A little bit about me - and why I chose U&MS

I thought it would be appropriate if I shared some information with you all on my background and how I became the Urban & Metropolitan Studies (U&MS) major that I am.

For all my life, I have been interested in transportation infrastructure and policy. Growing up, my favorite game was (and still is!) SimCity 2000. Within the last few years, I had become incredibly successful at playing the game. Because of my skill at that game, it seemed like the natural fit for my career would be to go into civil engineering.

I entered Arizona State University in the fall semester of 2006 as a Civil Engineering major through the ASU College of Engineering. I started out well with the requisite engineering courses: chemistry, physics, calculus, etc. until I realized that the ASU civil engineering program focused on how to build the various items (e.g. roads, bridges, highways, rail systems, etc.). I have always been more interested in where to build them, and especially the policy behind these various items of transportation infrastructure.

With this, over the summer of 2007, I had to do some serious soul searching. I figured that, given the immense size of Arizona State University, there had to be something out there that would match my desire to go into transportation infrastructure and policy. I looked at ASU's list of undergraduate majors - all 250 of them - and I stumbled upon two very interesting majors - Urban Planning (through the ASU College of Design) and U&MS (through the ASU School of Public Affairs). Considering both, I realized that I could major in one and take a minor in the other. Here I am today - majoring in U&MS and taking a minor in Urban Planning. I did it this way because the U&MS major offered more flexibility and a minor in Urban Planning - needing only eighteen (18) credit hours - fit in within the required elective courses needed for the U&MS major. To go on top of this, I'm adding a second minor in sustainability through the new School of Sustainability.

The beauty of my present major is that it is incredibly flexible - which is something that my former major lacked.

Best of luck in your college search!
Edward Jensen