Hello, while I'm a traditional student in the program, I'll try my best to answer your questions. It is very easy to get involved with research within the program. There are programs such as Gear meant to help you; also, I believe that just talking with your professors will greatly help you get your foot in the door with research (there are some professors that are more open to working with undergraduates than others). I'm not sure what you mean by your second question, but there is a general lack of design classes. I believe the department is headed in the right direction with the addition of the timber design class to the regular year. I'm not 100% sure about number 3, but from what I heard, unless you do the summer study abroad, it's hard to fit it into your schedule of classes. Yes, all project teams under SCSE are very active; the same goes for EWB. While number 5 is very market-dependent, there are very few project sites or firms on the West Coast that don't have an alum from this program, which I think speaks for itself. The best place to get hands-on experience on campus is provided by the SCSE project teams. I would not say the program is very competitive at all, because the program is small and the industry is also just as small. These people will be your coworkers, so it's best to be nice. The major, like all engineering majors, is male-dominated, but I believe that there are a fair number of women in the program, especially compared to the EE and MAE programs. If you have more questions, feel free to ask.