships. When looking at the different schools, she will want to look closely at how long it will take to graduation under the plan at each school to compare apples to oranges. .


My engineer looked at a school with a similar co-op program, and students still paid tuition those semesters. 
 

While looking at that school and others, I learned co-op means different things at different places. At some schools it means working for x company for x amount of semesters. At others, students work at a different company each co-op term.

My engineer planned to participate in the optional co-op at her school. However, freshman year she decided she liked being on campus too much to want to leave campus during the regular academic year to co-op. (She decided this winter of freshman year after participating in an on-campus co-op interviews and receiving multiple offers. Instead, she did 3 summer internships each summer. She graduated having worked for 3 different companies  and she appreciated seeing the different ways the different companies worked and handled employees, etc. 

She may want to see if any colleges have summer programs/camps to introduce high school students to industrial engineering. 
 

ETA I also forgot something to consider when looking at industrial design programs. Are students accepted into the program as a freshman? Or do students need to apply/be accepted into the program once they have started college? If the apply, when is that? How competitive is that; I personally would want real numbers. For students not accepted, can they apply again? Does that ever work out for a student?

 

 

 

 

Edited by NewnameC
Added another point to consider
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My son has a friend studying Industrial Design at Montclair State in NJ. They did a lot of research, and supposedly the school has a great program (he also looked at Cincy). He is OOS but is paying instate tuition as a somewhat average student. He is just finishing up freshman year but really loves the program and school. 

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The Georgia tech industrial design launchpad is on Thursday May 6th. You can register to watch it on their website. The link for the last one in 2020’is also there. That may give your student some Insight into it. We toured the department and my dd’s love the program. One wanted to minor in it but has changed her mind.

https://id.gatech.edu/?mc_cid=06e51e0863&mc_eid=01d43b6db0

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On 5/2/2021 at 11:44 AM, cintinative said:

One more thing to look at is if a co-op is required and how much assistance the school provides in placement.

For example, UC requires all students in the College of Design to have a co-op. "Students must also complete five semesters of mandatory professional practice (co-op) and receive a satisfactory (S) for all required work semesters."  

I had a friend whose small Christian college required an internship but provided no help in connecting the student with possible companies. 

I also wanted to link UC's curriculum map for the four years. It really helps to see how "art" focused this is. 

https://webapps2.uc.edu/ecurriculum/DegreePrograms/Home/MajorMap/4286

 

Here is a curriculum map for UC's Bachelors of Science in Industrial Management (business engineering focused) as a comparison:

https://webapps2.uc.edu/ecurriculum/DegreePrograms/Home/MajorMap/2002

And here is the Mechanical Engineering BS curriculum map:
https://webapps2.uc.edu/ecurriculum/DegreePrograms/Home/MajorMap/2393

Thank you! It will be very useful for my dd to see what kind of courses she might be taking if she decides to pursue it.

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On 5/2/2021 at 2:26 PM, NewnameC said:

Since there are not a ton of schools that offer Industrial Design, I think that makes it easier to find where to apply.

Here is a link of industrial design programs by the professional organization for industrial designers. 
https://www.idsa.org/education/id-schools

 

You’ll notice some are at art schools and others at universities. Is she open to both kinds of schools?

This link talks about the possible differences that between art schools and universities. It also lists some schools in both categories. 


https://www.theartcareerproject.com/schools/industrial-design/

 

I came across this link when trying to find the accreditation link.

info.https://www.myplan.com/majors/colleges-that-offer-this-degree.php?cip=50.0404&offset=20

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for the links! So far she has really only been looking at schools with engineering programs so this is a new avenue and different types of schools to look at.

@NewnameC thank you for all the great information and advice!

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13 hours ago, whitestavern said:

My son has a friend studying Industrial Design at Montclair State in NJ. They did a lot of research, and supposedly the school has a great program (he also looked at Cincy). He is OOS but is paying instate tuition as a somewhat average student. He is just finishing up freshman year but really loves the program and school. 

Thank you for the school info! I’ll have dd check it out.

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3 hours ago, Lilaclady said:

The Georgia tech industrial design launchpad is on Thursday May 6th. You can register to watch it on their website. The link for the last one in 2020’is also there. That may give your student some Insight into it. We toured the department and my dd’s love the program. One wanted to minor in it but has changed her mind.

https://id.gatech.edu/?mc_cid=06e51e0863&mc_eid=01d43b6db0

Thank you so much!

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Ohio State has an excellent Industrial design program, some of the details are here:
 https://undergrad.osu.edu/majors-and-academics/majors/detail/45

If she is a NM candidate then she should qualify for both the Buckeye and Maximus scholarships, which together are worth $16,500/yr. They aren't automatic (like if you have X score, you get Y dollars), but she should be well above the minimums requirements for those.

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Iowa state has a virtual summer program that includes industrial design. I don’t completely understand how it works, but here is a link to check it out.

https://www.design.iastate.edu/future-students/k-12-experiences/k12outreach/

 

I also found this article that gave some insight to what industrial engineers can do.

https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2019/06/25/backcountry?c=industrial-design

Edited by NewnameC
Adding info
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On 5/5/2021 at 4:20 PM, Corraleno said:

Ohio State has an excellent Industrial design program, some of the details are here:
 https://undergrad.osu.edu/majors-and-academics/majors/detail/45

If she is a NM candidate then she should qualify for both the Buckeye and Maximus scholarships, which together are worth $16,500/yr. They aren't automatic (like if you have X score, you get Y dollars), but she should be well above the minimums requirements for those.

Thank you for this! I’ll get her to have a look.

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22 hours ago, NewnameC said:

Iowa state has a virtual summer program that includes industrial design. I don’t completely understand how it works, but here is a link to check it out.

https://www.design.iastate.edu/future-students/k-12-experiences/k12outreach/

 

I also found this article that gave some insight to what industrial engineers can do.

https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2019/06/25/backcountry?c=industrial-design

Thank you! You’ve given me loads of great information!

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  • 1 month later...

I haven't been to these boards in ages.  My oldest just graduated with a degree in industrial design from Appalachian State in NC.  He was also on a robotics team through middle and high school. 

We looked at schools mainly within the southeast.  Appalachian State, NCState Univ. Virginia Tech, Auburn, James Madison University in Va.  We did not look at SCAD but it did come highly recommended,  Georgia Tech required calculus so he removed that school from the list early on!!

We used the idsa website primarily to locate schools with the major. 

I wish I could tell you that he has found a permanent job already, but he hasn't quite started his search.  He is working temporarily with the company he interned with.  Now they did offer him a permanent position as a Mechanical Engineer - but he wants to find something in the design field.  But think of that - an engineering position without having to take all the math and science courses! 

 

 

 

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