<p>School: Georgia Institute of Technology
Year: Soph
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Career Goals: MD/PhD. Medical scientist/Engineer.<br>
Personal View: Modest Mouse rules. Also, The miracle handkerchief and miracle holy water infomercials really do work!! I used to have a rather severe tumour on the bottom of my rectum...I could hardly walk!! After using both the miracle handkerchief and miracle holy water, I found out it was just a very large dried segment of feces. Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!! Praise the Lord!!!!</p>
<p>School: Cal
Year: Sophomore
Major: Bioengineering
Career Goals: Med School...hopefully =P
Personal View: Cal is going to have an amazing football year! Also, engineering to med school is a rough career path.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Personal View: Modest Mouse rules. Also, The miracle handkerchief and miracle holy water infomercials really do work!! I used to have a rather severe tumour on the bottom of my rectum...I could hardly walk!! After using both the miracle handkerchief and miracle holy water, I found out it was just a very large dried segment of feces. Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!! Praise the Lord!!!!
[/quote]
</p>
<p><em>VOMITS</em>..........</p>
<p>Mdelaros-As I am the parent of a student majoring in engineering, I had to smile when I saw your post. Son was home this summer catching up with HS friends and doing an internship. He told his pre-med friends the same thing as you have told yours-they came back at him with the fact that they would end up making more money in the long run! I just don't know about that anymore!!</p>
<p>Son-Sophomore
School: University of Notre Dame
Major: Aerospace/Mechanical
Career goals: I think his dream is to work for an aerospace company designing aircraft--but, who knows?
Personal View: He might be interested in five-year MBA program ND offers along with his aero/ME degree--but, then again, who knows?</p>
<p>Engineering isn't as lucrative of a profession as one would like to believe. My father is an electrical engineer and he doesn't recommend it to anyone. There are no jobs except in the city...and not every city. You are limited in where you can work. If the salary goes up $1 the engineers brag about it. I don't even care what field you're doing, you aren't going to make as much as you think. Engineers are not going to make as much as doctors, even with doctors' medical school bills. Of course the schools are going to rave about the engineering profession, but it's all a lie. For example, schools are constantly raving about how lucrative bioengineering is. That is utter BS. See one of my previous posts:</p>
<p>"The job opportunities are fairly non-existent. There are few biomedical engineering firms and that obviously means limited jobs available, especially to graduates with only a bachelor's degree. Even those with graduate degrees struggle to find jobs. My dad's co-worker's daughter received a Master's in biomedical engineering, but couldn't find a job. She now works as manager at a medical equipment firm, which specializes in the solicitation of medical equipment. She was able to thoroughly organize the firm's practice and is now making quite a bit of money. However, she did not need a degree for her job and her degree has very little to do with her job. However, the degree affords her some familiarity with a few things within the position."</p>
<p>One caveat though, engineering does provide a solid background for other professions. Besides the analytical skills it develops in students, areas such as BioE and ChemE are excellent for students wanting to enter medical school (provided you can keep your GPA up). Also, many engineers are successful in MBA admissions.</p>
<p>I know y'all are going to give me hell for this post.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Engineering isn't as lucrative of a profession as one would like to believe.
[/quote]
Most professions aren't as lucrative as most people believe. Engineering is certainly one of the most lucrative careers available to those with only an undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>Many people on the engineering forums have no desire at all to go to medical school and spend 8 years memorizing a whole bunch of stuff or looking at, touching or smelling disgusting stuff. MANY people would rather make 60K out of undergrad, settle somewhere and live life. Also, on average, doctors work a lot more hours- so of course they'll get paid more..and don't forget med school debt.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My dad's co-worker's daughter received a Master's in biomedical engineering, but couldn't find a job.
[/quote]
Will all due respect to this young woman, we know nothing about her or the reason for her difficulty. A range of explanations might range from unwillingness to move, declining to consider all industries, poor interviewing skills, lack of relevant experience, personality/attitude flaws, personal prejudice (weight, race, gender) etc. I would not reject a major or profession based upon the experience of one person. I know a few engineers who had difficulty finding a job, but I can imagine some reasons why this might have been true. I do know far more engineers who had success in a wide variety of fields.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
Engineering isn't as lucrative of a profession as one would like to believe.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>It still does give a pretty decent salary for the average joe straight out of BS. Plus while a PhD in Engineering won't give you amazing amounts of $$ it will nevertheless give you a pretty good salary and let you work in cutting edge technology.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I know y'all are going to give me hell for this post.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>QFT</p>
<p>and, I agree with everything in your post.</p>
<p>If you think you will be happy making 45-65k/year working hard at solving problems that save your company millions/year and being satisfied with a coffee mug with your companies name on it as a thank you... than by all means be an engineer.</p>
<p>If, however, you would like to make 6-figures working 20-30 hours/week asking other people to solve problems for you so that you can get them a coffee mug that has your companies name on it (which just happens to be your last name) than get good grades, in any degree, 2 years experience, and an MBA.</p>
<p>Engineers make money, but they don't take any of it home.</p>
<p>Japher, thanks for having my back.
