Hello everyone,
Can anyone please tell me the difference between Mechanical and Electrical Engineering? I am not sure which one to major. What is the focus of Electrical Engineering? What about Mechanical Engineering? I did not do very well in Calc 2 (got a B) and someone told me Calculus 2 is very mechanical. I got an A in Calc 3 though. What do you think is best for me?
Thank you very much for your insights.
Have you taken physics?
The clue is the words “Mechanical” vs. “Electrical”
I’ve taken Engineering Physics 1. Taking Engineering Physics 2 next Sem.
Engineering Physics 1. I will take Physics 2 next Sem.
So 1 is probably mechanics, right? And 2 electricity/magnetism? As far as I know that’s the basic split.
Yes, 1 is Mechanics. So maybe I should decide after taking Physics 2? So Calculus isn’t a determinant of which major is best for me? Sorry for asking dumb questions. I am kind of clueless.
Look at required courses for the two majors and the types of courses offered by the two deparments.
One thing to keep in mind is that there are a number of ME ads that want the ME to have electromechanical experience if you are interested in product design. So if you do ME, u might still decide to take extra EE classes or take the EE tract of Circuits instead of the ME track to get more EE knowledge.
My son took Circuits in his study abroad and had to take the EE one even though he was an ME major. He thought it was really hard but he learned more.
Whatever path you choose, take some actual programming classes from the CS department. It’s true that any vertebrate can hack at a matlab script until it sort of works, and based on what I’ve had to look at, apparently a lot of invertebrates can too.
So my son wants to do EE – because he wants to invent gadgets and program them too. I would suggest that you consider what it is you may want to actually do with an ME or EE degree and also as said above - consider - whichever major you choose, the value of taking some classes outside your major. I do think calculus is needed for EE - not sure how much for ME. But a B is not a bad grade.Does your school help you identify colleges that are “matches”? You might go on a few websites and look up the course requirements for each to graduate. I hope this helps some. Also at most colleges you can change majors if you decide to, though it would be important to understand how that works wherever you are considering attending.
Thank you. This is very helpful to me.
Right… you will know more after Physics 2. For me, a Mech Eng, my non-EE preference was very clear after Physics2 (electricity/magnitism) .
I am an electrical engineer and i hated physics 2, not sure why people are using it as a deciding factor. Too much theory no practical application. Awful class, for me anyways.
I’d say take a programming class or a circuit class. My high school had a digital systems class, that was the deciding class for me. Both are heavy on math but EE has more programming, so make sure you enjoy programming. Almost all my classes required some kind of programming, and the once what didn’t require programming was a whole lot easier if you could write a program to double check your work.
@FLDennis : I’m currently taking Engineering Mechanics: Statics, and I enjoy it very much. I think I am going to major ME. I feel like EE is too complicated. Thank you for your insight.
Good for you. If you like Statics, then you will like Dynamics which is next. My son enjoyed both these classes.