A&M Civil or Mechanical Engineering

I’m interested in both Civil and Mechanical engineering at tamu. I’m leaning twoard mechanical engineering, but I’m really interested in A&M’s Civil engineering degree plan. When I put the classes together and add college credit earned in high school and all the extra “experiences” over the summer that I want from college (such as studying abroad and going to my home’s community college) I noticed I could graduate college quicker if I did civil engineering (by at least 1 semester but potentially 1 year if I fail nothing) and it has a lot more room for electives.

Problem is, I want to work in different engineering fields such as manufacturing, petroleum, structural engineering etc though my life. I don’t know if a Civil engineering degree would help me enter different engineering fields. the main 3 I really want to enter are petroleum engineer (preferably right after college), structural engineering (preferably right after I’ a professional engineering), and manufacturing (preferably sometime in-between).

Should I major in Civil engineering or Mechanical engineering?

(PS If I do civil engineering, I wrote into the degree plan 1 fall Co Op and 1-2 summer Co Op, but in the mechanical engineering degree plan I put in 2 summer Co Ops. My summers will be a bit limited since I want to use one to study abroad(for college credit) and one to go to summer school (in case i fail something) )

Give your varied interests, Mechanical Engineering might be your best option.

I agree with xraymancs. If you want to study abroad, plan out when and where you want to go as soon as you start school. You can probably do a study abroad semester and take your usual semester classes at your abroad location. Contact the study abroad office and ask they where their engineering students usually go.

At my son’s school, they often go to Australia or New Zealand though I know there are programs in England and Ireland as well as others. These are places to consider if you do not speak a foreign language.

It is pretty typical to try and do a summer internship/coop between Soph/Jr and Jr/Senior year so you won’t be alone doing that.

I can’t speak for the other disciplines, but structural engineering is not something you just dabble in. If you’re going to be a structural engineer, you need to stick with it. There is SO much to learn. It’s really a good idea to get a master’s degree in structures, in fact.

@lakemom
Hey. I originally planed to travel during summer (since I want to be in programs such as Zachery Leadership which require 2 hours on campus)

And as far as Co Ops are concerned I was hoping on doing one during the fall and summer semesters of junior year. (its the only way for me to graduate in 4 years, since I’ve been told its a lot easier to earn a fall or spring Co Op. And if you earn the fall or spring co op you are guaranteed the summer Co Op.) I think I should wait till I talk to my adviser

how I wanted to do my summers
1st year > 2nd year > 3rd year > 4th year
Community college OR Co Op > Study abroad OR Co Op > Study Abroad (I won’t do it 2 times) OR Co Op > Intern

Is this not a good plan?

@MaineLonghorn
Hello. I’m starting to see your point in that. Is it possible that if I want to change careers, a Meng or DEng in civil engineering in my mid career would be enough to change careers successfully?

Sounds like you have done some good planning so that arrangement would work. ME is the broadest type of Engineering so it might provide the base you are looking for. Once you decide a specific area of Engineering you want to stick with, then you could go back and get a Master if it was outside of ME.