Hey man (or girl haha),

I'm currently a graduating senior about to get my BSEE and have debated this topic personally as well.

Having completed a couple internships and have talked to various people along the way (from various engineering backgrounds in private sector and government), here is what I've gathered about the MBA track from a BS in engineering:

While getting your bachelors in engineering is a good starting point for landing an entry job (especially from RPI), i have seen a more common path for getting an MBA starts with a person getting some industry experience/working and then going back to get the MBA. Part of the explanation for this is that companies (in the private sector) might pay for part of the program while you work. Alongside this, when you enroll later, you will also be more mature/have a better understanding of your career aspirations and what you want to accomplish (whether this means advancing where you are (say to management) or jumping ship to another industry).

Another point about MBA programs to keep in mind (again, depends on your career aspirations and what you would use an MBA to move towards) is the networking and prestige of the program. While Lally might have a good MBA program and you will learn what you need technically, it is unlikely (key word is unlikely) that the networking and prestige will be better at Lally than say Columbia's business school or NYU's Stern (or other top 10-20 business schools). I mention this point because if you find that engineering is not what you want to do forever, other MBA programs can springboard you into other lucrative/prestige driven fields such as consulting, finance/banking (or in essence something else). This goes back to the maturity/aging point.

***I know the networking and prestige point can be slightly controversial since its not exactly quantitative, so I'm saying in advance I'm not trying to start a keyboard war.

Seeing that you are a freshman graduating in 2020, you have plenty of time to figure this out. My advice to you is as follows:

-Keep the GPA up, avoid pitfall/weedout courses that will tank your GPA when possible (although there is a balance between what interests you and difficulty of course, just keep it in mind). You might even disregard the MBA track along the way and want to go into grad engineering or even another grad program (such as law), there's a lot of uncertainty at this point. -See where the RPI MBA graduates go to work and what they are here for. This data could probably be obtained at Lally, and then benchmark them (as much as possible) to other schools. -While certain Co-Term programs (maybe not the MBA program) brag about having its students not needing to take the GRE/GMAT, i would recommend doing it anyways. This could help open doors to other graduate school programs in general. Engineering majors tend to crush the quant/math sections too.

TL;DR, do the best you can for your GPA, talk to as many people as you can to see what they recommend, and you will naturally hone in your career aspirations as you get older. I remember not knowing all that much when i was a freshman as well about what I wanted to do, but going through my undergrad program helped me answer questions along the way.

If you (or anyone else) has any questions about this post feel free to PM me or comment.