<p>Is Environmental Engineering as respectable and flexible as some of the other traditional engineering majors(mechanical, electrical, )? What about Applied Math and Statistics Majors? How do these compare to traditional engineering majors?</p>
<p>Earthy people and environmentists respect environmental engineering majors.</p>
<p>But it’s mixture between life science and hard science, while mechanical and electrical engineering are pure physical science. Those majors tend to be more respected in general. </p>
<p>Applied math and Statistics sound like worthless majors in my opinion.</p>
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Yes.</p>
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No. There are certain engineering fields that can basically be considered “core” programs. Everything else is essentially an off-shoot of those. The core programs are Mechanical, Electrical, and Civil. Then you get into the major branches of Chemical and Aerospace, then the specialized fields of Industrial, Systems, Environmental, Computer, Nuclear, Biomedical, Materials, etc. Then after that, you get into sub-fields, of which there are too many to list but examples are Supply Chain Engineering (sub-field of industrial) and catalyst engineering (sub-field of chemical). </p>
<p>Note: that has nothing to do with difficulty, respect, rigor, etc. It entirely has to do with how general a field is to engineering as a whole. Core engineering disciplines are more “flexible” and sub-fields are least flexible.</p>
<p>G.P. with good analysis again, though I think I would put Chemical up there with the other three core programs.</p>
<p>Environmental engineering is a perfectly respectable degree. It isn’t one that has that “wow” factor like saying you are a rocket scientist does, but it is very respectable nonetheless. If it is what you are truly interested in, then go for it. I have a cousin with an M.S. in Environmental Engineering and she absolutely loves it.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I actually put some thought into where to place chemical engineering, after all it’s one of the oldest engineering fields. At the end of the day, I don’t think it’s sufficiently different from mechanical engineering to declare it a core field, since classical chemical engineering is based largely on thermodynamics and fluid mechanics.</p>
<p>I think chemical engineering today has evolved into something really different than what it was years ago. Perhaps it does deserve to be considered a core engineering field.</p>