<p>So, I'm transferring into U of Maryland College Park next semester. I'm probably going to stay there unless I feel really compelled to transfer to Virginia Tech (which is where I wish I had gone to in the first place... if only I had a time machine). I'm leaning toward majoring in either accounting or engineering (probably Civil or Fire Protection).</p>
<p>It's hard to figure out which one to do though. Y'see, I kind of want to go into the military after college as an officer. It doesn't really matter what you major in for that. However, should that not pan out, I don't want to be stuck with a degree that's difficult to find employment with. I know that both accounting and engineering have good, lucrative job opportunities. </p>
<p>I'm not the best at math, but I think if I work hard I can handle the math that's involved in engineering. I also like building things. Part of why I want to join the military is because I don't want a typical 9 to 5 job where I wake up, drive in traffic for an hour, work, then go home, eat dinner, have sex with the wife, then sleep and do it all over again. I think I would go insane with that sort of routine. At least with engineering I'd be doing something more interesting than filing papers and using Excel.</p>
<p>So I guess what I want to know, is how math-intensive is engineering as an actual job? I know in school it's usually four semesters with math courses, and whatever I guess I'll have to suck it up, but after that how much math will I really be using?</p>
<p>It'd be great to hear from people in either major, or who have graduated from either.</p>
<p>If you don’t like math, engineering would be aweful for you (engineer’s love math almost as much as math majors love math).</p>
<p>You can do other things besides being an accountant with an accounting degree. A lot of accounting majors go into finance (investments, corporate, etc.). But just because there is little math involved in accounting does not mean it is an easy major.</p>
<p>How about researching careers that play to your strengths and interests? If you don’t want repetitive…don’t go for accounting, unless maybe you are interested in forensic accounting.</p>
<p>if you don’t like math, don’t go for engineering.</p>
<p>You didn’t say what you LIKE.</p>
<p>You can make a good living in a lot of other areas. You can major in anything and go to law school. My DIL has degrees in middle eastern studies and economics and she has carved out a very good career for herself.</p>
<p>Figure out what you like and go to the career counseling center when you arrive on campus. They will help you explore your options.</p>
<p>If you like travelling also you should do accounting. I plan on minoring in accounting and major in hotel management and hopefully use both to become a consultant. You should consider being a consultant or auditor since both make good money and you get to travel a good amount and not be home every time.</p>
<p>The hated routine you described is exactly what you’re going to get in corporate accounting. If you go into public accounting and get into auditing, it will be a bit more varied but overall not terribly exciting most likely, especially at the lower levels where you’re doing a lot of grunt work. If you get into public and do tax, you’ll have all the crazy business during tax season but still you’re mostly just dropping numbers in. It’s just all so computerized now. I think if you can’t stand the dull routine of most jobs, accounting is not gonna be your thing. And I’m saying this as the kid of an accountant.</p>
<p>Engineering is very math intensive. In most basic programs, you will need to take Calc I-IV, Linear Algebra (which could be integrated with Calc IV)… etc. But you will need to use those techniques to do physics, which is heavily math oriented, which in the case of civil engineering, you will need to take Physics I-III - all of which rely on Calculus skills learned from before. </p>
<p>Its not just something you want to “suck up” and its a real pain. Engineering is tough and I know some of the smartest people who just couldn’t go through with the pain anymore. I would advise possibly starting as engineering (if you really want to do it) and assessing how well you can take the course loads for the basic physics and calculus. If you can do that and understand it - pursue the path further. </p>
<p>If not than change to another field you may be interested in (economics perhaps?). You can find excitement almost anywhere if you just look at things in the correct perspective. Keep that in mind!</p>
<p>You’ll likely get better responses in the engineering section.</p>
<p>I’m in Mechanical Engineering and want to do Aerospace Engineering as my career. Engineering in general is math and science intensive. Don’t let it intimidate you.</p>
<p>In regards to actual career-wise, the answer is there is most definitely math present in engineering, a great deal of it. Engineering requires precision, precision requires math.
