<p>Check out these links:
Career</a> Center - Career Field - Engineering & Physical Sciences
Career</a> Center - Career Field - Engineering & Physical Sciences
Career</a> Center - Career Field - Engineering & Physical Sciences
Career</a> Center - What Can I Do With a Major In..?</p>
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Right now I'm taking Chem and Physics, but they are 101 courses, and I don't even know if they would apply to a engineering degree. I mean, I hope they do for the bottom stuff. Otherwise, ugh.
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<p>Well, taking them at a CC will help you get your feet wet. If you like the science courses, and do well, then I'd see about pursuing an engineering route. It is likely that the general courses you're taking at a community college will transfer for full credit.</p>
<p>I was a transfer student too at one point. Good luck!</p>
<p>I'm fairly certain I'm gonna classify as a 5 year graduate. I've done plenty of the lib art courses like the english and the social sciences. I'm considering engineering, because, Business? </p>
<p>It's too generic. I mean sometimes I look at it an go, "Man, if I did major in Business, I'm positive my gpa would be very high, and I could have plenty of fun when I transfer", but at the same time, it's too generic, and doesn't seem specific. </p>
<p>I mean, I don't know of any jobs that require a business degree. And Engineering? Very specific, has alot of weight to say you're an engineer, but then again, they work for it. I dunno, I think I can do it. I'll be no genius though lol.</p>
<p>Any engineering degree is going to be difficult.</p>
<p>Folks who've been around here for a while (back before I went on my pre-wedding hiatus) know that the best way to get me riled up is to say that civil engineering is the easy major. Once you get to the grad level, structural and mechanical engineering are essentially the same thing... They're both hard! But they're both amazingly applicable. They both involve using material properties and an understanding of the application of energy to those materials to make sure that the materials don't fail under the application of the types of energy that the materials are expected to see... Pretty broad. It can be applied to coffee makers, air conditioning units, airplanes, skyscrapers, and paperclips. Highly applicable, plenty of jobs to go around.</p>
<p>With regard to thinking that business degrees don't get you jobs... It may be that you don't know of any jobs that require a business degree because you haven't really talked to people who <em>have</em> business degrees. If you go off of what you've learned by osmosis so far, you're not going to get a really good picture of what a particular major entails... Find some business students, some business professors, ask them what sorts of jobs business majors get. "Business" sounds generic because it covers a lot of topics. For that matter, now that I know about civil engineering, <em>I</em> think it sounds pretty generic, because from experience, I <em>know</em> that it covers a lot of topics. Educate yourself about what opportunities business majors look at after graduation, don't just go off of your knowledge so far.</p>
<p>I guess from your comments, I'm a little concerned that you're looking into engineering because you want to have achieved something difficult... If you've looked into what engineering entails and what engineers do and still want to go into it, if you think that engineering skills will really help you in what you want to eventually do (which unfortunately means that you need to figure out what you want to eventually do!), then you should go for it. Anything's going to be hard, and none of us is a genius. If you decide you want to do it, find a good group of classmates to work with and get through it together. Engineering's more about diligence and a willingness to do the work than it is about brains. If you want it, you'll make it... But you have to want to do engineering, not just to do something that's difficult.</p>
<p>Engineering's not really that "specific," per se. There's not just one job of "engineering" that engineers get. Engineering's just a fancy way of saying "figuring out how to make things work". Figure out if you want to make things work by going through the math and science of it, and then decide what sorts of things you want to make work... Then choose a major! If you're interested in it, it'll be easier. If you have no interest in mechanical engineering or civil engineering, it's going to be a heck of a lot harder for you!</p>
<p>Talking about it at CC is a good first resource, but definitely get out there and talk with other folks who're living with these majors, not just the ones who are looking at perhaps majoring in engineering or business, here on the forums!</p>
<p>Best of luck to you. =)</p>
<p>I agree with aibarr about the difficulty of the major, especially at the graduate level. I've attended quite a few seminars regarding civil engineering research that my peers have been doing, and they can be amazingly complex. It's also incredibly broad; there were a few projects in the biomedical/biomechanical field, so it's not purely limited to buildings and bridges as one might think.</p>
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Mech:
6 quarters math
3 quarters physics
2 quarters chem
statics
dynamics I & II
thermo I & II
fluids I & II
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<p>Is this all? I don't know if my school is creating a B.S of a wider range topics within Mechanical Engineering, but we also include introductions to manufacturing, mechanical labs, controls, etc.</p>
<p>The fluids, dynamics, and thermo II courses are optional electives that you can choose to take or not. </p>
<p>What is usually covered in thermo and fluids II anyways?</p>
<p>No, I was just writing that to show the commonality between CE & ME. Those "II" classes are not optional. There are additional ME classes that I did not write down (Heat Transfer, etc).</p>
<p>Really I think the important thing when deciding on a discipline is to start from the end. What type of work do you want to do.</p>
<p>For me, it was always going to be Civil/Structural. What many don't realize is that in Civil/Structural engineering you will always be utilizing your physics and your maths. This is because we are dealing with fundamental materials, like soil, water, concrete. And oftentimes the materials you deal with are non-homogeneous and unpredictable - making things even more interesting.</p>
<p>So in my work I have carried out calculations designed bored pile retaining walls, deep foundations, and seismic design of steel buildings.
