<p>I had asked the subject question on the Rose Hulman college CC forum (below) since it is a school that percolated up for my hs jr son's college search (he likes physics, computers and math, and he expressed an interest in a smaller school ), but I just discovered this sub forum. </p>
<p>I suspect you all could contribute since you had to have some kind of rationale for choosing engineering which seems to be a pretty demanding field of study. </p>
<p>I am also interested to know if you chose engineering at college application time during senior yr of HS, or did you come in undecided, then enter into engineering.</p>
<p>Finally, if you can tell us the kind of engineering that you chose and why, that would be helpful, too.</p>
<p>As I told the admissions committees, it all started when I was a kid and asked my dad how a plane worked: what kept it up in the air? Ever since then I have wanted to know how things work and build them better (and faster). Naturally, I went the engineering route. In order to really make the new, cutting edge things, I am in grad school now, and it was one of the best decisions of my life.</p>
<p>I decided on engineering quite a while before it was even college application time. I had ideas I might want to do it as far back as junior high at least. My only question was which type of engineering. I ended up doing mechanical for undergrad. My dad, an aerospace engineer, was always in fear of losing his job at Boeing during their huge round of cutbacks throughout the 90’s, and there aren’t really many other opportunities for Aerospace engineers without moving away, so he always suggested I do mechanical and then just go work at an aerospace company if I wanted to, so that is what I did. I am doing aerospace in grad school though, because the whole idea of grad school kind of makes the whole idea of breadth a moot point.</p>
<p>I went directly into the ChemE engineering program from HS. </p>
<p>I knew I wanted to do engineering because I wanted to actually learn something in school/college that was applicable and not just about other people’s opinions. I also liked to be challenged, and engineering seemed like the biggest challenge I could find amongst any university major.</p>
<p>I picked Chemical Engineering because I wanted to save the world and I saw pollution as the biggest problem at the time (early 90s). Environmental Engineering was an option, but they seemed like a bunch of whinners and more of “cleanup guys”. My thought process told me that if I wanted to fight a problem that I should do so at the source… I now develop alternative fuel technologies.</p>
<p>I should add that I also have a master in business. It becamse evident to me that engineers, while great at solving the problem, aren’t always great at identifying and financing the solution. I am hoping to start helping in that area and to help ensure engineers are constantly employed and funded.</p>
<p>thanks for the input. I am trying to get a sense of how it is that an hs kid knows to undertake possibly most grueling regimen in undergrad college - it is like getting your MD during undergraduate time - as they say in the movie, “the windows must be tight …when the monster is loose”.</p>
<p>I suspect engineers are too busy doing their schoolwork (blessthem) than to be looking in at collegeconfidential forum. bUt parents can chime in, too, since they might know about the rationale that went into choosing this line of study.</p>
<p>My recommendation to most people interested in engineer is to ahead and start the program but be willing to drop out if you lose interest. The first 2 years gives you a good educational foundation that will be helpful in any major. If the student breezes through the first 2 years than the next 2-3 shouldn’t be much harder, though there may be more work. If the student struggles in the first 2 years they should either switch majors or kick it into overdrive. Regardless, they will end up with a sound understanding of science and calculus, the only thing that might suffer will have been their gpa and ego.</p>
<h1>1. $$$. engineers get the highest starting salaries upon graduation, and the job market is pretty healthy. even if you want a variety of business jobs, an engineering major is preferred (wall st etc).</h1>
<h1>2. content matter. i was really frustrated in HS, where it was based on memorization and writing papers that the teacher wants. engineering is more about problem solving and analysis rather than catering to prof’s needs and desires. i also liked that there is a “right answer”.</h1>
<h1>3. technology. tech is at the forefront of transitioning to the next generation of society, and it is fun to work on stuff that is innovative and game-changing. it would be cooler to say “oh i am working on developing the next-gen search engine at google” rather than “I do financial analysis for my insurance company’s cash flow statements” or “i was an english major, didn’t get a job, and now work at starbucks full time”.</h1>
<h1>4. the people. i hate social conventions, grammar rules, and other “useless stuff”. many engineering students and career engineers have a similar mindset, so there is common ground. of course if you want to rise up into management you need to “play the game” but it is fun at least in college.</h1>
<p>My daughter went to Stanford as an undergrad in pre med graduated 09; We are of the opinion that Stanford due to its huge focus on grad and doc. research is actually a pretty poor undergrad program. all the sciences are huge classes, vith extreemly tight grading curves. The advising and relationships on will have with any of there prof.s is very difficult at best. The school does not cater or make any effort to mentor undergrads.<br>
I know princeton is the most highly ranked program by their own students and they do a much better job at all the above. I wish our 200K had been spent at a smaller school which has a true heart for undergrad education…our daughter might have stayed in premed and done very well. At Stanford she burned out on all the memorizing, huge lectures, and be amoung so many competitive pers in the weed out classes. I would only think an undergrad education at stanford is worth it if it nearly free and you can take some of the upper division smaller classes in frosh and soph years.</p>
<p>genevas, I hate to break it to you, but Stanford had nothing to do with your daughter burning out of premed. Probably 80% of students EVERYWHERE burn out of premed because it isn’t easy and it is just a ton of crappy memorization. Add to that the fact that out of that small portion that stick with it, only like 15% actually make it into med school. She would have burnt out anywhere.</p>
<p>genevas said–
“and be amoung so many competitive pers in the weed out classes.”</p>
