<p>I really want to be designing consumer products (eg. iPod, or the next generation of spandex) or components of a larger project (eg. circuits in a robot, or materials to build a shuttle). However, I would still much rather design materials and chemicals than circuit boards.</p>
<p>Which engineers spend more time working on projects like these, rather than desinging machines to manufacture them? I'm stuck between chemical and electrical engineering. I think ChemE will limit me to designing plants, while EE opens up a lot more doors to the design aspect of engineering.</p>
<p>I need to decide within a week and call the admissions people and hopefully they will change my major. Any help that will help me decide is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>If you want to design consumer electronics like the Ipod, I'd go with Electrical or Computer Engineering. Mechanical Engineering has a hand in virtually all consumer products (ie: someone has to design the housing of the Motorola RAZR).</p>
<p>I'm not specifically interested in consumer electronics, but products as a whole. I'd be just as happy designing the materials for the iPod. Actually, I might be happier, but I'm hesitant about ChemE because I'm starting to think that only PhDs get to work on the R&D part of engineering.</p>
<p>However, if that option is way out of my league with just a bachelor's degree, I'll be quite satisfied with EE.</p>
<p>you probably won't get a design job right after getting your BS...either you gain experience or start with MS</p>
<p>furthermore a design job isn't just given to a single person with a specific engineering degrees...it's team work comprising of engineers from several disciplines</p>
<p>That's true, but perhaps chemical engineers are less likely to do such a job because they work on designing the equipments that mass-produce chemicals instead, whereas electrical engineers design the products, which is what I want to do (again, not necessarily electronics).</p>
<p>Do chemical engineers (just a BS) have opportunities to design say, electronic materials or cleaning detergents (this is a somewhat bad example, but substitute any other chemicals in there)?</p>
<p>If not, then I'm just going to go with EE. If yes, well, that just complicates the situation.</p>
<p>What about Materials Science & Engineering? Does the school you're attending have a major in that? Cornell (where I'm going next year) sent me a brochure on MSE, and its more or less intended for people that want to design the materials used in consumer products...more specific than ChemE. I'd think in EE you are going to be designing circuit boards, not the materials that go into them.</p>
<p>Sure it does...you don't think Jon Rubinstein (the lead engineer on the team responsible for designing the original iPod, and an EE major) had to think creatively to design the iPod?</p>
<p>It's unfortunate that my school doesn't offer materials engineering. It only offers chemical engineering, which I thought could help me land a job in materials engineering, biotechnology, or nanotechnology (but the latter two requires PhDs I suppose). </p>
<p>Right now, I have two choices. The first is that I stick with chemical engineering and try to find as much courses relevant to materials engineering (I think there are only a few; less than 10 for certain). The second option is switch to electrical engineering and minor in software engineering.</p>
<p>At this point I really don't care what kind of engineer I become any more. I just want to be designing "things to be used" (if that makes sense at all). I was in love with chemical engineering, but the discussion about chemical engineers design machines defers me from it.</p>