<p>I'm a rising senior in high school, and I'm starting to scratch the surface of majors and what not. I can't decide between an engineering major (I've considered computer science or civil) or a liberal arts major (maybe economics or accounting). An engineering major opens so many doors to the future (atleast, I think it does), but I don't know if I'd really love it (I've always found math relatively interesting and extremely simple, but science is typically a little harder and not as interesting...then again...I've been stuck with some really ****ty science teachers). Plus, I don't really want to be an engineer, I want to be a lawyer, and why work my ass off as an engineering student if it is something I don't really want? Anyways, so my quandy is, come application time, I'll have to pick between engineering or liberal arts. However, I really don't want to be locked into either one. So, is it easier to start as an engineer and switch into liberal arts if I don't like it, or visa versa? Also, which colleges are solid in engineering and liberal arts, as well as easy to switch between the two?</p>
<p>I wouldn't get an engineering education if you don't want it and/or will not be going into a related field. It is too much work...</p>
<p>"Plus, I don't really want to be an engineer, I want to be a lawyer, and why work my ass off as an engineering student if it is something I don't really want?"</p>
<p>Exactly. Go with something that is NOT engineering if you don't want to be an engineer (or a couple other things, but lawyer isn't one of them.)</p>
<p>"So, is it easier to start as an engineer and switch into liberal arts if I don't like it, or visa versa?"</p>
<p>Extremely easier to go from engineering to, well, just about anything else than vice versa.</p>
<p>why would you do engineering if you want to be a lawyer and have no interest in being an engineer? do economics</p>
<p>If you're not seriously interested in engineering as a career, you may want to look for schools that have a liberal arts emphasis, but will allow you to take a few engineering classes to satisfy your interest. I haven't looked into engineering programs, so someone else would be able to give you a longer list, but Swarthmore and the Claremont colleges come to mind.</p>
<p>thanks for the input, guys. </p>
<p>the reason i want to major in engineering is basically...</p>
<p>Parents.</p>
<p>both of my parents are chemical engineers and are biased against any sort of liberal arts majors (especially my dad). they think that the only way to get a decent job out of college is to major in engineering, and that there are plenty of good lawyers and why become a lawyer there's too damn many of them and the world needs more good engineers (and my dad assures me that they basically roll out the red carpet for women engineers...you guys can clear this up for me :P) and you know all that garbage. </p>
<p>but, then again, i might just major in engineering, see whether or not I like it, then switch to something else if I don't.</p>
<p>That is the worst reason you could possibly pick a major for. At least if you're just in it for the money when it's 3am and you're putting together the project everyone else in your group bailed on you can satisfy yourself thinking "one day I'll be able to make a lot of money" (still not a good reason) but you've got no motivation to fall back on. Do not do it if you don't want to.</p>
<p>Wow. You're kind of me...</p>
<p>First, a few random points. If you think you want to pursue an engineering major, for whatever reason, go for it, regardless of what you want to do later. I know multiple students doing this (they're actually all heading to law school...an engineering background is imperative in certain branches of law). But don't study something that doesn't interest you, whether that's engineering or anything else (and the good news is that if you want to go to law school, you can really major in anything you want). One consideration is that if you do want to go to law school, your GPA will be VERY important and engineering is not an ideal way to keep it high. If you love engineering and think law school is a vague possibility, then I'd never recommend basing your undergrad major on this type of consideration, but that doesn't really sound like the case...so anyway, just pointing it out.</p>
<p>So, when I applied to schools, I had no idea whether I wanted to do engineering or liberal arts (at the time, I thought English). I ran into the trouble you might have, which is that many schools forced applicants into the College of Engineering or the College of Letters or whatever else, and I really just didn't know at that point. I ended up applying to non-engineering schools when forced to choose, figuring that if I changed my mind, it'd be easier to do a math major from there than an English major from the college of engineering (and math, much more than science, was what drew me to engineering).</p>
<p>I ended up choosing one of the Claremont Colleges (not "the engineering one"), knowing that whichever direction I ended up going, I'd have great resources available to me (If I'd wanted to do engineering, I think I would have had to do a 3-2 program, but I wouldn't have had to apply straight into it, as I recall). I ended up pursuing a liberal arts major (Philosophy) and a math minor (partially because of my own interest, partially because of my dad's), so everything worked out.</p>
<p>The POINT to all this is: don't stress too much about this issue. Engineering can be a great (and in some cases necessary) background for law school, but it could also drag your application down. As an engineer, you'd likely be very employable right out of undergrad, while law school will run you $100K+ in grad school funds. If you do declare one major but change your mind part way through, I think you'd have an easier time making up humanities or liberal arts courses than you would making up engineering courses (which tend to build more heavily on one another, making sequence and timing more important than in many other fields).You could debate this issue into the ground if you really needed to, but I would just suggest applying to a wide variety of programs, a few flexible programs, and just seeing where things take you. As a general rule, liberal arts colleges will allow you more flexibility with less bureaucracy than larger universities, although you'll be a little more limited in your choices (engineering is offered less often at LACs). </p>
<p>Really, I just wanted to let you know that I empathize with how confusing the situation seems, but let you know that it'll work out and it's not that weird of a situation :)</p>
<p>Hey lauraware!</p>
<p>You have company. My son is an engineering student and began with the idea of ultimately going to law school. He still is possibly interested in doing that, but he discovered that he liked engineering more than he thought he would and now is leaning toward an MS, and then maybe law later on. Who knows, maybe he will do a PhD or MBA. The options are numerous. (He has 4.0, so it is possible but it takes a lot of work). </p>
<p>It is MUCH easier to start in engineering and move to liberal arts than the reverse. If you might want engineering, I would start there.</p>
<p>
[quote]
both of my parents are chemical engineers and are biased against any sort of liberal arts majors (especially my dad). they think that the only way to get a decent job out of college is to major in engineering, and that there are plenty of good lawyers and why become a lawyer there's too damn many of them and the world needs more good engineers (and my dad assures me that they basically roll out the red carpet for women engineers...you guys can clear this up for me :P) and you know all that garbage.