<p>what are weed out classes?</p>
<p>I think this is an interesting post+ even tho it is off the direct topic of this thread, which is ‘why did you pick engineering?’ Your daughter did not choose engineering , correct? Or did she choose it after quitting pre-med?</p>
<p>+it gets to another subject - tho it is somewhat related - which is : what is better for the UG education, a small or big school?</p>
<p>This question can be expanded to include engineering in general, and not just for compsci. Here is why it is relevant to this thread: it has been said in this thread that engineering is very hard, among the hardest courses of study, almost like pre-med or even med itself. THen it follows that the best programs will be the ones that provide the requisite amount of support and mentoring.</p>
<p>This has been discussed in countless other threads until people’s fingers are bleeding from typing so much. I would suggest searching around rather than opening that can of worms here.</p>
<p>I’m actually one of those seniors about to go into engineering major. I just didn’t want to go liberal arts because I never understood the practicality of a liberal arts degree. At a point I was just thinking of a spanish major because I knew I could make money as a translator and I already speak spanish (lazy moment). I mean, I’ve always been good at math and physics but I didn’t like the idea of a math or physics major because it seemed so dull to either become some kind of an accountant or scientist in a lab. I just didn’t know, tried out medical and debate programs, maybe thought of going into theater: stage management/directing. Stunt coordinator was also a career goal but what major is that? I just hated writing and didn’t have a clue, just anything so I don’t end up a homemaker or cubicle worker. Then I took up an engineering program on suggestion of a teacher and it sold me. I get to design/build things and get paid! I thought the idea of “inventor” was just a whimsical goal but it’s kinda possible. Also it’s still pretty broad if I choose later to go into medicine, business, or law. Though likely I’ll go into robotics. Oh, and apparently stunt coordinator positions are very open to engineers.</p>
<p>I like it the more I learn of it. Especially the difficulty because I love taking the hardest course possible, I might be a masochist and sometimes lay awake hating myself but it’s always turned out okay or better because of it.</p>
<p>suerte – “Then I took up an engineering program”</p>
<p>was this a hs pgm or an extracuricullar pgm? THat is a great thing to do , to taste it a bit to see if this is something you’d like to do. My son tells me ‘how do I know to choose E if I have not done anything like E?’</p>
<p>I recently learned that the oscar winning movie maker from argentina (had best oscar this yr for a foriegn film) was an engineering student ( he actually eventually quit E to do movies FT, but it shows the shared skillset a bit ; orson welles famously said of directing citizen kane that it was like designing and operating a huge train set; movies, in short, have lots of design/engineering opportunities it seems to me).</p>
<p>Well, it was mainly to do dual credit physics at a college because they only offer preAP physics at school my senior year. So I took up this thing called EDGE (an acronym for something with “engineering”) at a local college where you took conceptual physics and an intro engineering class. Also there were projects like designing a household appliance, bridge out of popsicle sticks, and robots (which our team won the robot competition!). Oh, we were also put into teams of 3 from the go to “simulate” engineering teams. The physics labs were much better than any sciences labs I’d done at school and it was just incredibly fun. I’ve skipped into the physics class at my school and I’m surprised by how quicker and more math involved was the college one. I figure the conceptual would actually be easier than the pre AP but no. The engineering 101 class really helped me, taught me about ABET and the different kinds of engineering and jobs and what engineering really was. We went on field trips to lockhead, toyota, and some kind of mars simulator. </p>
<p>There might be things like this at your city/area. Look at local colleges and if not look at other schools. I know Northwestern offers some kind of summer program with engineering or physics and so does Carnegie Mellon. I choose that summer program because it was free while the others were kinda pricey and I could keep my summer job. A lot of universities have these kind of things, NYU Poly I think, UT does, mmmm, there are tons. MIT, Andover, mmm, yeah. You have to apply to them and some cost a lot more. I wouldn’t pay a lot since it’s just a taste of engineering.</p>
<p>I fell into engineering in dumb luck. I liked math, science and computer programming in HS, but didn’t like the sound of ‘mathemetician, scientist or computer programmer’. I was told that electrical engineering used all three, so I chose it as a major without knowing what it was. And loved everything about it ever since. I really enjoy using math and programming to design and implement new stuff. I still hate research.</p>
<p>As a kid I was never interested in how things work to the degree that I would attempt to take things apart, but I did like science and math in high school. I ended up majoring in mechanical engineering but I never had any intention on being a design engineer or anything like that. Most of my work is in equipment maintenance and reliability in plants. My ultimate goal is to get into management.</p>
<p>I decided to do Engineering because I kept on taking a lot of exams that decide your careers and they all said the same thing. I took a hint and decided to do engineering. Then I had to decide what kind of engineering and the answer came to me through a careers program that my high school had that featured NASA engineers. I was moved by one chemical engineer there and have been studying cheme ever since.</p>
<p>My S is starting college as a chem E major in the fall. He’s a smart kid who never really had a lot of direction or drive. Until he took Chemistry. He found something he enjoyed and his drive and passion finally found a focus.</p>
<p>Being in the school science league, which had an active, strong program, he found he enjoyed solving problems and applying his knowledge in a practical way.</p>
<p>Plus his teacher/mentor mentioned the $$ that could be made in the field.</p>
<p>So that’s why he’s going. I hope he can stick with it. As others have said, it’s a rigorous course of studies, and he does not have a sustained record of keeping his nose to the grindstone. But it is something he’s keen on doing, so I am hopeful he’ll be able to do it.</p>
– “Then I took up an engineering program”</p>