<p>I've decided that what I really need is to pick a major that will give me satisfaction. Engineering is what I've always wanted to do.</p>
<p>I'm debating between civil and mechanical. The industries I'm interested in are: resource extraction, utilities, transportation, and food/agriculture. Infrastructure projects like hydroelectric plants are awesome, but piping design or laying out a plant would be cool too. The industrial/systems program at my school is part of mechanical, but a graduate degree seems helpful in that field and I can take IE courses as part of the CivE program. I understand that computers are important in all engineering fields; that said, I don't really like drafting/modeling software or programming.</p>
<p>Everyone says civil was hard hit by the real estate bust; however, I haven't actually seen data showing higher unemployment for CivE vs. MechE. Does anyone have good information?</p>
<p>We have to apply to majors at my school. My grades are good but I screwed up and didn't take quite the right sequence of courses, so I'll have to apply one semester late. Civil will supposedly take anyone, but mechanical is more selective.</p>
in that case, definitely civil. In particular, the first three on your list are flat-out subdisciplines of civil. Mech is only tangentially related to those fields…</p>
<p>
That’s correct. However, that mainly applies to the structural and geotech areas. It appears that you’re interested much more in the enviro side, which was not hit nearly as bad and stands to pick up a lot in the near future. Look up the BLS statistics, but also realize that those were compiled (I believe) in 2008, before construction took a hit.</p>
<p>I’m not sure I understand where you are–are you already in college or in high school?</p>
I’m talking about industries, though, not occupations.
About to finish my freshman year of college. I put off physics because I was planning to do computer science, then found out that I hate CS. Not a good call, in hindsight. I’ve looked at accounting and math/statistics too but I feel like engineering would be a lot more fulfilling for me. I’ve loved chemistry this year but I think it’s really too late to go for ChemE and that doesn’t seem nearly as broad to me anyway.</p>
<p>I’m a junior studying civil/architectural engineering.</p>
<p>Everything you’re describing sounds to me, at least where I go, to be definitely civil engineering. </p>
<p>“The industries I’m interested in are: resource extraction, utilities, transportation, and food/agriculture. Infrastructure projects like hydroelectric plants are awesome, but piping design or laying out a plant would be cool too.”</p>
<p>Other than food/agriculture everything you said there we’ve covered in our classes. The civil engineering area didn’t suffer as bad as just purely construction, and structural areas. Transportation engineering is thriving and pipe design/layout and resources are all thriving. Also the structural/construction areas are coming back already too.</p>