<p>I have a cousin that is researching majors for college (he applied undeclared in last fall) and he mentioned to me that he often sees "Engineering Science" listed as a major. He wanted to know some more about it.</p>
<p>I did a google search on the field but because of the close connection of the words "engineering" and "science", I'm having trouble getting responses that are only about "Engineering Science".</p>
<p>Anybody have any contributing advice? I don't believe he has a certain field in mind (with regards to engineering) so I think he might be looking for something general, something that can be applied to a job outside of engineering.</p>
<p>"Engineering Science is a multidisciplinary program designed to integrate the sciences with areas of traditional engineering such as research, design and analysis. A core of basic courses in mathematics, physics and chemistry forms the foundation of the curriculum and students are free to choose from a number of electives to pursue their area of interests. Typical areas include but are not limited to fluid dynamics, solid mechanics, operations research, information technology engineering, dynamical systems, bioengineering, environmental engineering, computational engineering, engineering math and statistics, solid-state devices, materials science, electromagnetics, nanoscience, nanotechnology, energy,and optics. Both undergraduate and graduate programs in Engineering Science are offered at the university level."
-From Engineering</a> Science - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>
<p>Before going after that, I would be REALLY cautious about job prospects (even if the goal is grad school, consider what happens if you don't get in or decide you dislike college). That sounds like a very spread out program with no real concentration.</p>
<p>Yes. Students are using the renown difficulty of engineering programs as a signal of their mathematical and critical thinking abilities. I would also argue from my experience that many students also pursue engineering because it's a good fall-back.</p>
<p>If something happens and you can't get into a good med school (for instance), there's still a $70,000 / yr job as a chemical engineer waiting for you.</p>
<p>Before starting school, the question about what engineering major / whether to be an engineering major should be solved backwards. First figure out an intended career, then figure out the best major to get there.</p>
<p>Personally I think knowing what you want to do (as a job) before you decide your major is a lot to ask for. I'm a junior and I still don't know. Not only is it a fight between what you're good at and what you like, but also what has any hope of giving you the lifestyle you want.</p>
<p>That said, I am an "engineering physics" major, which involves physics above the norm (electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, laser systems/adv physics lab) and also courses from the engineering curriculum(fluid/thermal systems, circuits, etc). What has it prepared me for? Grad school I suppose. When compared with a ME, BE, EE major (I am going to concentrate in BE), all the representatives at job fairs basically say "why would I hire you when I can get a real ___ major?" Not in so many words, but I can even understand where they are coming from.</p>
<p>I'm curious why he wants to major in engineering if he doesn't want to be an engineer? Why not an applied physics major?</p>
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If something happens and you can't get into a good med school (for instance), there's still a $70,000 / yr job as a chemical engineer waiting for you.
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<p>This is assuming that the degree is accredited. For the most part, I think that engineering science is unaccredited.</p>
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What has it prepared me for? Grad school I suppose. When compared with a ME, BE, EE major (I am going to concentrate in BE), all the representatives at job fairs basically say "why would I hire you when I can get a real ___ major?"
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<p>That's a good point. If he is going to study engineering, he might as well choose a specialty, even if he doesn't really want to. A few years down the road, he might change his mind, and it always helps to have that there if you need it.</p>