<p>I am honestly worried for the personal safety of my eyes though. Slightly off-topic, but apparently, you cannot BBQ (using real charcoal, not electric grill) wearing contacts. The heat can melt your contacts in your eyes and mould them to your corneas. So I’m hoping no chemical will be that hazardous to our eyes in the ChemE curriculum.</p>
<p>But the general opinion I’m hearing is that goggles are more than enough protection. Yay!</p>
<p>That is bologna. Just don’t get your eyes close to the grill. You don’t need to be 6 inches away from your steak to cook it.</p>
<p>Melting plastic to your eyeballs? I’m having a hard time believing that…</p>
<p>Hmm, maybe a polymer engineer can dispel this myth once and for all? I wonder what kind of material contact lenses are made of :)</p>
<p>No polymer engineer need dispel the myth, we only need to ask one of the thousands of people each day who grill with contact lenses on.</p>
<p>nothing to organized … I had no preconcieved idea of what I wanted to major in … I knew I liked math, science, and computers in HS and pretty much hated english and foreign languages … so starting in an engineeriing school made sense to me … I only applied to schools that also had the majors other than engineering in which I was interested … and once I got to college the engineering survey courses led me to my major.</p>
<p>Long time lurker and first post, but I figured I’d put in my few cents worth…</p>
<p>1) Never took calculus in high school, and was never good at math (I’m still not…I actually failed the first series of calculus, got a B in the second, but then I was almost kicked out of school and got straight A’s in every subsequent math series…including diff eq, infinite series, etc.)
2) Was great at physics, and took both years of AP English offered + AP Physics scoring the highest in the class for all three classes.
3) Was working as an automotive mechanic during high school, and always liked to tinker/take things apart when I was a kid.
4) Submitted my university applications late because I did not think I wanted to move onto university, but somehow was accepted to some medium-upper tier schools.
5) Almost failed out of engineering, but pulled over a year of 4.0’s, deans honors list, awards, grants, landed an awesome job, etc. by studying nonstop and getting involved.
6) Did a year of research and decided to double major in another engineering field because I loved what I was doing in research.
7) Had 3 internship offers for this summer from reputable and well known firms. Accepted the highest paying one that had the best reviews from past interns for real-world experience in the BME field. Also receiving a nice stipend from my school this summer to continue performing research. </p>
<p>In a nutshell, I was at a coin toss after high school between majoring in English or Engineering. I chose engineering because I wanted a challenge/it seemed most in line with my interests at that time. After almost being kicked out of Engineering I decided to put in serious work into everything that I did, got straight A’s for over a year in upper div engineering classes, killed curves, etc. all while unit loading and so far it’s paid off. I would say ~50-60% of my friends that I’ve known since 1st year have either failed out of engineering or switched majors. </p>
<p>Bottom line is, if you truly want something you can get it. Don’t let anyone convince you for one second that you can’t do it. Engineering, just like anything else in life, is putting in the work. </p>
<p>Hope that helps with your decision!</p>
<p>Btw, I’m MAE/MSE going into BME.</p>
<p>thanks, all, for the insights into your decisions making process.</p>
<p>anteat3r, I’ll sheepishly ask: what does MAE/MSE and BME mean?</p>
<p>also, ant, did you apply to an engineering college freshman year?</p>
<p>in general, all, MUST one decide to do engineering at incoming freshman yr time, or can one decide to do engineering after checking college out for 1 or so years?</p>
<p>NOTE: I am the dad of a rising hs sr who is trying to figure out where to go and what to major in.</p>
<p>First off, during the summer of 08 my parents got into an argument with me about how architectural engineering was a career largely dependent on the economy. After much debate with these pushy people, I decided that I would do computer engineering, and said that transferring to pharmaceutical studies would be an option.</p>
<p>Then yeah, during my senior year, I got a computer. I spent most of my time on it. I knew I loved computers. I built robots in my school’s robotics club, I programmed web pages, calculators, read a little on my own, and was generally far more fluent than my peers. I guess I just knew where I wanted to go.</p>
<p>Then actually attending college, was like walking in a mirror store. Everyone was exactly like me.</p>
<p>Thanks for that post anteater. I sound like you when you were almost failing out 
:(</p>
<p>I saw a similar question as this one</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/973993-why-engineering.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/973993-why-engineering.html</a></p>