Engineering only for certain types of people?

Do you think only a certain type of person can do engineering? Certain type of people meaning those who are very smart and very motivated.

I want to do engineering but I rlly don’t think I’m smart enough or motivated enough to do it. I go to a top 20 private university and finished my first year of college with a 3.1 GPA and took relatively easy classes except for chemistry. Chem drained my energy my first year and i really don’t want to “try out” an engineering class and realize i hate it and then have it drain me the way chem did. So how do you know if you’re cut out to be an engineer and how do u know ur passionate about it? As stupid as it sounds, I didnt rlly know what engineering was until I got to college (my high school had a health professions based curriculum and I had never had exposure to any careers outside of health careers)

Strong math skills and solid work ethic is what you need. The type of class chemistry is, will give you a taste. It’s very cumulative, so you need to be on it all the time. Any engineering subjects are a bit more abstract though.

If you are already a second year, have you taken the calculus series approved for engineering majors? Calculus based physics? If not, you’ll be starting at square one with first year material.

Lastly, engineering isn’t something you can “try out.” Engineers don’t develop a reasonable handle on what engineering even is until they are into third year classes, give or take.

Good luck!

Tell us more about why engineering appeals to you.

There are a lot of required course sequences, so it would probably add another year to your schooling. Also each semester will have about 4 classes the same rigor as Chem, with lots of problem set homework.

“Strong math skills and solid work ethic is what you need.”

Yes. Plus a desire to build stuff.

I was bad at chemistry. I have always been very good at math. These are different skills.

“each semester will have about 4 classes the same rigor as Chem”

Yes, but it is a different skill set. I could never have pulled off a 3.1 in chemistry or premed. In math and engineering I got almost entirely A’s. How OP will do depends upon what he/she is good at.

“I didnt rlly know what engineering was until I got to college”

This is not so unusual.

If you are good at math, and you got into a top 20 private university, then you are smart enough. If you are generally good at math, I think that you should give it a try. Even if this requires one extra year at university (worse case), IMHO it is clearly worth it.

You absolutely do not need this to be an engineer. Engineers do so many other tasks beyond design that it’s kind of silly to say things like this.

“it’s kind of silly to say things like this.”

I understand that engineers do a lot of different things. Perhaps I was being flippant and being imprecise at the same time (not a good combination).

However, I see engineering as a fundamentally positive constructive job, in the sense that engineering is creating or fixing or verifying that something is going to work, or not break, or not fall down, or not have bad environmental side effects, or in a case that I have been dealing with recently designing a system to be installed in my yard. By “build stuff” I don’t mean take a screwdriver and put something together, I mean doing something that has a positive constructive impact. Perhaps I am showing a bias, but I don’t see all majors and all jobs as ones which have a fundamentally positive impact on the world (actually, I can think of things that an engineer could build that would not have a positive impact on the world).

I suppose that not all engineering jobs always feel that way, but that is probably true of most other jobs as well.

Engineering is Problem Solving. Some jobs lean more toward hands-on work, others more toward mathematical analysis. But regardless of the end goal, the student must be willing to tolerate 4 years of intensive, math-based academics.

@colorado_mom engineering appeals to me because of the respect you receive when you tell others that you’re an engineer. Whenever someone told me they were an engineer last year, I would always immediately think “wow this person must be extremely smart.” I kinda want to that person who everyone thinks is smart. Also the pay is good and secure and engineering is more hands on than an average desk job. Before, I was considering double majoring in finance but I don’t have any connections or good networking skills so I’m not sure how to land a good job in the business world.
I know these sound like dumb, not-worth-it reasons, but my reasons for double majoring in finance is also because it offers more financial security than just an anthropology major. Im not really passionate in anything except sociology/anthropology and Im not going to let myself settle with just that major.

@DadTwoGirls so you’re saying that engineering isn’t very science-based? It’s more math-based? If I did well in calculus 2 and my high school math classes, would this be enough to be considered “good at math”? I heard upper level math was a lot of proofs etc but I’m not really sure what that is / how good at that id be.

Also worst case scenario would be staying an extra year, I know. But thats also impossible for me because my financial aid runs out after 4 years, and my family and I can’t afford the amount it costs for one year at a private university. I’d be looking at 50K of debt for just one year, and I would rather graduate on time and debt free

“So that people respect me” is a pretty terrible reason to get into engineering. Respect is earned, not conferred by a degree of a certain variety. Earn a degree that gets you where you want to go and warm respect by being good at that.

Regarding the math and engineering question, engineering is definitely based on science (physics, primarily). But the hard sciences are themselves based on math. So ultimately, engineering is based on math.

*earn respect

"If I did well in calculus 2 and my high school math classes, would this be enough to be considered “good at math”? " - Yes, it’s a great start. But I still have concerns about students surviving the academic rigors of engineering if not really passionate about it. In your case there is also the financial factor. I’d suggest you talk to your campus financial aid office - maybe it’s possible to have your aid extended if needed.

I was not “Passionate” about engineering and really didn’t know what kind I liked…but I did know i liked math and science and thinking logically and solving problems.

I appreciate this thread.

Our rising HS senior has expressed interest in engineering…but he / we have no idea what engineers actually do (much less do we comprehend the many different branches). Interestingly enough his grades and scroes are stronger in math than in science, but he is absolutely enthralled by physics. He enjoys math, but will read physics textbooks “for fun.” Unfortunately there is no AP Physics 2 (not enough kids signed up), so he is going with AP Chem.

Engineering does sound really rigorous…

@momcinco This may or may not help since engineers can go into so many different fields, but see if he can shadow an engineer or tour a place where engineers work. Someone who does well in math and physics will likely do well in engineering too.

Thanks bodangles, definitely. He knows some engineers from chess federation chapter and county band (60+ adults) and I think came to engineering partly because there are so many engineers there.

These are not good reasons to major in engineering, not the least of which is that after a certain point in your life people will stop asking about or caring what you majored in during casual conversation. Conversations will be much more about the work that you do, and it’s far more important that you find your work fulfilling than whether or not other people think you’re smart.

If you are really passionate about anthropology and sociology, I suggest that you major in that. It’s not “settling” to major in that, and your salary is really dependent upon what you do after you graduate.

I disagree, I majored in electrical engineering and it opened far more doors for me than sociology or anthropology would have. I never spent a day working as an electrical engineer. There is truth to what the OP says. Now if you actually want to be a social worker with the compensation that comes with it then by all means major in sociology.

@CU123 what work do you do now? does it relate to your major? and why did u choose electrical engineering?

I don’t think that anyone has commented yet about personality types in engineering. The field of engineering is broad and the experience of many engineers may be very different than mine. Fair enough.

But in my old R&D company (I’m retired now), which hires exclusively engineers with advanced degrees, there was a significant percentage (perhaps 1/3) that had a lot of trouble interacting socially. I suspect that some in that cohort were autistic.

Our work tended to require sitting alone in front of a computer terminal and running analyses. Many work days, I wouldn’t talk to a single soul. Naturally, this kind of solitary work appeals to people that are socially challenged. My coworkers with strong social skills often migrated into program management or climbed the engineering management ladder.

Anyway, something to consider about engineering as a profession, but YMMV.