(Originally posted by accident in College Life, sorry)
My late blooming son has been exploring possible majors and one of interest is materials science/engineering. He’s already been at community college 3 years (part time) and would need at least another 1.5 years of math, physics and chemistry in order to meet transfer requirements for engineering.
He’s got a 4.0 GPA thus far (doing great in Calc. 2 now) and says he is up for the challenge. My husband and I don’t mind him taking extra years to get there if it’s what he’s truly passionate about.
Wondering if there are Engineering majors (or actual engineers) who might pipe in. Are you happy you chose this major/career? Would you choose differently if you could go back in time? Any other thoughts, pros/cons, appreciated.
Just wondering if he might be able to shadow an engineer or more that might give him more insight into what work as an engineer may entail. Our S is an electrical engineer and so far seems pretty happy. He has ended up doing a lot of project management, which he is good at but not thrilled to be doing. He is also able to do some drone-flying (which he enjoys) and some wearable tech plus some robotics.
Our S did an internship over the summer doing research for an engineering prof as well as another internship with NASA. Both of those were helpful to him.
I’ll contend that shadowing an engineer is borderline useless (if you can even find one to shadow). Engineering jobs are so diverse that it means one random engineer probably isn’t representative of engineers in general.
I think shadowing an engineer can be useful. (I did so myself sophomore year of college, for a day at GE. That’s when I learned that some engineers spend a lot of time in meetings.). It was just a sample of one job/company, but still useful datapoint. However it won’t give a clue about the rigorous academics needed to get there.
The “doing great in Calc 2” seemed like a good sign.
I don’t think shadowing is very representative of the whole industry. Let him see how he does in the Calc based physics courses and high level math. Ucially multivariable and Calc based physics is a good representation as Calc 2 is still very much recognize a pattern and perform the integration. Do I regret it? No but sometimes I wish I had chosen an easier major.
Shadowing a practicing engineer in a field you are interested in has SOME value IMHO. There certainly are many diverse areas within the field of engineering and even within the sub-fields. But just seeing what the day is like can be of some use. It isn’t always exciting, there are times when it is just a lot of grunt work. But the high points can be really great.
I am a retired engineer / engineering manager and loved it. Sometimes I felt like I should be paying the company for the privilege of letting me have so much fun, other times I felt I was underpaid for all the aggravation I had. But fortunately the fun times were the majority. I worked for a NASA contractor mostly in the manned space program.
My son and daughter are both early career engineers and both seem to enjoy their work. You could tell my son was going to be an engineer at an early age. He loved to build things, find out how mechanical things worked, etc. It has always been his passion. My daughter was exposed to the same things as my son (as much as I could) and seemed to like them but never showed the same passion. When I asked her what she wanted to study in college, she answered right away; “Engineering”. Her only hesitation was what field of engineering. She chose mechanical and has never regretted it. It amazes me to see the passion she has for her job.
Your son will only know if he likes it if he tries it.
One thing that S’s U stressed and S did for the 1st time ever was form and participate in study groups. He said it was KEY for success in engineering. He got his EE in 2010 and had been pretty happy so far.
I wouldn’t worry about your son’s late start, I have plenty of friends that bounced around for a few years (one took 10 years to earn his BS), before wrapping up their engineering degrees and they are all doing extremely well.
I have many engineers in my family and none of them ever had any regrets. Most of them are mechanical engineers. My daughter is studying CS and Engineering and so far it seems to be a perfect fit for her.
We often joke that my husband was on “the 11 year plan” . He started with pre-med but then dropped out, worked, and then put himself through community college pre-engineering. We met junior year of engineering school. He had more years of school, but I had more loans. It all worked out.
No regrets so far. My daughter did take an INtro to Engineering class her first semester because she wasn’t sure which type of engineering she’d like best. She liked civil. I think if she goes on to a masters it will be in architectural something or other. My nephew is adding an MBA because he likes the business side better than the actual engineering.
There’s times when it sucks, but overall, I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing.
The grass will always look greener somewhere else. I’ve caught myself several times sitting in a math class lecture looking at Wikipedia articles on the French Revolution and the Crusades, and wondering “is engineering really what I should be doing?” But if the shoe was on the other foot, and I had a 10 page history essay due in a week while I built circuits on the side for fun, I’d probably think about the other way.