There are so many exciting, mouth watering projects in Civil all over the world - some of you just google "Dubai engineering" and see some of the stuff going on there. Have a look at the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan, or the Tsing Ma Bridge - mega projects that affect the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. And as a Civil/Structural engineer making a significant contribution, that one can point out to later and boast of involvement, is a realistic ambition.</p>
<p>Whereas some of my friends in mechanical deal with ordering parts, looking up specifications for pumps and other machinery like air-conditioners - but often do not get the chance to actually design this machinery from the fundamentals up. And when they do it is a tiny part of a machine, like the lever in a camera, the spindle of a washing machine etc</p>
<p>In fact that brings me onto my second point. The reason why people automatically assume Civil is easier, part of the reason at least, is that they see a bridge, a retaining wall and think, wow a machine like a motor car or an air-conditioner has more parts - therefore there is more to mechanical.
They forget that any <i>individual</i> engineer can only do so much. So while a mechanical may be involved in an extremely large and challenging project like an airplane, he or she may just be designing only a tiny part of that airplane. </p>
<p>Whereas one or two Civil Engineer could well be responsible for a whole bridge design, and only perhaps several tens involved with the design and construction of a whole skyscraper.</p>
<p>So the difference really is in terms of scale. That is why it was always going to be Civil for me. Of course the other disciplines are fine as well - different strokes for different folks - so go with your personal interests, defined most importantly on <b>what type of work will you want to be doing</b>, and less on what you think you will be studying. Any Engineering discipline will have more than enough challenge.</p>
<p>Anyone can make a target. Teams are required for weapons.</p>
<p>:)</p>
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<p>If you're going into something...ANYTHING, really, you need to figure out what it is you need to know to be successful. talk to people, use the internet, whatever. if you wanted to work in a restaurant, you should definitely work at one where you know the menu, right? if you were working at mcdonald's, and an order for a big mac comes up, and you don't know how to make a big mac, guess what? you're screwed. your manager is busy talking on his headset or sleeping in his office. nobody helps you, nobody cares, and you're making $7 an hour. such is the way of the real world. if you want $30 an hour, you're going to have to work that much harder.</p>
<p>To use a more "relevant" example--if you're taking an introductory C++ class, and you aren't already a master of the language, guess what? that's right, screwed. "introductory" might mean introductory in Introductory Psychology, but not in engineering or in real life. slacking off works wonders in academia, but not so much in the real world..... or in this case, a course of study that is supposed to prepare you for immediate deployment on the front lines of a hostile work environment. I hope this post has been of some use to you.</p>
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<p>Of course an intro C++ class is going to require you to come in with some basic skill set (i.e. general knowledge of computers, etc.), because it's for college students...you aren't teaching some uneducated dolt off the street.</p>
<p>"slacking off works wonders in academia"
Care to shed some light on this statement, Luminaire? What do you mean by academia? Surely science and engineering curriculum are part of academia...in which case it would be hard to succeed if you slack off.</p>
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<p>I'm not sure what you mean by general knowledge of computers.....everyone has general knowledge of computers....14 year old girls can screw with their myspace layouts with html. general knowledge of computers doesn't help you when you're learning how to code.... knowing one doesn't help you with the other. some people that work in IT don't know the first thing about programming. you can know a ****load about computer hardware and know how to physically build a PC, but if you want to learn how to code, you have to start from scratch like everyone else. the physical world is not relevant to the virtual world.</p>
<p>My whole point (I believe I had one somewhere in there) was that you need to know what you're getting into. someone who's never coded before is at a severe disadvantage in a programming class, just like someone who's never made a sandwich before is bound to be a terrible mcdonald's employee. this kid shouldn't be like, "when I transfer in six months I'm going to do mechE and then I'm going to work hard", he should start working toward his goal TODAY. It's especially critical to take responsibility for your own education when high school does not prepare you for your major in the slightest, or if your major has a 50% attrition rate.</p>
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<p>when I said academia I was thinking more along the lines of disciplines within academia that are of no interest to the private sector whose students have been known to sleep in until 4, never go to class, and 'BS' papers the night before with made-up references. engineering=job training for nerds; comp lit=academia----IMHO, even though it makes no sense semantically.</p>
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comp lit=academia----IMHO, even though it makes no sense semantically.
