So I love math physics and history and do very well in these classes. I think I have it narrowed down to these three options, many teachers tell me I should pursue a law degree because of how passionate I am about politics/issues I have never really given it much thought as I always thought I would go somewhere with math. From what I understand becoming a lawyer would be the riskiest route and the largest gap in terms of minimum to maximum salary. Starting salary is somewhat important as well mid career. I love mechanics and computer science so mechanical and software engineering are the 2 most appealing to me. My dad says I don’t have the work ethic to study engineering but I know i’m capable. I really enjoy probability and statistics and actuarial science looks like a good career. A couple years back I remember watching a documentary about insurance companies basically screwing people over to make profits, this led to many people leaving this proffession because they saw it as so unethical, is this what an actuary does? Ive seen varying numbers in terms of salary so im not too sure about that. I will be playing soccer in college but realistically I am not good enough to go to an extremely large division one school. many Division 3 schools have excellent academics so that is an option but I will try to go division one if the fit is right. This is alot but I guess im just asking for a sense of direction here. Any help would be appreciated Thanks!
You can go to law school after any major, so you can defer the decision on law school until later and do not have to choose your major based on it (however, an engineering undergraduate major can help if you want to go into patent law).
If you attend a college where changing majors to ME, CS, statistics, and math (and perhaps industrial engineering) are relatively easy (at some schools, some of these majors are capacity-limited, so it may be difficult to change into them), you can take course work in your first year that will be suitable to continue in any of the majors, depending on which you end up preferring.
Admittedly, I’m still just a Sophomore, but I do have 2 words for you to consider: Patent Attorney (so basically what @ucbalumnus said)
Actuaries analyze risk and uncertainty and try to attach a financial cost to that. They don’t necessarily screw people over in insurance companies; in fact, actuaries are necessary to the proper functioning of a good insurance company. They need to perform analyses to set premiums so that when you go to draw from the pool because of an injury or illness, the money is there for you to use it. There are corrupt companies in every industry, but keep in mind that when people make documentaries they have agendas and consider the source.
Actuaries make good salaries. The median pay of an actuary is just over $97,000 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition to getting your bachelor’s in some quantitative field, you also have to pass a series of exams to qualify and keep your job.
As was mentioned, you can pursue law with any major. You can also pursue actuarial science with a variety of quantitative majors - you don’t have to major in actuarial science or even math/statistics as long as you have exposure to the kinds of math and analysis you need to know. So you could potentially major in engineering, take a few extra math classes that are relevant to actuarial science that you wouldn’t normally take as an engineering major, and make your decision later.
Law salaries have sort of a bimodal distribution at top law schools. The first mode clusters somewhere in the $65-80K range - which is what lawyers in business and JD advantage type roles tend to make - and the second mode clusters around the $140-160K range, which is what lawyers in BigLaw make. Those jobs are inaccessible to all put the topmost strata of lawyers. But you’re right, it is a very wide range. the BLS says that the median salary of lawyers in 2015 was around $115,000. But the lowest 10% of lawyers made less than $55,000 a year, and the highest 10% made more than $187,000.
Adding on to what everyone else has said–have you looked into patent law? Patent lawyers usually need some kind of STEM undergrad major before law school and engineering would be near perfect for the job.