Anyone in montana states engineering program right now?

Not an engineer from montana state but in my experience the machine shop priority hierarchy is grad students/research first, then senior design projects, then machine shop and manufacturing classes.

Unless you had a good relationship with whoever runs the shop, personal projects weren't really encouraged due to liability reasons. But different schools may have different policy.

As a freshmen you're not going to have much wiggle room with classes but your best bet is to take as many tech electives that involve manufacturing as you can when you're able to.

You can also probably reach out to the professors running the program with your questions as well, if they're not complete dickheads they'll enjoy the enthusiasm and point you in the right direction of getting your hands dirty in the machine shop

Freshmen year you get to access the maker space and can’t use like half the tools in there.

ASSholebomber22Not an engineer from montana state but in my experience the machine shop priority hierarchy is grad students/research first, then senior design projects, then machine shop and manufacturing classes.

Unless you had a good relationship with whoever runs the shop, personal projects weren't really encouraged due to liability reasons. But different schools may have different policy.

As a freshmen you're not going to have much wiggle room with classes but your best bet is to take as many tech electives that involve manufacturing as you can when you're able to.

You can also probably reach out to the professors running the program with your questions as well, if they're not complete dickheads they'll enjoy the enthusiasm and point you in the right direction of getting your hands dirty in the machine shop

What if I already have machine shop experience and come with machining certifications from NIMS

email the person running the machine lab, i did like 30 seconds of research to find this
https://www.montana.edu/mie/me/facilities/machininglab/

ThegenericskierWhat if I already have machine shop experience and come with machining certifications from NIMS

I would bet it helps, it would be good to note that as well when contacting faculty as they likely need ta's as well.

ASSholebomber22I would bet it helps, it would be good to note that as well when contacting faculty as they likely need ta's as well.

Oh cool, thank you

When I was there a few years ago, can't speak to the machining shop, but the programs there are pretty similar to just about any big state school. Talking to my buddies from Boulder and CSU it was all similar classes and workload. Like Calc 1 to Diff EQ for math and then all your other standard engineering classes

The engineering program is tits and the shop/labs are super great. As a freshman your access will likely be limited to whatever classes you take but after that you can do a little bit more if you develop a relationship with the people running the shop. Every shop person I interacted with is super awesome. If you're about hands-on work and making things, you should probably check out the MET program over ME. It's similar but more manufacturing based. Unless you're nerdy about theory stuff, MET is probably your best bet.

^i assumed you're interested in mechanical engineering. The other engineering programs also have a good share of labs and things to do but I don't know nearly as much about them

ReturnToMonkeyThe engineering program is tits and the shop/labs are super great. As a freshman your access will likely be limited to whatever classes you take but after that you can do a little bit more if you develop a relationship with the people running the shop. Every shop person I interacted with is super awesome. If you're about hands-on work and making things, you should probably check out the MET program over ME. It's similar but more manufacturing based. Unless you're nerdy about theory stuff, MET is probably your best bet.

Cool. Really appreciate the help. Machining for me right now is more of a hobby was just curious if I’d be able to get into the shop as a freshman

ThegenericskierCool. Really appreciate the help. Machining for me right now is more of a hobby was just curious if I’d be able to get into the shop as a freshman

if you really enjoy it then keep it going, but I found once i got to college there was too much ganj' to be doing hobbies that required skill and patience