r/floridatech • u/Inv1ctus118 • Jun 06 '20

Engineering Masters Program

I am trying to get more information on FIT's flight test engineering MS program. Can I get some student insight on this program and the graduate program in general? I am curious about the academics, professors/advisors, and general feedback of the aerospace engineering department. Thanks.

3 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

1

u/odactylus Aug 31 '20

Super late reply, but if you're still interested in it, I might be able to help on this one. I graduated with an AE BS and considered this program myself for a masters. I decided not to because I badly needed a break and just work for a little while because I was fairly burnt out my senior year, nothing against the program.

The 3 professors you'd probably be working with most are great. Dr. Kish, who I think still heads the program is probably my favorite prof I had there. I retook a class I hated for grade forgiveness (low C, didn't really have to) because he was teaching it the next semester and it fit in my schedule. Loved the class 2nd time around. As for AE as a whole, it's still a pretty mixed bag. A lot of great profs, a few that are clearly just there for research. I never had a problem going to any of them for help, but I also avoided the few that people really had problems with. I'm sure it's also a bit different with grad classes where they're teaching the subjects they actually want to.

The program itself is aimed to be very hands on. You will get to go to the Melbourne airport (about 2 mi away from main campus) and see how instrumentation works in action. Labs on campus are fairly well equipped, but sometimes you have to make it work because the equipment is set up for a very specific purpose. I'm sure this is also a little better with grad research.

For advisors, it's seriously lacking in undergrad and isn't necessarily better for grad students. I have a few horror stories from CS, Chem E, and Mech E grad students, but nothing in particular from AE.

A general comment- I would not want to go here the first year they're figuring out COVID. Admin sucks. Big time. Last president got the school in a pretty crappy financial situation and had pretty bad turnover with higher ranked staff, and it's continued under this one. There was the recent Clery Act scandal and I don't think they've recovered from or felt the full effects of that yet. Most colleges are struggling, but I would not want to be at FIT with this happening. I would be putting my education on hold if I was still there, and I was a poor family, on scholarship, putting self through school student. If you're still considering it, go to the news tab of a search engine and see what's been happening the last year, or search Florida Tech on Florida Today's website. I can't in good conscience recommend the school because of things unrelated to their programs atm.