Daniel Fritsche, BSIE 2016, is an Honors College Fellow.
Why did you choose the U of A?
My family is a U of A family. My dad, brother, sister, and many other family members attended Arkansas, so I grew up making trips to Fayetteville for football games and other events. Through those trips I grew very fond of Fayetteville and through my family’s experiences with the school I saw how great of an education Arkansas provided. Due to that, I knew the U of A was the school for me and I wasn’t interested in any others. In fact, Arkansas is the only school I even finished the entire application process for.
Why did you choose your major/focus?
I have always loved math and problem solving, especially when I am solving real-world problems. Because of this, I knew at a young age I wanted to study engineering. In high school, I realized I was also very interested in business. I knew I still wanted to study engineering, so I didn’t know what to do about my interest in business. Midway through my freshman year, I discovered that many times industrial engineers were the bridge between the business disciplines and the engineering disciplines. Upon that discovery, I knew I wanted to study industrial engineering.
What are your future plans and how did your college experience shape them?
I actually started the Walton College of Business Accelerated MBA program this semester, so in the immediate future I will be continuing that program and graduating in May of 2017. After completing a couple internships as an industrial engineering undergraduate, I realized how much I loved translating my technical knowledge and analyses into actionable and impactful suggestions for businesses. I knew how helpful more business knowledge would be in this area, so I decided to pursue the MBA program. I hope to use this skill set to find a job with a company that is passionate about serving people and directly improving their lives.
Do you have any words of wisdom for your fellow students?
My advice to my fellow students is to take this time in your life to discover your purpose. This is a special time in our lives with a lot of big decisions. Don’t worry too much about the future. Just find your purpose and try to make each decision in light of that.
Tell us something unusual, surprising, or fun about yourself:
While I was studying abroad during my junior year in Australia, I visited New Zealand for three weeks. While I was there, me and three other University of Arkansas students took a road trip across the entire country.