<p>I have just finished my first quarter of college as an Electrical Engineering major and I must say the ECE 15 class I took did not amuse me at all... it was basically just writing C programs. If an Electrical Engineer's job is based on C programs then I might as well switch majors now cause that kind of stuff is difficult and boring to me. Are the rest of the Electrical Engineering classes going to be based around programming as well? I picked EE because I thought it would be math intensive but is that really true? If not then what other Engineering major should I change to that actually involves math (like calculus and stuff...)? I like math... but I don't think I'd like applying it to electronics. Also I've always had my mind on becoming a pharmacist as it seems to be a relaxing job with good pay. I've never been a fan of chemistry but I never hated it either. I got a C this quarter for Chem 6A but I'm sure I can get better grades in chemistry if I actually tried (unlike this quarter). Does a pharmacist or engineer work longer hours? Is it easier to get a job as an engineer or a pharmacist? Are the classes for an engineering major harder than for a pharmacist major? Can anyone give an idea on what classes a pharmacist would take?
Answering some of these questions might give me an idea on what major I'd like to choose! Thanks for your time guys.</p>
<p>You may never encounter C again as an EE.</p>
<p>You could very well be done with the programming part of EE. Pharmacy involves a plethora of chemistry and biology, and a bit of math and physics. In my opinion, I would go for EE because it's such a broad field, and it is very math and physics heavy. Yo can also go into chemical engineering, which is somewhat like pharmacy, or biomedical engineeing. Being a Pharmacist, in my opinion, is boring. They spend most of their time just dispensing pills.</p>
<p>I'm always amazed at how much education a pharmacist needs when computers do most of their job now anyway. Maybe you can get you EE than go to pharmacy school and make these computers.</p>
<p>We'll if the course you took wasn't titled "c programming" or such, then you'll probably have to take at least 2 programming specific courses down the road, I had to take a pusedo code class, JAVA, and C as a Cmpe major. So for those programming classes you'll have the intense programming rigor along with the labs. Other than that you'll do small programming here and there using VHDL/Verilog/Matlab/Mathematica/Maple. To answer your question about math, you will have to take a bunch of math classes. I had Calc I-III, Differential Equations, Discrete Math, Combinatorics, and linear algebra. So don't worry, you'll get your math fill from these classes and you'll be dealing with math all the time in you true EE courses.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies, they were very helpful! Could you guys also answer these questions:
Which of the two jobs work longer hours? Are classes for pharmacy harder than classes for engineering and is it more focused on bio or chem? After I graduate would I have an easier time finding a job as a pharmacist or an engineer?
Thanks again!</p>
<p>I have a niece who graduated with a PharmD about five years ago. She graduated from a six year program at Butler, had a choice of jobs and started at over $100K a year. She is now a manager for one of the larger drugstore chains, typically works eight hour days, but sometimes has to cover for employees who are unable to work their shifts.</p>
<p>Best</a> Careers 2009: Pharmacist - US News and World Report</p>
<p>Circuits, Signal processing & control theory = calculus and linear algebra</p>
<p>Communications = probability & information theory</p>
<p>Microelectronics/Solid state = quantum physics and materials science</p>
<p>Electromagnetics/optics = electromagnetic physics (duh!)</p>
<p>Power = uh... I don't actually know but it's not computers.</p>
<p>Computer engineering/science = what you're talking about</p>
<p>You'll get to the other stuff soon. You can avoid computers if you want. I know I am.</p>
<p>@1moremom
Your comment is making me want to switch to pharmacy! So she took 4 years in college as an undergraduate than 6 more years at a grad. school or how does it work?</p>
<p>Ok... so my question is there any reason I should not switch to pharmacist? After looking at the two articles it seems a pharmacist makes more money than an engineer for their starting salary... but requires a longer time to get the necessary degree correct? I like math... but it doesn't mean I'd enjoy studying something else.</p>
<p>What are you more interested in doing? If you'd rather study pharmacy then great but don't base it off the money. People who do jobs for money usually end up dissappointed. </p>
<p>If you are only doing engineering because you like math you are not doing it for the right reason.</p>
<p>ECE 15? Are you at UCSD? If so, that's the only programming course you'll ever need to take. ECE 30 needs some programming (you learn digital logic and assembly), but that's it for the entire curriculum.</p>
<p>Yup, I go to UCSD.
