From Engineering to Archaeology

College Majors
1

Hello everyone,
so I’ve been on here quite a bit over the last two years. I graduated this year from High School and got accepted into a good Mech. Engineering program. I am/was quite excited about it.

I love to know how things work. Ever since I was a small child I analyzed and remembered everything. My nickname among friends was “scribe.” I used to reverse engineer everything I could get my hands onto. I was a 4.0 high school student who loved history, politics(and could debate well by 11 years of age), and science, disliked math but aced almost every math class throughout my education. I would read science and archaeological magazines throughout my free time. I love adventure and the past.

Now in college, I am taking a load of general education courses as well as a few engineering courses. I almost feel out of place as an engineer, though. I still do not enjoy math. I do not enjoy CAD design work when I am told what I have to build (precisely). I am scraping by math class with a C-. I look forward to my biology and communications classes rather than engineering and math classes. I hurry to finish my homework so that I can get in some history or classic reading in my free time (I feel like I’ve lost a part of my life without it). Have I made a wrong decision in choosing this major? I am not and never have been a nerd - I was student body President, rather (meaning personality wise - not looking down upon my super smart classmates).

Should I try out archaeology by adding a class to my load next semester of it? Is there even job options in that field? I still want to build and create things, I still want to solve problems - I am a “dreamer.” I just don’t know what to do.

2

I’d say there’s no harm in trying! :smiley: I’m not any expert but like you I’m a dreamer.

3

I suspect you don’t like things that are definite; you prefer exploring the unknown and making discoveries. This makes a career as a professional engineer highly inappropriate for you. All careers devoid of exploration are inappropriate for you, but that leaves a large number of occupations that will give you the satisfaction of exploration you need.

My advice is to pull out of engineering. Should you sometime in the future want to know some engineering thing to carry out a project, you (unlike most people) can learn it from books. You are energetic and striving enough that you do not need to have a job that is super easy to get when you graduate. There aren’t many jobs in archaeology, but you are an atypical person who can be safely advised to follow your curiosities.