<p>Hello! I'm a 17 years old senior and I will be attending either University at Buffalo or Syracuse University in the fall;</p>
<p>I am having a hard time picking a major. I applied for engineering to both schools, because I have a passion for math and I enjoy theoretical and conceptual physics, and probably won't mind the applied part of it. However, my talent is in writing and speaking and film directing. I have directed commercials for my school and I enjoy being around people. I love people. And I love creative storywriting and creativity in that field in general. I really want to major in communications/public relations but I really want a job right after college... I want a career that involves new challenges, talking to people, dressing nice, and possibly travelling. I don't want a boring routine job, thus I'm hesitated to major in engineering because I have way too much energy to 'explore the world'. </p>
<p>I have thought about doing a double major but that sounds nearly impossible considering the engineering schedule itself....</p>
<p>Please don't hesitate to help me! Thanks alot!</p>
<p>If you have an affinity for writing and communications, take your electives in that area. Engineering need to know how to communicate too! It is really a plus to have those skills in a technical field.</p>
<p>Well what branch of engineering? I really really really hate routine… and I love new challenges and my dream career would involve some occasional travel…</p>
<p>I agree with xraymancs. Engineers need communication skills! I would recommend considering working in an engineering consulting firm. I work at an environmental engineering consulting firm. I work on different projects all the time and travel about 5-25% of the time (Puerto Rico, California, along with a few others), plus I speak at conferences. Consulting firms are a great way to work on all different kinds of projects and travel. And you have to go out and get clients, which it sounds like you would have fun with. Also keep in mind, generally speaking you don’t need a specific communications degree to work in communications but you do need an engineering degree to work in engineering. Good luck with your choice!</p>
<p>The engineering world needs more engineers who are willing to travel and communicate, so you will have many opportunities if you decide to go down that path.</p>
<p>In engineering you’re going to be doing a good amount of writing and speaking as well since you have to present a lot of your projects and communicate your ideas to the people you work with. If you enjoy travelling and going outdoors I recommend civil engineering, which is what I’m doing. You get to go outdoors and work on projects outside and each assignment is unique in its own way so there’s definitely creativity there. Many of the best engineers are also very strong communicators and presenters. You can also get an engineering degree with a communications minor.</p>
<p>I don’t get why people immediately jump to “engineering sales” for people who like communicating and being social as well as engineering. It’s not like more typical engineering jobs don’t also greatly benefit from these skills. One of the biggest engineering challenges is communicating your results with others effectively, so you don’t have to go into sales to utiliE these skills.</p>
<p>I’d agree with the poster above who mentioned consulting. That’s one good way to include travel, communication and variety into an engineering career and the pay is nice to boot. In terms of what type of engineering that requires, the answer is any of them. Pick the one you are most passionate about.</p>
<p>HarvardMIT can you please tell me a little bit more about your firm? Salary range and how challenging it is to get a job like yours and a basic background on the kind of environmental engineering projects you do? Thank you!</p>
I totally agree with this. I don’t think there is any need to actually double major in communications, but you can take some communications, writing, marketing classes. You can also participate in communications related ECs at your college - theater, debate, mock trial, newspaper, etc. </p>
<p>There are many, many different kinds of engineering jobs. However, they all require you to survive 4 years of grueling academics, with mostly required courses. For some students (like my math-y but creative D), it’s was hard to stay interested and keep up with the work in Engineering. In her case Econ was a better fit. </p>
<p>Simply stated… the branch of engineering does not matter a lot at this point. Usually most or all classes the same in Freshman year. Many engineering students choose to switch branches after a year or so or coursework. I did. </p>
<p>The lower divisional requirements for engineering (and physical sciences in general) are essentially the same. Inorganic chemistry, mechanics, heat light and waves, electromagnetism physics, calculus I, II, II, Diff eqs and linear algebra, so you’ll have a lot of time to think about it. </p>
<p>For which discipline to choose. It depends what you’re interested in. Do you want build airplanes? Design new roads? Work alongside medical doctors? </p>
<p>Engineering is a very broad field, so its unfair to ask another which one you should major in. </p>