EE vs ME

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I'm a freshman trying to figure out which field of engineering I'd like to major in. The two that interest me the most are EE and ME. </p>

<p>I took intro MechE (along with physics - mechanics) last semester and thought it was pretty good. Currently I'm taking intro circuits (along with E&M), and I'm a little disappointed. Even though I've found the material pretty interesting so far, I've also realized that I'm not very good at solving homework problems. In fact I don't think I've ever struggled with anything as much as I am with circuits right now. I'm even more disillusioned by the fact that other people don't seem to be having much trouble (and I'm at least an average student at my school). </p>

<p>My question: Could this be a sign that I'm not really meant to do EE? I'm attracted to this field because it seems to be associated with exciting, newer technologies. Having begun circuits and E&M (which, by the way, I find much harder than mechanics), though, I'm beginning to doubt EE would be the right choice for me. (Am I just not an E&M person or is EE supposed to be noticeably "harder" than MechE?) My friends are telling me I should stick with it, but I'm apprehensive.</p>

2

<p>I should also add that I'm considering dropping circuits, since it's eating a lot into my other classes.</p>

3

<p>i'm in the same boat, except i'm a senior in HS in Physics C who finds mechanics a ton easier than electricity&magnetism. EE is considered to be one of the hardest majors. i'm of the opinion that you should do what you like the best, which may or may not be affected by what you are best at.</p>

4

<p>What do you want to do? Do you want to be an electrical engineer?</p>

<p>I had a terrible, terrible time with the introductory mechanics course when I was a freshman. I thought it meant for certain that I sucked at engineering, and that I was never going to make it.</p>

<p>Turns out that the assistant professor who'd had half a year of teaching experience was just a terrible teacher, and I really couldn't understand his accent at all. It wasn't me. It was tough material, but it didn't mean that I was awful at engineering. I dropped that course and took it again with a different prof the next semester. Once I got over that hurdle, it was still pretty tough, but I got to do what I wanted to do for a living, which meant that it ended up being worth it.</p>

<p>Talk to your advisor, or a trusted professor. </p>

<p>Also, work with a study group... I worked with someone who is now one of my best friends, and we struggled through that course together. Both of us were smart, but the coursework was just tough, and we luckily had her then-boyfriend/now-husband to help us when we got totally stuck, since he'd taken the course the year before. We got through it, and we're all three successful engineers nowadays.</p>

<p>It might not be you. And maybe, don't attempt complex engineering alone, at first. ;)</p>

<p>PS- Don't ever base your perception of material being easy or hard off of whether or not everyone else "seems to be getting it". Think about it... You look around, notice that everyone else is nodding and taking notes and looking intelligent. You feel like an idiot for not catching a third of what's going on, so you smile and nod and take notes and try to look intelligent... Pretty much everyone's just doing what you're doing!! Our senior year, my classmates and I finally let everyone else know that we had no idea what was going on, pretty much all of the time, and we all got really mad at each other for leading everyone else on by not being like, "I am completely and utterly lost..." There's always going to be this one guy or girl who's totally on top of it and asks all the brilliant questions, but I promise promise PROMISE you they are in the distinct minority.</p>

5

<p>How difficult is engineering if you find Calculus easy, but find Mechanics hard?</p>

6

<p>I have a similar problem to yours. I am in MechEng and although I don’t find it overly difficult, I'm not sure how much I like it, I’m considering switching to CompEng. If it came down to it, I'd probably prefer working on some gadget over a fridge but I wouldn’t want to be miserable in college.</p>

<p>In High School I took Physics, Math, Computing and Mechanics. What I learned from Mechanics was that even though I was better at the mechanics within physics than the e&m (and liked it more because of that), it wasn’t because mechanics was easier but that the e&m was at a higher level. The mechanics course showed me that mechanics could be really difficult as well.</p>

<p>Without the mechanics course I could easily convince myself that I preferred mechanics over e&m, but that was just me saying that because it was easier and less annoying. I know better now because they both suck! Although mechanics sucks just a tad bit less.</p>

<p>MechEng is probably easier because there is more linearity (similar problems show up a lot within courses) and less puzzle solving, but I don’t want to reach a point in college that I am sick of resolving forces on trusses (I’m already feeling a bit dull because of the amount of mechanics I did in HS) because I'm fairly sure that when it gets hard it won’t be pretty. I also don’t want to go into CompEng knowing that somewhere down the line the difficulty disadvantage will completely outweigh the interest advantage. Ok I seem to be pointing away from engineering altogether now but that isn’t even an option, is it?</p>

<p>Well, now I’m just going round in circles with what I am saying. Basically what I have to say is you are looking for something perfect. Doing something you like and being very good at it, something I’m trying to do now. I’m not going to say this is advice because it isn’t, it’s just my story. I am probably at a similar stage in life so the answer might not have as much credibility. I’ve tried very hard to make this “perfect” decision many times and have failed (I know because I’m still asking). </p>

<p>It isn’t too good tacking something you like even when it’s really hard and you may not be capable. It would be very hard to stay happy during college if you were doing something that brought a lot of stress and sleepless nights (unless the rewards are part of a bigger picture e.g. career, money etc). On the other hand regret is also a very bad thing to bring out of college. Doing something “easier” and coming out of college with grades that aren’t as high as you expected and feeling empty because you had little interest in your program isn’t too good either.</p>

<p>It turns out that I did really badly in Mechanics. So bad that anyone who saw my grades would ask why I would even consider MechEng, but I’m not worried. Like aibarr said, even though some people in my class did better, it was due to specific circumstances and generally we were at similar levels of understanding and performance during the course. The funny thing is most aren’t doing MechEng. Some were detoured and some never considered it.</p>

<p>So what I would say is to try to follow your heart as closely as possible, don’t be too picky in your interests and try to find a balance between the difficulty of the program and how much interest you have in it. Talk to students in their Junior or Senior year in both camps. Ask them to give you truthful answers about the difficulty of the program and some of the projects/practical stuff (supposed to be the fun part?) they do. If possible sit in on some general higher courses in both camps for a few minutes and ask youself if you can imagine sitting there in 3 years. Also, try reading course descriptions of all the required courses on both sides.</p>

<p>These are all things I’m going to try and do to help me decide, but I can’t waste too much time on it because it is a distraction and the later I wait, the harder it will be to switch. </p>

<p>I hope I have helped you in search of your answer and have not made it worse.</p>

<p>Also, please forgive my grammar, it’s late. Ok, maybe it generally sucks!</p>

7

<p>


</p>

<p>You, sir, are backwards.</p>

8

<p>What, is Physics supposed to be easier than Calculus?</p>

9

<p>yeah calc is a lot easier for me than physics</p>

10

<p>Actually, I also found Calc easier than mechanics. Being good at mechanics classes requires a little bit of visualization. You kind of have to have a bit of a "feel" for how things move. I did NOT have that intuition, but I could follow the simple rules that Calc lays out.</p>

11

<p>For the record, I've dropped circuits and will probably never go into EE. </p>

<p>I find mechanics a little easier than calc. Mechanics, to me, is more concrete, intuitive, and easy to visualize. E&M and the calculus that accompanies it (flux, etc), on the other hand, is pretty abstract.</p>