Do all Engineering fields require 4 or 5 years of college?

If you work diligently and are careful to take the prerequisite courses in a timely manner, you should be able to readily get an engineering degree in four years. With the high cost of college these days, you want to avoid five years of college if at all possible.

Good luck, Pete Sturtevant

Most engineering degrees (BS) will require at least 4 years, but that is not the only route. You might look into an engineering technology degree or if you like designing/drafting and field work you could be a designer working under an engineer. Good luck.

Yes, plan on 5 years to get through engineering school.

Let me address what Peter Sturtevant said in his comment above. I agree that you want to avoid wasting money by attending more years of college than you need to, but you want to make sure that you learn the material that is taught in school and that you will need in your profession, so you can do it effectively after you graduate.

One who is striving to get through college as soon as possible, might be tempted to take shortcuts in their education to avoid that extra expense. However, if you take shortcuts, such as overloading yourself in a semester, increasing your study time requirements and decreasing your actual study time, you may pass your classes, but with less learning than you are capable of. How did that help you? If you don't have time to learn it right the first time, when are you going to have time to learn it right later?

This is a balance. You want to get through school at the right speed. Slow enough that you learn the material well enough to meet the learning objectives of each class during the semester so you feel good about your mastery of each subject. But not so slow that you are incapable of performing at a professional level when you get into industry. This level varies by the type of industry you go into and the job functions you have. Software development and microcomputer hardware development more at an extremely fast pace. Other types of engineering move at a slower pace. Those who do maintenance and upgrades of existing products don't have to move as fast as those who are trying to come out with the state-of-the-art products.

Also consider there are a lot more things to learn than just engineering. You need to have communication (written and verbal) as a supporting skill, as well as the ability to build relationships and position yourself where you want to be politically in your organization. It is not the most technically sharp people that get the raises and promotions, it's the technically sharp people who are most well rounded, who develop the relationships with the right people, who get recommended by their peers as someone to go to get solutions to problems.

Ideally, you want to have enough bandwidth to be able to do your job, be continuously learning to do you job better and (professional development) and still have bandwidth leftover to help other succeed in doing their job. Look for mentors to help you and be a mentor to help others. Keep in mind there are those who have lives outside of work (like trying to raise a family), who require even more time.

Things to think about.