Do you happen to know if UCSD's School of Pharmacy is good?
I don't know exactly what kind of working environment I'd rather be in... but from what I know so far an engineer has to be competitive and innovative and I'm not sure if I have those traits lol. If what you say is true JoeJoe05 then maybe I shouldn't become an engineer if it's only because I like math! But I'd also like the other questions answered such as which path will be harder in terms of classes, amount of years and finding a job.</p>
<p>Engineering is one of the toughest majors. I'm not sure how hard pharmacy is so I can't really tell you which one is harder but I'm guessing engineering. </p>
<p>You can enter engineering with a 4 year degree. Pharmacy is 6-7 years.</p>
<p>Finding a job is pretty similar. You won't have a problem getting a job with either major. </p>
<p>Going into engineering just because you like math probably isn't a solid idea but it's probably better than going into pharmacy just because you want to make more money. You might as well just do finance or law then.</p>
<p>Getting into a good pharmacy program is very competitive. I would guess pharmacy is as tough as most engineering curriculums, but focused more on the life sciences. Prerequisites include-- anatomy (4 hrs), physiology (4 hrs), general biology (8), microbiology (4), general chem (8), organic chem (8), and physics (4). I think my niece was often taking three science courses a semester. </p>
<p>I recommend that you do more research into what a career in pharmacy involves and perhaps do an informational interview of a pharmacist. It's not all filling pill bottles. (The techs do that.) I will say my niece does find her work very fulfilling and feels that she is making a difference in people's lives. (I am not sure my engineer husband would say that about the years he worked in industry.)</p>
<p>OP, if you want to be a pharmacist, you'd be better off to plan right now. Pharmacy is a professional school (not undergrad and not grad either). Basically, you need two years of undergrad studies with certain courses as mentioned in the above post, and more. You also need to take the PCAT and scores well on it. Applying to pharmacy school is a separate and very competitive process. Once you get there, it takes another 4 years of schooling. So, if you plan well, you could get your PharmD in 6 years (2 undergrad + 4 pharm years). Some finishes their BS first, but I am not aware of any pharmacy school that requires an undergrad degree.</p>
<p>Would an undergrad degree give you better chances of entering pharmacy school? I just found out I failed the ECE 15 course... if I were to attempt to get into a pharmacy school how much would this F hurt my chances of getting in? Should I retake the class to replace this F even though pharmacy doesn't require it? Or should I retake that class later and stick to EE for a little longer to see what it's really about? I'm just afraid if I don't change my major to pharmacy soon enough then I'd have to stay in college longer than I should have to.</p>
<p>Looking at UCSD pharmacy school's website, it says that an undergrad. degree is highly recommended when applying, so should I just get it?
Admissions</a> - The Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences</p>
<p>The F is going to hurt you only in that it will lower your GPA. What EE classes did you take this semester? </p>
<p>You should just sit down and ask yourself what got you into EE in the first place? What is making you quit? And why are you going into this new major? </p>
<p>If you don't have any interest in EE then you should get out now. If you feel more drawn towards pharmacy then go for that. Do what interests you more. Don't base it off difficulty, money, or time in school. Do what you WANT to do.</p>
<p>I only took ECE 15 last quarter and am going to take ECE 25 for the winter quarter. The only reason I chose EE was because I heard it involved a good amount of math and cause math is one of my strong subjects I :\
My interest right now... I'm not exactly sure... I would like to see how pharmacists and engineers do their job and see which one interests me more. The thing is I don't know how I would go about doing that.</p>
<p>phufool, Go down to your local pharmacy, tell the pharmacist you're interested in it as a career and ask him/ her to talk to you. </p>
<p>I will suggest you move on this because it will be hard to pull up your average if you end up with more low grades in engineering. I had a friend who wanted to be a doctor but dad convinced her to do undergrad in engineering so she would have a back-up in case she couldn't get admitted to med school. In the end, her gpa was so low in her first 2 years of engineering (and she ended up disliking it) that she ended up not becoming an engineer or a doctor.</p>