<p>ok, i dont want this to be a bitter rant, but ive noticed that in a lot of threads people, (im assuming incoming freshmen) dont really know why they want to go into engineering. ive seen a lot of threads where people ask questions about "which major will give me the most money," "how hard is engineering," "do schools matter," "how important is grad school"... and the list just goes on... im not saying there is anything wrong with asking these questions, but if ur motive is to "make a lot of money" as in 200k+, sorry to say, but u should look into other options. Yes, engineering is not easy and requires lots of thinking... engineering is people who enjoy a technological challenge or solving problems. that being said, if u suck at math or physics, im not saying you will fail, but you'll probably have to try twice as hard as the guy who got 800 on sat math/sciences. you guys should base your future on what you enjoy doing, not because engineering has more job openings or makes 10k more than other jobs. if ur eventual goal is to go into medicine, dont major in bioengineering because u will think it will look more impressive than the guy who majored in human bio. sorry to say, but if u do u will fail. if u want to go into med school, do what you enjoy doing and you'll have a lot higher shot of getting into a med school than with a 3.0 bioengineering degree. sorry if this sounds harsh, but i think people really need to know what they're getting into before choosing a path that will affect them for the rest of their lives. i was actually one of those people who wanted to go to phamacy school and never had any desire to do engineering cause my dad was a civil engineering and i thought engineering jus sucked... but im a junior now and seems like engineering/math is the only thing i actually enjoy doing so i changed my major really late and ill be lucky to graduate in 5. dont make the same mistake as me and choose engineering if you feel its for you, but dont do it jus for selfish desires... it will screw u in the long term. trust me. feel free to comment, leave questions etc.</p>
<p>thanks, bman14. i really like your post.
I’ve always wanted to be a software engineer because I really liked games. I took AP Comp Sci A and got an easy 5, but realized that programming was NOT what I had made it out to be.</p>
<p>But idk, I just don’t have a passion for anything else tbh. So I’m really not sure if I should just go with engineering, since math/logic is one of my strengths.</p>
<p>But anyways, great post!</p>
<p>bman14, I think your post is great. I am a rising senior in high school and have been looking greatly into engineering. To be honest I don’t really give a care about money. Actually, I didn’t even know how much engineers make until I started researching engineering because I was interested in it. I have a passion for environmental issues and want to become an environmental engineer. First, though, I am planning a major in chemical engineering seeing as many colleges don’t offer undergrad environmental engineering. Also, I found ChemE to also be very interesting (as that is the portion of EnvE that I would want to get involved in). </p>
<p>So, if I have a passion for Math/Chem/Env, I’m thinking this would be a good place for me. </p>
<p>Again, thank you for your post.</p>
<p>we salute you</p>
<p>This forum needed this.</p>
<p>Ideally, I like the idea of “do what you love”. The problem is, that for entering freshman/rising seniors, we don’t really know if we “love” engineering. How could we know without having tried it. As you said, it’s not so fun to transfer into engineering late in the game. This is why I think we should encourage anyone who thinks they are genuinely interested in the process of engineering, and not any other factors, to try it out.</p>
<p>thats true. you cant know what you like if you havent tried it. but you’ll still generally have a general scope of your strengths and weaknesses. if your quantitative skills arent as good as your verbal it will obviously be harder to major in engineering. thats like telling a person who hates public speaking to be an attorney. not saying you shouldn’t try it, but you’ll still have a general idea of what you’re good at.</p>
<p>thanks for your post hope everyone reads it. And this should apply to any major in the whole world.</p>
<p>bman14 and any other engineer:</p>
<p>im thinking about engineering as a possible choice but how do you really know you enjoy a certain major? I mean, I don’t want to end up switching majors when I’m a junior or sophomore. </p>
<p>Does colleges help you sufficiently find a major you like? Also, how do freshman know whether they like it or not? I know intro classes for any major are pretty easy. Is it just the lecture given at colleges different from high school lectures so that you know what you want to do?</p>
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<p>You know those core classes you’re forced to take during your freshman and sophomore year? Part of the reason you’re required to take these courses is to help students find a major and look for a potential major in places they might not have otherwise considered.</p>
<p>If you do engineering just for money, you will be struggling. To have good grades and not suffer as much, all I would recommend is to love what you are doing. You like to create things using principles of physics, chemistry and math and use several experimental data, then engineering should be for you. I mean seriously force yourself to study something just for money is not a good idea. Engineering does not only take hard work, but also passion and motivation for it.</p>