[quote]
If you think you will be happy making 45-65k/year working hard at solving problems that save your company millions/year and being satisfied with a coffee mug with your companies name on it as a thank you... than by all means be an engineer.
[/quote]
That made me LOL. That is absolutely true...including the bit about the coffee mug. We have several of those in our house.
[quote]
Many people on the engineering forums have no desire at all to go to medical school and spend 8 years memorizing a whole bunch of stuff or looking at, touching or smelling disgusting stuff.
[/quote]
Your view of medicine is as twisted as my view of engineering (acc. to the people on this board).
[quote]
I would not reject a major or profession based upon the experience of one person. I know a few engineers who had difficulty finding a job, but I can imagine some reasons why this might have been true. I do know far more engineers who had success in a wide variety of fields.
[/quote]
I'm not basing my views of this one girl. That was just an example. And I still think there are no jobs in engineering.</p>
<p>I also don't consider $45,000 to be a lot of money. I don't know why some engineering students are under the impression that they will have starting salaries of $75,000. That's not likely to happen.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If, however, you would like to make 6-figures working 20-30 hours/week asking other people to solve problems for you so that you can get them a coffee mug that has your companies name on it (which just happens to be your last name) than get good grades, in any degree, 2 years experience, and an MBA.
[/quote]
You are comparing an undergraduate degree with a graduate degree.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I also don't consider $45,000 to be a lot of money. I don't know why some engineering students are under the impression that they will have starting salaries of $75,000. That's not likely to happen.
[/quote]
Most of my classmates are grounded in what they think they'll be making. Of course, I know people making 90K+ out of school. I think 75K is an achievable goal if you position yourself well, have a needed skill set, and are aware of the geographic location you'll need to be.</p>
<p>Heck, an engineering intern could make over $30K with NO degree if he could work all year long. I hope that a degree would yield a substantially higher salary, and experience even more than that.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Heck, an engineering intern could make over $30K with NO degree if he could work all year long. I hope that a degree would yield a substantially higher salary, and experience even more than that.
[/quote]
Engineering interns would make a tad more than that if they worked year round (in CA at least).</p>
<p>Our career liaison promised us equivalent to 45K a year (for the summer quarter) if we sell our souls to the oil company early on. This is for freshman too.</p>
<p>I just worked for an oil company. It was sweet.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say there are very few jobs in engineering. Some fields have more opportunities than others, and some areas are better suited for certain majors. I've been lucky enough to be in a situation where it's worked out for me (civil engineering in New York City), though I know others who haven't been (i.e. chemical engineering inside the city). Many of my chemE buddies ended up taking jobs all over the country, because that's where the best positions were. </p>
<p>Engineers make a lot of money compared to any other college grad with only a n undergrad degree. I've seen statistics to back this up, but I don't have the link. If you're comparing engineering grads (with bachelor's degree) to a MD or a JD, then of course the salaries will seem pretty low. There's also nothing to say that you can't pursue a JD or a MD after getting a BS in engineering.</p>
<p>$75k starting salary is definitely possible if you work for an oil company. Average engineering starting salary is probably in the $50k's, which won't make you rich, but is more than enough for me to start out. Heck, it's a lot more than my family's household income before I started working, and I thought we lived quite comfortable. I guess it all depends on what you want.</p>
<p>School: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Year: Freshman
Major(s): EE and Economics</p>
<p>Career Goal: Work for a defense contractor or some other company that makes military equipment, (Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, Northrop Grumman, etc). Or NASA.</p>
<p>Personal View: Going to do either EE or CPE, hopefully with an economics or math double major. From what I hear EE is very versatile, so that is appealing. Maybe do an MBA after graduation.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You are comparing an undergraduate degree with a graduate degree.
[/quote]
Doesn't matter...that same thing applies to those who have a M.Eng or Ph.D.</p>