Engineering Student Identity Crisis

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>So I started off as a biotech major, but switched over to engineering because I found that I love math and applied science and I feel that engineering is what I should be doing. I'm currently in general engineering (first 2 years) and have aiming my concentration at biochemical engineering so I'm still in the realm of what I was doing in the first place. I was lucky enough to make a few good connections outside of school with some people involved in the biotech industry and I kind of have my foot in the door for when I decide to start internships, which should be soon, and jobs once I graduate.</p>

<p>Here's my dilemma; now that I've taken a couple of physics courses I find myself having a love affair with things like classical mechanics, E&M and all the math involved. I will admit that when I do the math involved in chemistry (I'm in General Chemistry 2 at the moment), I have no problem doing it but the math seems kind of bland to me. But when I have to figure out even difficult physics oriented math problems they kind of come to life, I can conceptualize it better. That's not to say that I dont find Bio and Chem interesting, it's just that I find more physics oriented engineering topics more interesting.</p>

<p>So that leaves me with a choice: should I pursue a more physics oriented disicpline, say MechE, EE or ASE which is more interesting to me (a plus side is I would like to pursue a discipline that I can apply to my own hobbies, not just work) but I'll pretty much have to discard the opportunities I have now with a more biochem oriented discipline, or should I stick with biochem engineering and chase my current opportunities but give up the sides of engineering that I find more interesting?</p>

<p>I know the answer is obvious, but I figure I could get some input from some seasoned engineering students/grads. Thanks.</p>

2

<p>The only advise I can give to you is to pursue what you enjoy. If you enjoy what you study, then you’ll enjoy what you’ll be doing for work in the future. If you don’t know what you like, talk to people in the field whether it be professors, friends, family or mentors.</p>

<p>Just to clarify, though, a lot of biotech engineering companies have physics involved in their systems. For instance, x-ray technology all the way to surgical tools are often physics related biotech tools. If you have a lot of connections in these types of fields, you may have an easy time getting jobs you enjoy.</p>

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<p>I’m currently in my third year of mechanical / aerospace engineering (double major). I usually don’t comment on topics but after reading your post it seems to me like mechanical / aerospace engineering would definitely be your sort of thing. Every branch (structures, dynamics, controls, thermo, astronautics, fluids, electronics) in the upper division involves heavy (what some would call grueling) amounts of math. I would strongly recommend you to look into switching to mechanical or (preferably) aerospace.</p>

<p>Just as an example, you’d be dealing every day with matricies / multi variable calculus / differential equations. And all this math would actually be describing real life phenomena ie. masses attached to springs under non linear resistive forces, fluid flowing past an object creating lift, beams bending / deforming under stresses, designing trajectories of spacecraft, etc. etc. </p>

<p>Just my 2 cents though. Also, in case you’re wondering aerospace engineering requires even more “physics oriented math problems” than mechanical. Hope that helps.</p>