Try getting an internship or do some research in the field you’re interested in before making a decision - it may better help you to understand what the career consists of, or at the very least ask an engineer (not students, but someone who has worked as one for 10+ years) what their day-to-day consists of.</p>
<p>@Maxelis yeah I know it’s not easy, but I do know that it’s less focused on math and more on learning various rules, etc. </p>
<p>@Jim my school doesn’t offer hotel management but yeah I heard that auditors get to go places, that sounds kind of nice honestly. I like traveling and checking out new places.</p>
<p>@BoysX3 the thing is, I’m not entirely sure what it is I like enough to make a career out of it. For instance I like building things, and I like learning how things work, but I don’t love math. I like working with money and understanding the financial world, but I don’t really want a routine day. Being a lawyer doesn’t really grab me though.</p>
<p>Another field that really interests me (and I could see myself doing and enjoying despite still being a 9 to 5 office job) is urban/city planning. Unfortunately, UMD only offers that for grad school. I think Georgia Tech has it as BS but transferring is such a pain… another thing that interests me is construction management or development, however I think CM requires a lot of math (I know at VA Tech it’s under the department of engineering, and the major is called Construction Engineering and Management).</p>
<p>I suggest you take some accounting classes or crack open some books about it to see if it’s for you. I took accounting 1A and it was the absolute most boring thing I’ve ever done in my life.</p>
<p>As an engineer myself, the best advice I can give you is that “sucking it up” is easier said than done. See engineering sounds deceptive, its like oh, it is not as hard as a math or physics major. Consider engineering from now on as “Applied Math” and “Applied Physics”. Unlike mathematicians and physicists who have a wide general knowledge, engineers are just specialized in one area of physics. Like thermo or fluids. My best advice would be to start off as an accounting major, and take the math courses along with it. If you find your liking the math, then jump into engineering, you’ll probably have enough business courses to get a minor in business along with the engineering degree. However, if you decide the math is not for you, you’ll probably have enough math creds to be close to a minor in math. Most engineers aren’t that far off from a math minor anyway. You better love math, and be damn good at it. Math can’t be a pain, it has to be something you look forward to or actually enjoy doing if you plan on getting through an engineering degree. Usually people figure this out once they get to vector calc, or statics, or something like Electricity and Magnetism. Then they realize they really don’t want to be an engineer anymore. I know quite a few people that took all the physics and math required to be an engineer but decided they didn’t want to apply that into any engineering courses and just switched to something like economics. Construction management doesn’t require a whole lot of math, just would need a working knowledge of single variable calculus. However, construction engineering is engineering and would require you to know up to differential equations and linear algebra. All I can say is if you want to do engineering, get ready for the storm, a math storm precisely.</p>
<p>Also, just to note, I actually like math, and almost switched out of engineering. It is not that the math is amazingly hard, it is a challenge it is just that doing problem set after problem set gets very monotonous and when you do a whole day of that, you feel like beating your head against a desk. I mean, really, in some cases, depending on the homework assigned, I would spend all day, my friends along with me, from the time we got up till the time we went to bed working on problems. It is nothing to sit down on a good, bright and shiny Saturday and just work problems all day long and feel as though you barely made a dent in really getting an understanding of the material. It can get tiring and repetitive. But most engineers don’t do engineering specifically for the problems, they do it for the design aspect, or the particular industry they want to work in. How many people can say they build submarines for a living, or design fighter aircraft, code video games, or drill oil wells. It is that aspect of engineering that keeps a lot of people going. I also have to say, that design is probably the most enjoyable aspect of engineering and it definately should be. The design classes are where engineering students really find out if all the work paid off, or they really should have done something else. I have to tip my hat to math and physics majors. Although theory is interesting, I just don’t see how I can spend my life doing problems without seeing it materialize into something. In the end, just get a sheet of paper that shows you can learn something. It is better to have some kind of degree than no degree at all in my opinion. Unless you have ideas to revolutionize an industry or start your own business, stay in school and take your medicine. The real world of work sucks, enjoy school while you can. That is probably the best advice anyone can give you.</p>
<p>Yeah, with manufacturing being sent to every nation but here, I think civil would be a good decision. Also, our nation is in need of an overhauled infastructure. So, Civil Engineering, and a government job, would be a safe career in my mind.</p>
<p>Sounds like consulting is where you want to be, and btw I don’t think its as hard as some ppl make it out to be when it comes to getting through an engineering degree and not enjoying math/physics…I don’t like math physics or chem but I’m doing fine. Buttttt I’m just a freshmen so who knows eh.</p>
<p>Do you research, especially for the college you’re transferring to. See each of their curricula and which one entices you more.
As for me, I’m an engineer and I hate classical physics haha, but I love the mechanics part of physics and I like math a lot. Look for your strengths and just keep researching.
I can’t believe I thought about being an accountant at one point…</p>
but yeah I heard that auditors get to go places, that sounds kind of nice honestly. I like traveling and checking out new places.</p>