<p>I'm about to start my Sophomore year in university, but I'm in a bit of a dilemma. I've performed well in Math and Physics, but not in CAD (got a C). I came in as a Mechanical Engineer and now I'm contemplating changing (possibly to Electrical or Chemical? I'm not a fan of Computer Science as that's what my dad does for a living and I doubt I'd find it enjoyable) since nearly all mech/aero jobs in industry seem to require CAD proficiency (not only am I not good with it, I would also prefer not working with CAD daily for a living). </p>
<p>I guess what I'm asking is if certain engineering majors (or specializations in them) involve little/no CAD design work. If not, how much is my poor CAD grade going to affect my future job and graduate school prospects if I chose to stay in Mechanical Eng?</p>
<p>You dislike a certain part of your major and you’re unwilling to just suck it up and grind through it until you’re better, looking for greener pastures instead?
Welcome to the real world.</p>
<p>What CAD software was it? What about it did you not like? Could you not visualize well? Or was it that you were not too savvy interacting with the program?</p>
<p>@ Neodymium:
I understand what you’re saying, but if CAD is an absolutely vital part of the major (many mech eng jobs seem to involve it) and I’m going to be working with it for the rest of my life, I’m not going to go through with it. Why would I just “suck it up” and do something I don’t enjoy if another engineering/science major doesn’t involve it? </p>
<p>That was my point of my original post. Is there even an engineering major that doesn’t involve this or is it something present in all engineering disciplines in large amounts?</p>
<p>@ Chucktown:
It was AutoCAD Inventor. Maybe I didn’t spend enough time with it, but it seemed most people were modeling pretty quickly and well with it. Probably the interaction thing. I’ve read that many companies use 3D modeling software (I saw CATIA listed on many Lockheed/Toyota jobs) and I’m assuming those are increasingly complex.</p>
<p>By “suck it up” I mean suck it up and learn it well. Using it won’t be a problem if it ends up being useful.
There are a lot of things I didn’t originally like that I’ve learned to appreciate. Something as useful as AutoCAD is worth learning.
Trust me, there is much more you’ll learn to hate in ChemE/EE than MechE, especially if chemistry/electomagnetism are not your cup of tea.</p>
<p>I completely understand the usefulness of CAD (evidenced by the fact that it’s used so pervasively in industry).</p>
<p>The problem is that I’ve essentially destroyed my mechanical engineering GPA and am quite far behind my peers in that subject. At least if I changed to something else, I’d have a CHANCE at obtaining a high major gpa when I graduate. Neither of us knows whether I’d perform poorer in cheme/ee. If, however, all other engineering disciplines involve this subject (in industry/academia), then I’d have to just continue with MechE and struggle with CAD…</p>
<p>I’d rather try much harder to get a higher major GPA in a different major knowing that I MAY have a shot at a good job/gradschool than really struggle to get a mediocre GPA in MechE now that I already have a C. GPA is extremely important to me considering I don’t attend a stellar engineering institution either.</p>
<p>You seem to assume that many MEs in industry do CAD work as a primary part of their job. That isn’t true. The heavy CAD work is done by technicians.</p>
<p>That’s good to know, but my guess is that it’s still quite important for many jobs based on their requirements and expectations.</p>
<p>How badly do you think this grade would affect my chances of ever attending a good graduate institution provided I do well in future MechE classes? I ask mainly because this really brings down my major gpa…</p>
<p>I guess I’ll just wait and see if I’m better at other topics in the upcoming year (haven’t taken more advanced chem and e&m yet)…</p>
<p>ME for me, involved little CAD work. There was only 1 class I took my sophomore year that taught CAD (ProEngineer). It was only a 2 credit class. SolidWorks would’ve been better to learn. Some other classes involved modeling, but it was not the focal point at all.</p>
<p>ME is the broadest out of all the engineering majors. You can switch to other engineering majors with little effort, but not vise versa. I’d stick with it. </p>
<p>For the curriculum at my school. The focus is more on mechanics (statics, dynamics, solids), thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, some machine classes, circuits&robotics, and some others…</p>
<p>You took one class and got a C and you think your major gpa is *<strong><em>ed. That may be the case if you *</em></strong>ed up in a lot of classes, but one class will not “really bring down your major gpa.” That was during your freshmen year too, where you’ve probably only taken 2-3 classes that is actually used to calculate your major gpa, of course a C in one class will bring down your gpa dramatically from a small pool of classes… </p>
<p>stop being OCD, you’ve got much bigger problems to worry about ahead of you.</p>
<p>The only reason this would ever be true is if you didn’t want to start with Pro/E and then get sad when you move over to the craptastic SolidWorks like I did. Of course, SolidWorks is not craptastic, Pro/E is just that much nicer.</p>