<p>If I chose Engineering for the women, would that be a legit reason?</p>
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<p>+1</p>
<p>Only if you are into that sort of thing, haha.</p>
<p>Great post. I too am a bit uncertain about what I want to do in life. I chose engineering because I am naturally smart in the techical areas like math, physics, and chemistry. However, I haven’t really tasted what engineering actually is as I haven’t taken any engineering courses yet, only the basic chemistry, math, and physics. I know for sure that I don’t want to major in physics or math because sometimes they can be too abstract for me. Chemistry is interesting to learn but, I don’t think I would enjoy applying it to industry. As for engineering, I chose mechanical for it’s flexibility. I hope maybe in a year I will have an idea of what to do.</p>
<p>i think anyone can do engineering. when i was in high school, i didn’t like math, science and only took stupid/easy A classes to graduate with ease. i never took an AP course and not even an honors. my highest math in HS was algebra 2. now after 3 years in community college, here i am as a civil engineering major. completed chemistry, calc1-2-3, differential equations and mechanics (physics). my outlook on life is that there is no such thing as being “smart”…its all about how much EFFORT you put into what you are doing. </p>
<p>just want to add an insight, i think a lot of high school students and even college students are asking those types of questions because of the current economy. don’t be surprised if people are going into majors for the money…but we should only warn them of how much studying and sacrifice they have to endure to reach the end. its all simple proportions. study your ass off for 5-6years = higher salary or party-drink-complete-simple-worksheets-and-tests for 4 years = not so high of a pay.</p>
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<p>I really like this outlook. It is definitely true!</p>
<p>You can say the same for most majors; doing what you love is almost always the best choice. I think it should be noted, however, that this line of thinking <em>can</em> be slightly naive: the logic itself is no different from enjoying a sport and wanting to be a professional player. The notion of being able to pursue a career that you legitimately enjoy is only possible because of the demand for people with certain skills and knowledge. In other words, most people in science, tech, engineering, and mathematics are fortunate that their interests happen to be valuable to industry. Somebody may be in love with 15th century shipbuilding techniques in Scandinavia, but there’s only room for so many people with this interest. For this reason, I think it’s wrong to be critical of people who pursue a degree in one of the aforementioned fields simply because it isn’t their dream job. </p>
<p>There’s one other bit I think is worth mentioning: for many people, it’s damn hard to know what you want to do until you’ve experienced a lot. You may take a couple of classes, think you hate the field, then switch majors before you get to taste what the field is really about. You can also have a single professor potentially snuff out your curiosity in a subject you might otherwise have loved. It’s all a crap-shoot. If you graduate from college while landing yourself in an area that you’re crazy about consider yourself extremely lucky. Pity those who don’t!</p>
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<p>Only to some extent. For example, my gf is horrible in math/physics and thinks concepts in Cal I are very hard. There’s no way that she would be able to do the majority of my hwk, no matter how hard she tried. I’m not saying she’s unintelligent, I’m just saying engineering would not be her cup of tea.</p>
<p>Well, that is why she would not put her effort into engineering…</p>
<p>hence it would quickly become a circular argument</p>
<p>^^very true…</p>
<p>Thanks for this post. Gives a ton of insight into a lot of underlying misconceptions.
And as for the whole “going into engineering for the money” thing, its true of a lot of people I know. They were good at math/physics in high school, ended up taking AP Calc AB/BC and AP Physics B/C and did ok or fine. Since they don’t know what to major in, and they see that their best subjects are math and phyiscs…this combined with the fact that engineering majors get the highest salaries obviously encourages parents to try and get their child to go into it, if possible. This is why I chose engineering.
My “alternate” major was digital/graphic design. Now yes, I do very much enjoy doing this; I’ve been doing it for four years. However, its a liberal arts major and you need to be a freelancer to get paid right. Believe it or not, what you enjoy doing will definitely get you a job you like but maybe not the money you want to make. To balance this out, choose a happy medium which has a workstyle that you like and one which pays fairly well. Therefore, high school math/physics kids end up in engineering.</p>
<p>I actually know someone who got 2’s in Physics C: Mech and Physics C: E&M…and was still very content with his scores. He said he enjoyed the class and that he learnt a lot about applying math techniques to solve physics problems. Now after two years, he’s doing fantastic in college (nuclear engineering; must stress this is a hard major).</p>