<p>This is my first time posting here, so pardon any faux pas I make. I'm a rising high school senior considering a career in EE as I apply to schools in the fall. I just had a few questions about the journey to a career in EE.</p>
<ol>
<li>What was the college experience like? Is it easy to switch your major to math, physics, or pre-med? Did you have the freedom to explore a double-major or minor in the humanities? How intensive were the courses and projects? How long did you stay in school?</li>
<li>Is there any sort of reputation/reaction when you tell people you are an engineering major?</li>
<li>What percentage of your peers did internships? Were they paid internships? Did they occur in the summer or during the academic year? Were they competitive to get? How was the commute? When did you intern and what did you gain from your experience?</li>
<li>How were your studies in graduate school, if you chose to go? Was it similar or different to undergraduate work? Did you still manage to "have a life" as a grad student? How did it prepare you for your career? Can you switch to a CS or ME career after graduating? </li>
<li>How does one get a job in management? What kind of schooling or skills are needed?</li>
<li>What kind of trends are happening in the industry? Is there any shift in jobs, salary, fields, or so forth?</li>
</ol>
<p>I'm sorry that was so long! Thank you in advance for your replies!</p>
<a href=“a”>b</a>** The college experience was much like anyone else’s, although it skewed a little bit harder towards study. Still partied, still did clubs, still had a girlfriend… not sure what you are looking for.
<a href=“b”>b</a>** Never tried to switch majors, so I cannot really say. Depends on when you try to switch, mostly.
<a href=“c”>b</a>** Yes, but it is not easy for ANY engineering major nor for most hard science majors. BA degrees are designed for breadth, making multi-majors and minors easy. BS degrees are designed for depth.
<a href=“d”>b</a>** Varied? Some classes were VERY intense and time consuming, others not so much.
<a href=“e”>b</a>** I will not answer that only because I had a DECIDEDLY non-traditional educational path.</p>
<p>
Sure! Some people are a bit awed (engineering has a rep for being one of the toughest fields), others will look at you as a “nerd”. Either way, life goes on. People who judge you positively or negatively on individual characteristics will rarely do good things for you.</p>
<p>
<a href=“a”>b</a>** I never asked.
<a href=“b”>b</a>** I never asked.
<a href=“c”>b</a>** Depends on the school and the internship.
<a href=“d”>b</a>** No idea - I didn’t do one.
<a href=“e”>b</a>** No idea - I didn’t do one.
<a href=“f”>b</a>** It was transformational.</p>
<p>
<a href=“a”>b</a>** TOUGH.
<a href=“b”>b</a>** Different - much more mathematical (hard to believe, but true!), much harder in some ways, but much more friendly and helpful attitudes from the instructors.
<a href=“c”>b</a>** Yes, just less so - which is true of ALL grad students.
<a href=“d”>b</a>** Well in my case, but that really depends on your career and type of degree.
<a href=“e”>b</a>** Yes, but your options are narrowed by your specific coursework and experience. That is, any given EE may be able to switch into specific CS or ME areas… or might not.</p>
<p>
<a href=“a”>b</a>** Depends a bit on the kind of management (program, functional, business), but generally you need some years of experience during which time you demonstrate a certain level of proficiency. At my company, functional management typically takes at least a decade, but you can get into program management within 3-4 years, and can be in non-management supervisory roles almost from the start.
<a href=“b”>b</a>** None is required, but an MBA or MS in Technical Management (or some similar field) can help provided it is awarded after at least a few years of experience and at the point where you are otherwise eligible for management. One of my bosses had no specific education beyond his PhD, so they sent him to Harvard for a couple of months for a short course to get him ready for his new position (in charge of a few hundred engineers). Conversely, there are lots of people who graduated with BS’s and MBA’s but struggled to find jobs of EITHER kind with no experience.</p>
<p>
Whatever trends there are, they can change substantially before you could possibly graduate.</p>
Switching from EE to math or physics should be no problem. Pre-med is usually not a major, but you could certainly change to a different major and then complete the coursework required to apply to med school (doing so along with EE would be challenging). You do need to protect your GPA for pre-med and this could be harder in engineering.</p>
<p>Double-majoring is possible, but likely to extend your time in school. Frankly, I think double majors are overrated. If you decide on a career in engineering, you need an engineering degree. Where possible, you can supplement that with courses of interest in other disciplines - remember, you don’t need a double major to take classes. Unless you have a good reason to seek another degree, what is the point?</p>