<p>This is to all MIT engineering students on this board, as well as engineering students from other schools:</p>
<p>How many engineering students go on to become actual engineers after undergrad or even graduate degrees in engineering? I was wondering because right now the math and science aspects of engineering interest me, but I do not know for sure what I want to pursue, and I just wanted to know what other professions or studies engineers are persuing. I know the question is pretty broad, but I appreciate any responses.</p>
<p>Well, I don't know where to find the exact numbers, but it seems that the financial market is getting pretty popular with the engineers, these days.</p>
<p>I think I really do. Its just my parents.. they want me to be the stereotypical job of an indian which i absolutely loathe. I don't know how I am going to break it to them. God I cant stand them sometimes.</p>
<p>This is an accurate statement. Many are going to The Street. Good luck w/ your struggle. Make the journey to other jobs and find your happiness.</p>
<p>Alright, thanks for the link. I am just so unsure that I want to do engineering right now. I know I can switch once at whatever college I end up attending (possibly MIT if i am lucky enough to get in, but am not getting my hopes up). Anyone else not positive they want to do engineering, but know they want to do something that at least involved math or science?</p>
Alright, thanks for the link. I am just so unsure that I want to do engineering right now. I know I can switch once at whatever college I end up attending (possibly MIT if i am lucky enough to get in, but am not getting my hopes up). Anyone else not positive they want to do engineering, but know they want to do something that at least involved math or science?
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<p>Haha, I think I would fit into that category :-)
Which is why MIT is a great place. When you're not up to your eyes in work. Hehe</p>
<p>I think it is very common to move outside the engineering field after graduation. Engineering degrees show employers you have abilities that translate well to other fields. I have spent little time in engineering although that's what my degree is in. It is much easier to move into finance/management later, ( or many other fields), than it is to do the other way around.</p>
<p>Don't forget that you don't have to have an itemized life plan in hand when you're applying to colleges. :) I know it's tempting, and a lot of college applicants claim to have their lives figured out, but the reality is that many/most of them will change their minds before graduation, let alone at some point in the rest of their lives.</p>
<p>If you're pretty sure that majoring in (not necessarily having a career in!) science, engineering, or business works for you, MIT is a good place to apply -- there are a lot of resources devoted to helping you pick the right major, which you don't have to do until the end of freshman year at the earliest. I get a little more worried when people who have no idea what they want to do apply to MIT.</p>
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why is it that so many engineers are moving toward finance and consulting jobs right after graduation?
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<p>Here's a quote from Time Magazine.</p>
<p>* As the size of individual grants shrinks, university researchers have to win more of them to keep research going, which requires enormous amounts of extra paperwork. "It's decreased their quality of life," says Paul Jennings, provost of Caltech and a civil engineer. When students see how much time a professor spends on bureaucratic busywork, says Jennings, they say, "I don't want to do that." It's not just red tape either, says Paul Nurse, president of Rockefeller University and a 2001 Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine. "If we compare what our best undergraduates get paid as a graduate student vs. what they get paid in investment banking, there's no doubt that there's tremendous economic pressure to suck you away from what is perhaps your first academic love." As for teaching science at the precollege level, salaries and working conditions are even more dismal.</p>
<p>Thanks for the article. As for planning my life right now, I am not trying to, but I have always been indecisive (haha), and I was just wondering about what engineers are doing.</p>
<p>Thanks for the article. As for planning my life right now, I am not trying to, but I have always been indecisive (haha), and I was just wondering about what engineers are doing.</p>
<p>Don't forget about Ph.D. programs and future jobs either as professors or research scientists in industry/government labs ... sure, it's not as bling bling as wall street, but that's always another option for an undergraduate engineering major, and it emphasizes different skills and motivations than being an engineer for a big company (emphasis on longer-term research and exploration versus bottom-line engineering efficiency).</p>
<p>The first article requires a subscription to Science, to paraphrase for those who don't... Research infrastructure is growing at a rapid pace (ie: the "doubling"), more so than ever before. The NIH is scrambling to provide enough grant money to keep labs going. Some established labs are shutting down due to lack of funding...</p>
<p>What do you mean that MIT looks good on your resume? Isn’t it true that 5 years out in the real world (industry) and your undergrad degree ceases to matter?</p>
<p>If you’re in a competitive career, nothing ever ceases to matter.</p>
<p>Even if you assume that your undergraduate degree does nothing more than get you an interview at your first job (which, IMO, substantially underestimates the effect of a top undergraduate degree), that’s still a pretty significant leg up. Sure, you have to perform once you get the job, but that’s the easy part.</p>
<p>And that doesn’t even take into account the fact that the old boys’ club is full of inveterate snobs – the top management at my husband’s company is all MIT alums, and they love the fact that he’s an MIT alum with an MIT wife. For me, I applied for a competitive graduate fellowship this year, and my reviewers mentioned my undergraduate alma mater as a point in my favor.</p>