How do you know that engineering fits?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Well, my question is pretty obvious from the title, but I suppose I'll elaborate so you can get a better idea of where it is coming from.</p>

<p>When I started college, I was an occupational therapy major, convinced that my passion was in the health sciences. As the year progressed, though, I realized how badly I missed the hard sciences, and was very surprised by how much I enjoyed the math course I took first semester as an elective. When I thought about my job in the future, I considered emerging fields such as adaptive equipment design and designing home modification for disabled patients. Eventually, I came to the epiphany that I really hated my coursework and did not really want to practice occupational therapy at all, and instead was more inclined toward something technical.</p>

<p>Then, I made the leap from OT to engineering, specifically mechanical, which I decided upon after a discussion with a friend who had more experience in the field. Ever since I was accepted as a transfer (I'm going to Binghamton next semester, which I know isn't by any means a renowned engineering school but it was affordable and accepted me despite a very late application), I've been second guessing my decision and wondering how someone KNOWS that he or she is meant to be an engineer. </p>

<p>If I'm not fascinated by shows like How Its Made and haven't gotten in trouble for deconstructing things or trying to build a trebuchet in the back yard, are these really bad signs, or just indicators that I haven't really thought an awful lot about engineering before? </p>

<p>Just a small secondary question too: If I am pretty good at math, but not amazing (accurate but not terribly fast, 680M on the SAT single attempt), will I be able to keep up in engineering, or will I be weeded out?</p>

<p>Thank you so much for responses in advance. I realize that my best indicator will probably be how much I like my curriculum next year, and that I will have to be patient, but I'm the type of person who never stops thinking about things, so educated opinions would be awesome.</p>

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<p>I don’t know about how you can tell whether you are engineering material, but I can answer:</p>

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<p>No math genius required. You’ll be fine, as long as you work hard at it.</p>

3

<p>^Agreed…I have heard from many engineering majors that the math involved isn’t all that hard. Granted, you will need a fairly good background in calculus and differential equations. It is a lot of calculations and number crunching, but that is more hard work and practice than natural talent.</p>