SJS, I attended a midwestern state university. It was huge but I lived with my parents for free & paid only in-state tuition. I also preferred the classic ME stuff–I did work a summer for the local electric utility but only did intern-type stuff. That’s great that Con Ed is good about shabbos–do you do a lot of field work? I took the FE right after I graduated–that way I didn’t have to worry about forgetting all about electric circuits.
I worked for a defense contractor which sounds high-tech but was generally the regular engineering stuff, plus everything had to meet military specs.
I figured I’d like engineering because when I was in high school I liked math & physics and, even though everyone else disliked word problems, I thought they were neat.
Sorry about taking this off-topic.