<p>My son and I were discussing majors yesterday and engineering came up. We wondered what people were thinking about when they decide to major in engineering. (I mean that literally, not perjoratively). What about engineering interests a prospective major? What attracts you to the major? Do you know WHAT kind of engineering you would like to pursue?</p>
<p>I have several cousins and 2 uncles who are engineers and seems to like their jobs very much (one nuclear, one electrical and one building bridges for the army corps)</p>
<p>Yeah I didn’t know much about it until my mom brought it up late junior year. It made sense, because my strongest subjects are math and science, and I enjoy both (science much more, though). And engineering majors aren’t stuck in engineering for their careers; a lot go into business or law. So, for a college major, it made a lot of sense. I’m not sure about what engineering major I’ll eventually decide, but right now I’m interested in mechanical, compsci, and aerospace. Luckily I won’t have to decide my major until the end of sophomore year in college.</p>
<p>The way I think about it, engineering is basically applied science (this is why there are all of those Schools of Engineering and Applied Sciences at various universities). I love science and math very much, but I don’t think I would enjoy the life of a pure scientist (whether it be through academia or a lab or someplace else). I want to be able to look back some day and be able to say “I built this!” or something of the sort. Thus, engineering.</p>
<p>Our student chose to major in engineering because of the challenge of coursework that it offered coupled with the ability to see issues in a more right/wrong venue. While student is an excellent writer and reader with regards to liberal arts, the indication was that these subjects were boring and uninteresting. And while perhaps the stronger suit for our student is liberal arts, he has indicated that the challenge of the math and science areas is far more intriguing. Headmaster at his liberal arts HS has indicated that he will perhaps be one of the more “literate” engineers upon his college graduation given the amount of liberal arts courses he has taken thru HS and core requirements during college. As to the right/wrong venue, he has often stated that writing a paper for a liberal arts class offers far more room for a teacher to grade one way, while another may grade it completely differently. I think he has found that for the engineering courses the projects, problems can be represented with more concrete support and offer the right/wrong answers much more immediately–if that makes any sense! He has no regrets about majoring in engineering over liberal arts even if he is up to wee hours working on an engineering project, yet can take a liberal arts class, not even open the book, and produce a pretty decent paper. IMO, he chose the more difficult major for his wealth of knowledge and ease of writing abilities! But, he has been successful so far; work ethic can carry a person a long way, I guess.</p>
<p>I had never thought about majoring in engineering in high school, even though my dad is an engineering prof. Then at a party for his students, he teasingly introduced me as “the next engineer in the family.” A light bulb went off - I liked math and science, and enjoyed the science fair projects Dad helped me with, such as designing wood trusses. My main other interest was piano, and I figured engineering would be a better livelihood, so I went with that.</p>
<p>Structural engineering is NOT really black and white. If you ask 10 engineers to design a building, you’ll get 10 fairly different structures! There is a good bit of “art” in the design process. College homework assignments do tend to be more clearcut, though. </p>
<p>As far as “literate” engineers go, there are a few out there, lol! The headmaster is showing his bias. A lot of engineers are excellent musicians. My husband and I went to a local art exhibit opening recently, and we ran into three colleagues - an engineer, an architect, and a surveyor.</p>
<p>The thing I like most about my field is that I get to SEE the results of my work. It’s certainly not paper-shuffling or number crunching. My kids say, “There’s Mom’s building!” when we drive by one of my designs. The other cool thing is that it lends itself well to owning your own consulting firm. My husband and I started ours 10 years ago out of our house, and it’s been a blast. We’d be richer if we designed skyscrapers in Boston, but we have a great quality of life in Maine.</p>
<p>I really would recommend engineering to your son. Some people on these boards say, oh, just become a doctor to get rich, but that’s not the total picture! You need to find something you really enjoy doing day in and day out.</p>
<p>Mainelonghorn-guess that’s why colleges are always asking that magical question of its applicants-"What is your passion?"or at least looking for some sense of passion in many of the applications. Passion is so very important for one to find when trying to settle on a career!</p>
<p>I agree completely. I also feel that it is really sad that we make 18 year olds decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives. That is why I think engineering is a great major, because while it is “specific” it also teaches some very broad skills that don’t pigeon hole you into a career if you don’t let it. I also see business degrees in the same light, but engineers go into business as well and I feel the train of thought they have acquired from an engineering education is more valuable to industry than a business degree, at least at entry level.</p>
