hello
I have been reading (and rereading) discussions on dual major vs double minors (arguably intensive vs broad studies).
Currently I am in a position where I am funded for enough coursework to either get a double major or two minors
I have a bachelors of science in Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability with a community development specialization as my major focus
I am slotted up to get a Geographic Information Science minor and work mostly in undergraduate research that spans both of my major and minor focus in a very rewarding sense.
As far as future goals, well I don’t know. I am very indecisive and my end goal is to eventually work for myself down the line in either consulting or my own business.
I want another internship next summer and will graduate the fall after, and I need to have a adaptable degree with set skills given that I don’t have a set plan. I have been looking at either adding a humanitarian engineering minor or a geography second major, which would be turning my current minor into a major. The goal of getting a humanitarian engineering minor would be to compliment my experience working along side other engineers and potentially building some personal engineering skills. The goal of the second major would be to go into full detail and practice with software development and coding to really specialize in a practical skill that compliments my current major (the specialization would be spacial analysis). I also like the idea of being able to take remote jobs with more computer based work if I decide to do so.
As far as future employers or grad school, the second major may open more doors for me across disciplines while I see the two minors making me seem more well rounded for sustainability or resiliency based jobs. The second major may look better for grad school
Of course I am merely an undergraduate with the nose in the books and limited experience, so I don.t know what other peoples experiences are with this. I am merely drawing conclusions based on my limited knowledge.
From what I hear GIS and geography majors alone don’t lead to a plethora of job availability unless you have some good experience with it. however, by no means will an engineering minor make employers see you as an engineer, so the edge may be dampened unless you are working in an engineering based study. I have heard that GIS is better as a minor than a focus, hence while my second major is focused in spacial analysis, where I use GIS software development and coding classes as the core.
I am more passionate about the spatial analysis, but at the same time I don’t want to dump all my effort into a second major that doesn’t make sense.
all majors and minors are from bachelors of science programs. The spatial analysis and humanitarian engineering programs are both STEM. Last i heard my schools geography department is ranked 5th in the nation, but I have not confirmed that myself, but that may sweeten my degree a little more
Of course there is a huge probability that I am overthinking this whole thing, which if I am then I would like to know.
So, maybe I need a little guidance beyond advisers and students of the different majors, which brought me here. Sorry for a repeated topic, it just seems that I couldn’t find many examples of similar degree paths and goals as me in the whole dual v two minor topic.
Thank you for the help.
I guess my reasoning for posting this in engineering majors is both of my options are either going to place me heavily in either Computer Science Engineering courses or Civil and Environmental Engineering courses, and I wanted the opinions to be weighted against those opinions of individuals within those professions as to which would be a better path to compliment a non engineering major,
Sorry I omitted that part from the original post
The title of this thread doesn’t seem to match the text at all, which has me a bit confused. What has me even more confused is that I have absolutely no idea what “humanitarian engineering” is or entails. Is spatial analysis somehow the same as the geography degree you mention?
What is your career goal here? Companies and graduate programs rarely care about either minors or double majors, so either way this feels like a lot of wasted effort.
I want to work with regional planning and city design/development
I have got my foot in the door
But it seems I am working specifically with engineers more than not.
Its kind of one of those weird revelations that has occurred during internship experience
I expected to be working mostly with city and regional planners, maybe some mixed environmental scientists and engineers. But from my experience thus far I am usually one of the only non engineering degree programs within projects
So I guess, since this is the path I enjoy and where life has taken me so far, I am looking to see what engineering skills I can pick up.
Ive even looked at dual major in engineering (most likely environmental) but that would put me way beyond my graduation date. I have tried to fill as many free electives with phyaical and environmental engineering courses, but it has only allotted for three classes
I guess I’m concerned that I may not be applicable in the very field I am aiming for when in comes time for hiring, due to job description.
Now I already have a geographic information systems minor, and I have dabbled in computor science engineering courses.
I have some free time and need to be full time to get my scholarships and funding, so dropping to part time is out of the question.
In general, I am wondering what seems like a practical skill to keep me fluent and competitive in the field that I am in given that it seems to be a lot more engineering heavy.
So the two options I have are:
Minor in something from the department of engineering at my college, which would be a little outside of my current study.
Or bed down in what has gotten me here in the first place, and focus more on software development/troubleshooting, spatial statistics, and throw in some CAD work and maybe c++ and python language. I see that a lot of engineers I work with have computor science or gis work that can mirror thus some, all though not as in depth.
I am basically trying to decide if its worth the effort to minor, or even seem as a requirement to double major in engineering to work on these projects, or should I try and stick with becoming very fluent in my analysis and metrics that got me here in first place?
As an engineer looking at a non engineer, what is the value that you put on an engineering minor? To clarify
I mostly do geographic information data management, as well as some light analysis. I work mostly on the community and economic development as well as focussing on some ecological and biological data management from the field.
Would adding an engineering minor or major seem beneficial as opposed to focussing on my current major, given that I work mostly with engineers?
To be frank, I had no idea I would be on heavy interdisciplinary tasks as this when going into the major I chose. Whether it be a misunderstanding on my part initially going in or a fluke of me getting involved in some cool projects and experiential learning, I enjoy it immensely.
I just am trying to make sure I stay competitive, as I do wish to take a break between undergrad and graduate level and gain work experience.
Most of the job titles available for these permanent positions call for engineering degrees, and although I am more of an analyst, I do want to make the best decisions now to be able to have an edge
I am digging for pure engineering student or grad advice on the matter
Perhaps I have done so inappropriately for the structure of this website and mislabeled
For that I am sorry
I guess I want to know what other engineers think, ones who have gone through the rigor of the coursework, is a minor white noise? Is a major in the subject more desirable
Is it reasonable to cross over my discipline into the engineering workforce in its pure (albeit interdisciplinary nature)?
I suppose my next question to you is, if this company has already hired you as an intern in this role without any sort of additional engineering background or any additional majors or minors, why do you think you need these things to be hired by them? I just honestly think you are setting yourself for a whole bunch of work with no tangible benefit.