Currently, I’m a high school senior. I have recently been accepted to East Carolina University and from what I have researched, it is a pretty decent school as far as business and engineering goes. My older brother graduated from there recently with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and he has a well paying job.
My dilemma is that although I come from a school who emphasizes in STEM, I’m not really fond of engineering, especially the math prerequisites. I excel in STEM courses but I’m just not heavily interested in it to study those fields.
Neither of our parents have went to college and they both make minimum wage, I love them a lot so because they have provided so much for both my brother and I. So you can imagine my face when I told my dad that I was accepted into college with the intent of majoring in accounting, and he says “Your brother majored in Engineering. Engineers make money, you should follow in your brother’s footsteps. You need to pick something more stable!” He wasn’t even proud of me. I know East Carolina isn’t really that selective or prestigious but from where I’m from, getting accepted to college is a feat in itself.
Anyways, when I submitted my application, I put Economics as my major because I enjoyed an internship I had over the summer that emphasized community economic development and public policy. However, after looking more into it, I decided that I should pick a more practical major and maybe minor in economics (or IT because of my interests." Accounting seemed interesting enough.
I guess my question is, which major, Engineering or Accounting, seems more practical and useful? What are the disadvantages and advantages of each major as far as classes and job opportunities? (Sorry if this seems like a rant! Thanks!)
Other schools I am applying to are NC State and UNC Chapel Hill, which are reach schools for me.