Electrical engineering, is it worth it??

Hi guys, how you doin’. I am a senior in high school and I am considering electrical engineering as my major. Do you think it’s worth it and what about the employment and the $$

What does that mean, “worth it?” Worth the effort? Worth the cost? Worth the social sacrifice? The answer is yes to all of those IF you want to be an engineer.

^^ good.

If you’re pretty sure but not real sure, get a starter pack, like this one:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/170
or this one:
http://www.robotshop.com/en/arduino-starter-kit-absolute-beginner.html?gclid=CNPN77Pu_skCFVglgQods7kPnA

Or even this one, if maybe computer engineering interests you:
https://www.makershed.com/products/make-getting-started-with-raspberry-pi-deluxe-kit

If you think that getting an LED to light up is lame, then probably you should move along. But if it seems pretty cool to wire that stuff up and make it actually happen, that’s 50-130 dollars well spent.

There are other vendors of course, and there are kits that don’t use a microcontroller: Snap Circuits, various project labs (such as http://www.elenco.com/product/productdetails/project_labs=NTQ=/130-in-1_electronics_playground=MjA0 )

The Raspberry Pi and Arduino have an active user community, so getting stuck forever isn’t all that likely to happen. Also, none of the things I’ve listed should need soldering.

I had a “9 in 1” project lab with an IC way back when, which I fried. It was fun, but not enough to sway me from something with more of a CS emphasis. Was worth the $20 or whatever I spent on it for that reason alone.

@50N40W - I like this advice … yes an electrical or computer engineer is much more likely than a comp sci major to actually touch hardware … and this is a great way to start.

Similarly, if you spend lots of time building the robot and really get bored by the electrical or computer programming … consider mechanical engineering.

Employment and $ is great … if you can grind through 4 years of intensive math and science and problem sets. I would prefer you have a good amount of natural aptitude for this, a good amount of interest, and preferably, some high school classes than can help you get As and Bs in your freshman math-chem-physics extravaganza.

@eyemgh I mean worth the cost. But thanks for the repond

@50N40W Thanks. These sites were really helpful

@PickOne1 what about thone who are saying that there is a high unemployment for EE

@Mohammedabed, it’s absolutely worth the cost IF you want to be an engineer. That may sound snarky, but what are your alternatives? In general engineering has a very good ROI and there are good value schools out there if cost is a primary concern.

@eyemgh My alternatives are mech eng or comp sci.

Those options all cost the same so what’s the debate here? I’m thoroughly confused.

@boneh3ad The debate is: is it worth it??

And as everyone has said, what other choice do you have? If you want to be an engineer, you have to get the degree. And, I’m bad at estimates, but it seems like about a billion people in this thread have already pointed out that engineering degrees have very good return on investment. So I’ll say again, what’s the debate here? If you want to be an engineer, get the degree.

@boneh3ad Thanks for the respond.

@Mohammedabed, I’m in agreement with @boneh3ad, cost wise they’re all the same. That will depend on your institution of choice. Return on Investment, which is the calculation most use in determining value (a synonym for “is it worth it” financially), is similar for all of them. So, it looks like you have a pretty clear answer. On a pure financial basis, all three would appear to be good investments. You should choose the one that interests you the most, because that’s the strongest predictor of your success. Good luck.

An engineering degree is valuable, and you will make enough money during your early career to really buy down any student loans you accumulate (some even make enough during coops to pay down their loans or pay expenses). I even think you could take some loans to attend an institution that has a bit lower ROI (likely due to higher tuition) but that you really like and can excel at, since you can pay those back by driving a car that is a few years older or having less stuff … you can pay your bills and loans …

Trying to predict the job market for any major 50 years out is pretty silly (and yes, you will work until 68 unless you make and save a lot of money). What you can do is find something your really enjoy and do well, so you can enjoy these 50 years x 40 hours x 48 weeks while earning enough to feed your family and save for retirement (the next 20 years). People that excel in any of these fields, along with lots of others, make good money and make more money than people who just pick something with a 10% higher starting salary.

ME and EE won’t go away unless we stop having physical objects or electrical circuits. Comp Sci changes frequently but if you keep learning … and have interest in coding or having others code for you … well, you will do well too (not sure I see the 200K salaries at 30 going to 500K at 50, but who knows really).

I’m an electrical engineering major at umich. Overall, I would say that the subject is fairly interesting. The average graduate with a bachelors here has a starting salary of roughly $61K.

I do have to say that here it is probably the most competitive in terms of trying to get a good GPA. There are a lot of international students from China in the program who set a very difficult curve. When it comes to job hunting, any GPA less than a 3.0 can easily get your resume thrown out before it is looked at carefully.