<p>I'm a first year ChemE student at the moment. The classes are interesting so far, but from the information I've gathered, I don't think I'm going to have an interest in the later classes and the career opportunities. I originally decided on ChemE because I enjoyed biology in high-school, and the ChemE branch deals with bio quite a bit (biotech, pharmaceuticals, etc).</p>
<p>At this point, I'm thinking about majoring in EE or Computer Engineering. Other than molecular and cellular biology, my other interests are space (in general, such are searching for life on other planets and discovering new things), robotics (especially the future of robotics and where it could lead us). I'm not very knowledgeable in these subjects, and my high-school didn't even prepare me very well. For example, I only took half a year of physics. </p>
<p>I figured EE or CE might be tailored more to my interests. Plus, I'm taking my first CS class, which is very interesting.</p>
<p>Advice is appreciated!</p>
<p>Only you can make this decision. As you’ve apparently found out, ChemE is usually not what people initially think it is. I’m sure some people go into the major thinking they’re going to be working in a factory environment but I bet most think of something much different. </p>
<p>What I would do, and I recommend this to pretty much everyone, is to spend some time on job search sites (like Monster.com) and companies’ own pages to see what kind of jobs are available for an EE/CompE. Do the same for CS. Do these jobs sound somewhat interesting to you?</p>
<p>There’s obviously a future in robotics and those with experience in it will always be in demand. Personally, based upon what you have said of your interests you should give some real consideration to changing your major. If it will delay your graduation, so be it - it will be worth it.</p>
<p>Does your school offer a BME degree? That might be a better choice. </p>
<p>Right now you are at the start of your ChemE career and have many more classes as well as electives that you can choose to fit your interests. If you are set on biology/BME applications, I still feel ChemE is a better degree than EE.</p>
<p>If you are thinking about EE take a class or two and skim through the course catalog.</p>
<p>Also, Bears. Beets. Battlestar Gallactaca.</p>
<p>PurdueEE, out of curiosity, I have friends that say they want to go into robotics: is MechE or EE more conducive to getting into? Or is the UG degree irrelevant and what matters is PhD/post-doc work?</p>
<p>I’m not PurdueEE but I can add some insight.</p>
<p>Both ME/EE are great ways to get into Robotics and in fact there is a lot of interdisciplinary work (Mechatronics) that deal with the topic. </p>
<p>While a PhD will give you the expertise in a field, getting a PhD robotics is most conducive through a CS/EE/ME major.</p>
<p>My school actually plans to offer a BME degree next year, and I could switch over to that. However, BME seems too restrictive, whereas ECE or even ChemE allows you to do more things. Plus, as much as I like biology, I don’t find what BMEs do to be interesting. From my understanding, BMEs construct artificial hearts, MRIs, that kinda thing…</p>
<p>Now that I’ve thought about it some more, cognitive science seems very interesting as well (especially the AI branch). Is there a way I could tie in EE/CE with cognitive science?</p>
<p>It would probably be easier to tie CS in with cognitive science. My way of looking at things is that, with CS, you could take extra classes (enough for a double major or minor, or a concentration at least) in psychology…</p>
<p>Between EE and CE, I would say CE. But then again, if AI is really what you want, I don’t see why CS (or math at the least) wouldn’t be higher on the list…</p>
<p>AI isn’t precisely what I want, I just find it pretty interesting. I’d rather pick engineering over a hard-science because I’ll actually be able to make something, whereas the science majors tend to theorize, and I can’t see myself doing that. </p>
<p>A lot of the topics I’m interested in are typically in sci-fi novels. AI, robotics, life extension (which would involve biology I suppose), brain-computer interfacing, etc etc. I’m not sure if we’ll see any of this in our lifetimes, but it’d be really great to strive for some of these.</p>
<p>Also, as far as majoring in EE or CE, I think my work could involve space exploration as well, which would also be very interesting.</p>
<p>Well, CS majors do tend to make a lot of software, but psychology majors don’t typically…</p>
<p>Between EE and CE, I would say EE is the better choice. Between CS and CE, I would say CS. Between CS and EE… well, that’s a choice you’re going to have to make.</p>