<p>Einstein once said to never let schooling interfere with your education, and I agree. A career doesn’t stop with undergrad degrees nor does it stop with schooling. It is surprising how people get shuffled around into different careers of graduation and after decades of work experience. I know an engineer with a zoology degree and a business man with an engineering degree. So, follow your passion, sure, but prepare for it to change.</p>
<p>Engineering, as major, was good for me because when it came to trying to find the answer there was not a lot of gray areas. You were either right or wrong. I probably like to read and write more than I like doing engineering problem sets but I knew I wouldn’t like dealing with English professors and eventually I wanted a technical job after college. I work in a power plant. It is technical enough for me. Never wanted to do any complicated design work, but be more of a technical project manager and process engineer. I do work on some design work, such as platform construction, but I always have a PE from the Project Engineering office look review and finalize the design.</p>
<p>I started playing with computers during junior-senior yr of high school. I like science and math so i figured why not computer engineering (my father is a home contractor and after working with him during summers I knew i wanted a deskjob too). It wasn’t until my junior year at college that I realized I didn’t enjoy what I was studying and certainly didn’t want to do it as a career. I always tell people that if I had to do it over i’d do civil engineering because i love to build stuff.</p>
<p>Could a current or past student compare relative course loads of the average engineering major to a business or liberal arts major. I understand that it is often considered significantly higher but of anybody could put any perspective on it. </p>
<p>Also, if someone has only taken pre-calc are they going to be at a significant disadvantage or will they be able to catch up relatively easy?</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the insight. Those answers were exactly what I was looking for and now I feel that I have a much better idea of the possibilities when someone says they want to be an engineer.</p>
<p>I used to work with a guy that would start every job interview this way: 1) How does a coffee maker work?, and 2) What was the last major appliance you took a part and rebuilt?</p>
<p>His reasoning is that anyone who’s seen a coffee maker (or TV or toilet or any other common household item) and never wondered how it works (then looked it up or figured it out) doesn’t have the curiosity to be an engineer.</p>
<p>I have heard that unless you want to be a patent attorney, engineering is not really a good preparation for law school because it brings down your GPA. Just something to consider…</p>
<p>@ Trumpet, I only took pre-calc in highschool, then my first semester in college I was undeclared and didn’t have any math class. Now I’m in calculus and I’m doing fine in it. You just have to study a lot and make sure you do a lot of practice problems.</p>
<p>Could you give me any idea of what you mean by “study a lot”. I realize that it will be different for each person but for most of my math classes thus far i’ve been able to succeed without any significant studying. I am just trying to get an overall idea of the average course load of an engineering student.</p>
<p>For me, studying a lot meant solving problems. In classes like calculus there were methods to solve the different problems but not a variety of problems. In engineering you have sets of rules but a lot of applications and scenerios. As an engineer you have to know how to solve several different problems. For example, you may have to caclulate forces on pulleys, stresses on shafts, etc. You need to know how to analyze every different kind of problem and use the fundamental rules of engineering to do it. The only way to get good at this is to study, or “practice” as I like to call it.</p>
<p>I do almost all the homework the day it is assigned in class, and to study for a test I do the chapter review thing multiple times over. I also go in to my teachers office hours almost daily and ask about things I don’t understand.</p>
<p>I think there are basically three reasons engineering majors choose engineering:</p>
<ol>
<li>They like and excelled in math/science in high school.</li>
<li>They like the medium in which their specific engineering field worked on (electronics for EE, cars for ME, buildings for CE, etc.).</li>
<li>They want a nice paying job.</li>
</ol>
<p>I fell into the 2nd category. Construction, buildings, and bridges were always my thing. Civil engineering and architecture were thus the two best routes for me. I never considered any of the other engineering fields. </p>
<p>As far as why civil engineering specifically, my reasons are quite similar to MaineLonghorn’s. I like being able to walk or drive by something and be able to say I built that. While the possibility of starting my own firm wasn’t something I considered at 18, now that I think about it, it really is a nice plus. You can pretty much live anywhere and be able to work, unlike some other fields which are centered in certain areas of the country. The flexibility is nice.</p>
<p>I also wouldn’t say engineering is completely black and white though right/wrong is more defined than some other fields. I worked on several cases in court when I was working for an engineering firm. From the same data, we came up with one conclusion, while the engineering firm working for the other side came up with the opposite conclusion.</p>