<p>I am admitted to COE. But I have no idea what specific field I should major in, since I am not interested in any particular area in engineering.
Compare to Humanities and other subjects, I am more interested in math and science, but still I don't really enjoy studying them. I have no interest in any particular area( i don't like computer science), I am thinking about studying engineering for undergraduate and change my major to buiness for graduate school?
Anyway, since I am admitted ED to COE, what will be the best major for me?</p>
<p>I plan doing the same thing. Ill do Mechanical Engineering for UG and then after 3 years of Work experience ill do an MBA.
I got into Penn ED so I am in the same situation.</p>
<p>My advice is this. Do engineering and try to take as many Eco/Finance courses as possible. Thus, your engineering course load must be relatively easier. Now NO engineering degree is ‘easy’ so to decrease your work pressure you should take the specialization youre most comfortable with. Normally people take Physics Engineering at Cornell. Id recommend Electrical or Mechanical as they aren’t as hard as Comp Eng or Chemical or even Material Eng.
It really dosen’t matter though.
You only declare your major after 2nd year (at Penn, it may be after 1st for Cornell). So just go to Ithaca and see what you find the easiest and least time consuming.</p>
<p>I’m not an engineer, but the best advice I received regarding stuff like this is reflecting on what you do with your free time. Engineering is probably a bit more difficult for this exercise, but for example, when you read science/technical articles, which draw your attention first? If you don’t (yet) read these types of things, during your first semester, spend 10-20mins a day scanning articles and it won’t take long for you to establish which grab your attention and which you completely skip. You have some time, so take a variety of classes. Read the course descriptions and see which ones interest you the most. Talk to your professors and see what they actually do in their research (maybe even try to get in on their research projects).</p>
<p>Look into [School</a> of Operations Research and Information Engineering](<a href=“http://www.orie.cornell.edu/]School”>http://www.orie.cornell.edu/) - financial Engineering, optimization, applied probability.</p>
<p>Engineering courses tend to be harder, hence lower gpa. If you are thinking about going into business, you would be competing with kids in UG business schools with higher gpa. My daughter is a math major in CAS, her gpa is a bit lower than kids from AEM, but most recruiters seem to give her credit for her major.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advices. What is the best (strongest) engineering major in Cornell?</p>
<p>You should study what you like and what you would excel at. Students at schools like Cornell are hard core, you would be studying with best of the best, unless you have good aptitude and work ethic, it would be very hard for you to get good grades. If you want to go into business or possible transfer later, choose your courses carefully. You could sit in for multiple courses and drop some later.</p>
<p>How about Applied and Engineering Physics? I heard that it is ranked No.1.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why you are going into engineering if that is not what interests you. It is a long 4 years of hard work if that is not where you want to be. If you stick with engineering take freshman year to explore the different options. Hopefully you will find an area that gets you excited. And don’t pick a major just because the department has a good reputation – do what interests you.</p>
<p>Agree with #8, but as you’ll be there…
You will have intro engineering courses during the first two years, soph year particularly, that should help you sort out what interests you the most, and what you are best at.</p>
<p>Wondering why in the world you applied to engineering without engineering interests - you must have written quite an essay!!! What did you say there about why you were going for CoE?</p>
<p>Operations Research - one of the best programs in the U.S. Look it up - just might be what you’re looking for!</p>
<p>If Engineering isn’t your cup of tea, you really might want to consider an internal transfer to CAS. There, you can study sciences to your heart’s content, but you would not be forced to shirk your eventual interests in business as well. To me, that sounds like it might be your best option. Provided you can keep a good GPA in CoE for a semester, the transfer shouldn’t be a significant issue.</p>
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<p>If you’re reasonably certain about this, then the ORIE major that @oldfort mentioned above will be an excellent choice, upon which you could stack economics classes for a strong preparatory education for a business career. The advantage you will have over BBAs or the vast majority of liberal arts students is a quantitatively rigorous background which will position you well for getting hired in finance or whatever it is you may do before going to business school.</p>
<p>Edit: Also, ORIE is in CoE, which would probably be preferable to CAS in your instance given your lack of interest in the humanities and other liberal arts.</p>