Becker Ardahji Exploration Activity 1

Exploration Activity: Interview a Purdue Student

This is your opportunity to sit down with a Purdue student (junior or senior) currently in a major of
interest to you. A student may be in his/her third year at Purdue but not necessarily a junior in the
major. Therefore, make sure you are speaking to someone taking classes in the third or fourth year on
the plan of study for their major.

***Guidelines for this assignment: You CANNOT interview the same person for this activity AND your
Student Interview assignment. This interview must be conducted in person, with a current Purdue
student who is NOT related to you. Email interviews are NOT allowed. Your instructor will conduct an
academic integrity check using the contact information you provide. Please make sure it is accurate. If
any part of this assignment is unverifiable or found to be untrue, you will receive a zero. Take this form
with you to take thorough notes as you ask each of the questions below. Type your answers to ALL the
questions below, and number each response clearly. Submit the final paper to Blackboard in the
Assignments section.

1. Tell us about your interviewee. Include ALL of the following information: Full name (no nicknames,
please) Phone number and Purdue email address Name of college and major Date the interview
took place Their expected date of graduation

Nick Schleinkofer. He is a Junior pursuing Purdue Mechanical Engineering.

nschlei@purdue.edu

260-797-9354

The interview date is 9/19/18

He is expected to graduate in May of 2020.

2. Why did you choose this major? Describe the process by which you decided on it.

He initially chose Mechanical Engineering because he was excited about the broad range of
opportunities offered by the major, He heard about the major during ENGR131 and while he listened
to stereotypical aerospace engineers working at NASA and SpaceX, he realized that Mechanical
Engineers were essentially the only major that was universal and were offered job opportunities from
virtually everywhere. His process also involved looking at the curriculum required for the certain
majors and he was actually interested in Nuclear Engineering, but the curriculum seemed too focused
meanwhile Mechanical Engineering was a much more widespread and would ultimately make him a
much more well rounded engineer.

3. What are typical major classes like in terms of content, format, and instructor’s style of teaching? For
example: emphasis on labs/lecture/discussion, small vs. large class sizes, etc.
Becker Ardahji Exploration Activity 1

Nick’s taking Mechanical Engineering classes that are mainly lecture-book styled in which they work
with their professors within the book. He found it funny that Mechanical Engineering is virtually is the
only class where you actually solve your answers in the textbook and this format of teaching is also a
lot of help. Half the classes are lectures and the other half are applied. He also mentioned that
Polytechnic Mechanical Engineering is much more hands on with the 3D Printers, physical models, and
prototypes; whereas actual mechanical engineering is more theoretical and actually involves the
design, formulation, and modeling of the concepts.

4. What has been your favorite class? What did you learn, and why was it your favorite?

His favorite class was ME 274 because the professor made it a predominantly an example based class
and he was actually engaged in his class because he felt genuinely interested and that his professor
actually cared about him as a result of his teacher’s energy and upbeat teaching methods.

5. Which classes have been the toughest? What made them tough?

The hardest classes have all been the classes from the Purdue Math Department, and it’s because the
professors are generally indifferent about the material and simply read from the textbooks in a
monotone and he simply didn’t feel important also because the material is boring because you feel
like the professors only consider you to be a number, not a student. He also simply could not bring
himself to put effort into a class where the professors put no effort into you first.

6. What skills and abilities do students need in order to be successful in this major?

The most important thing to be successful in ME, is establishing a group of people to study with.
While it might seem small, you might hit a road block only to realize you missed something incredibly
small. Having a group can help you realize what you did wrong and how to improve also its nice to
have people who you can always ask for help which can ultimately make or break a grade by saving
you points in the long run.

7. What are you planning to do after graduation? Do students in this major typically need or want to go
to graduate school? What types of careers do students with this major typically go into?

Nick has no specific companies in mind, but he knows that he wants to get away from Indiana and he
wants to experience the country before he gets tied down to one location. His philosophy is that he
wants to love his job, but it’s hard to love a job when you’re surrounded by either corn or nothing. In
general, most students in engineering don’t go directly into graduate school, they normally work in
the industry and get their masters after they get some experience because most companies will either
subsidize, or cover your major to better improve their company. Again, mechanical engineers are
virtually the broadest range of careers, he is currently interested in power generation and nuclear
plants, but you can do virtually anything with a degree in mechanical engineering.

8. What extra-curricular opportunities related to the major have you experienced or can you
recommend? (Examples could include campus activities and organizations, internships, research, or
study abroad opportunities.)

Nick recommended the Engineering Student Council, not just for his discipline, but all disciplines
because they plan and host IR, so you normally get first dibs or at least get to make contact with these
companies first by inviting them to your events which can not only look amazing on your resume, but
Becker Ardahji Exploration Activity 1

also score you some big points for a possible internship. Nick also recommended BAJA, which is a
racing competition in which you build a working automobile that is both fuel-efficient and fast. It’s
perfect for his field because a lot of ME’s want to pursue automotive design and this is a great
opportunity for them to get experience in that field.

9. Ask one additional thoughtful question of your own. Write the question here; then answer it!

“Ideally what would your work environment look like in a company?”

In the beginning of most engineering courses, they stressed the importance of teams. Nick also
believes that small teams are the best in terms of working environments and this allows you to
become better acquaintances with these people and perform better as a group. Ideally in the work
place he would want to work in a small team, so he has the freedom to not only connect with his co-
workers, but also perform better with them as well.

10. After the interview, reflect on this: Are you still considering this major now that you have learned
more? Why or why not?

Yes I am still considering this major because love the versatility of Mechanical Engineering and how
it’s not directly focused on one exact topic. I also love working in teams which doesn’t exactly narrow
down most of my choices regarding engineering, but it does helps to remind me about my ideal end-
goal career. The only thing that is currently dissuading me from choosing to further pursue this career
is the sheer number of math and physics classes that Nick warned me about. They sound pretty
brutal, but while they aren’t the easiest, they will definitely be worth it in the end.

Revised 5/16/18