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<p>Yeah... Probably best not to use "academia" for things like comp lit, because it gets confusing. Academia means anything within university walls. I think you mean liberal arts...</p>
<p>Also, I'm not entirely sure what the point of starting your engineering studies before you get to engineering school actually is. No matter how much you try to prepare beforehand, in terms of learning programming and whatnot, you're not going to have an easy time of things, and as much as you prepare, what you've learned will only last a week or so... Within a week, they'll have inevitably covered whatever you taught yourself on your own and will have blazed past it. Intro Comp Sci is supposed to introduce you to computer science. If it doesn't, it's not doing its job. Will knowing computer science make it that much easier to get through the course? Sure. Does it make sense to go out and learn the material so that you can know it all before you have to take a class on it? I personally don't think so.</p>
<p>If you work at McDonald's, they'll show you how to make a Big Mac properly before you have to do it on your own... I promise.</p>
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I'm not sure what you mean by general knowledge of computers.....everyone has general knowledge of computers....14 year old girls can screw with their myspace layouts with html. general knowledge of computers doesn't help you when you're learning how to code.... knowing one doesn't help you with the other.
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Luminaire, you are a funny guy and I enjoy your posts.
Fair enough. Yes, most people have general computer knowledge and younger people who have grown up with the technology probably have more knowledge than older generations who didn't have the same experiences.</p>
<p>I would say though, that the average engineering major is going to have a greater mental capacity to be able to learn the new material more quickly than the average teeny bopper posting on Myspace.</p>
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<p>university=college. silly foreigner. universities have liberal arts programs. if there is an academic program in this universe, you can find it in a university.</p>
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<p>exactly. this is why you must prepare as much as possible.</p>
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<p>In a weed-out course, they need to find a way to weed you out. since computer science is not conceptually difficult, they rely on labs to pwn you. since, if you actually KNOW how to program, you can bang that code out like it's going out of style, they have to assign labs covering topics not related in any way, shape, or form to what was discussed in lecture. to get the one-up on the other nerds, you must go above and beyond what they teach you, or you will be among the 45% who fail.</p>
<p>I know having labs that are totally irrelevant to anything your professor has ever talked or written about in his life is fair game in the sciences, but when a lab take 30 hours as they tend to, that's a little out of hand.</p>
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<p>managers don't train you in restaurants. fellow employees do. if your fellow employee is a moron (literally), then you're screwed. usually they train you for a day or two doing whatever orders might come up, then after that you're on your own. problem is, you haven't made half the stuff on the menu at that point. your promise=broken.</p>
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<p>teeny boppers become college students in a matter of a couple years. engineers were once teeny boppers. this post is completely useless..</p>
<p>^ Yes, but the engineering curriculum weeds out the people that still have the mental capacity of a "teeny bopper". Is that your point?</p>
<p>Luminaire, anyone would have significant problems in life if they couldn't figure out how to make a Big Mac while working at McDonalds - regardless if they've been trained for the task. </p>
<p>It's called selective evolution.</p>
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university=college. silly foreigner. universities have liberal arts programs. if there is an academic program in this universe, you can find it in a university.
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<p>...and you think I'm foreign with respect to <em>where</em>, exactly...?</p>
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<p>It's called selective evolution.
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<p>two of the kids whom I worked with at a restaurant struggled to make sandwiches. one is a college student and the other is a cop. the cop "pulls mad tail" allegedly, so evolution isn't being very selective. I don't think darwinism applies to modern life in 2008, personally. there's far too many successful idiots. look at all the hummers everywhere, for one....</p>
<p>aibarr....is a university NOT a university if it has a comp lit major?</p>
<p>p.s. send private message with pic of you in corporate attire.</p>