[/quote]
He's pretty much right. :)</p>
<p>hahaha. dammit parents are always right :P</p>
<p>thanks for the input guys, i'm glad to know i'm not the only one in this situation!</p>
<p>also, do any of you guys know of schools that don't force you to choose between letters and science or engineering?</p>
<p>I don't want to be an engineer, but I want an engineering degree. I'm like you....I really like math, and for the most part science is ok. But I chose engineering b/c it teaches you how to think in a different manner than in liberal arts. </p>
<p>I want to apply the engineering thought process to subjects outside of math and science. I initially chose to major in Operations Research and Industrial engineering, b/c i felt it was broader and could be applied to many different things. Now I think i'm going to do an independent major, combing operations research w/ applied math and sociology. I'm still in the college of engineering, but now I will have flexibility to do more in the liberal arts. So maybe when you are looking at colleges, look at schools that give you an option to design your own major...that way you can combine engineering and liberal arts. You could get a double degree (often offered as a 3-2 program), and it is something i considered. But after weighing what it would require (essentially completing the requirements for both colleges....about 180-200 credits) I decided to go the independent major route instead.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I decided to go the independent major route instead.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The problem you're going to run into after you graduate is trying to sell yourself to companies. You're going to be hired to do a single job, and that is going to be difficult when employers don't know what you can do (if anything). It makes it even more difficult when many large companies do hiring based on automated searches of resumes. If you don't have "electrical engineering" (or substitute any engineering degree) in your resume, then you won't be considered. You might not get the chance to explain your custom designed degree. </p>
<p>It's fine if you just want to do it for fun, but it's not the most practical and employable path. It's the same problem that systems engineers, biomedical engineers, and other interdisciplinary engineers face when graduating. They don't have the depth in knowledge most companies want. Like I said, companies hire you for a specific task, and given a choice between someone with a hodgepodge of classes, or someone with the exact skill set they need, they are going to hire the one with the exact skill set. You need a good foundation to build up, and that's the problem with trying to teach systems engineering at the undergraduate level. In order to be a successful systems engineer, you need to understand the system first. Anyone can write down a schedule on paper, but it's a totally different issue to execute it. It's widely accepted that it's much easier to train a disciplinary engineer to be a systems engineer than to take a systems engineer and teach them to be a disciplinary engineer. A similar problem exists in the biomedical field when trying to hire undergraduate biomedical engineers. </p>
<p>Granted, this issue all goes away when you have sufficient experience. It also sounds like you don't want to practice in the engineering field, so it's probably a moot point for you. However, I don't think a custom designed degree is a good solution for engineers who wish to actually become practicing engineers.</p>
<p>If you either get a semester or two of AP credits, or if you are willing to go an extra semester or two, you could get a double major (son is planning on that because he had a bunch of AP credits). A double major ("BS Engineering and Economics") does not have to fulfill all of the requirements of a dual degree ("BS Engineering" and "BS or BA Economics"). It might be worth looking into.</p>
<p>You might want to consider Rice and Wash U as possible schools. Both of them allow a lot of flexibility between schools within the university -- so you could start out in Engineering and switch to a different major within the university if you changed your focus. Other schools, such as Penn, make it much more difficult to change majors if it's in a different school within the university.</p>
<p>So who is more likely to be hired? A Cornell engineering or a Yale liberal arts?</p>