<p>I wanted to ask the board their opinion on something a friend of mine told me my freshman year. He was in engineering (CpE), and what he told me about engineering is that "even if you don't love it, if you're smart and diligent (and you like math/science), don't know what you want to do in life, and have a reasonable grasp of technology and tech concepts, you should go into engineering".</p>
<p>Do you agree? Disagree? Reasons? It is somewhat pertinent to my situation - for now I'd like to go to grad school (for math) but I'm not 100%, or even 70% sure about it. It would be nice to have a fallback plan, although I'm not sure that busting my butt over one of the most work-intensive degrees offered just to have a "fallback" is a good idea, esp if I find out I don't have a deep passion for engineering (also, I'm not what you'd call "tech-savvy" although I'm not stupid by any means in that regard). But more than anything I'm just curious about people's opinion on this. Thanks.</p>
<p>I think getting a good education in both pure mathematics and engineering would be exceptionally difficult. Most engineering programs will require only four or five semesters of university math covering introductory single- and multi-variable calculus as well as basic linear algebra and differential equations. These courses are largely computational and of limited mathematical interest. Given the full schedules most engineers juggle, using all of the few elective slots to take rigorous proof-based math courses would be demanding (to say the least).</p>
<p>I hear what you’re saying, and it’s a big concern of mine. Ideally I’d be majoring in either CS or EE along with math, and I’d most likely stay an extra year (I should be able to afford it, I’m here on a scholarship + some financial-need-based grants so I would probably have saved enough money by the end of 4 years to go on for another). I’ve taken two introductory programming classes (OOP-focus, in Python and C++) and an intro circuits course, and enjoyed all three a lot, although I don’t know if I absolutely LOVED them. I’d be willing to put in the effort, and I’m reasonably sure I can succeed if I did two degrees, it’s just that I’d have to spread it out more. The real question is whether or not I should do it just to have a “safety” degree, one that I wouldn’t hate (I’d probably enjoy engineering a fair amount tbh) and one I wouldn’t feel like I was forced into.</p>
<p>I think one has to at least “like” engineering to even major in it…and this carries over to actual work. There will be times where your engineering job is not doing actual engineering and one has to “take the bad with the good”.</p>
<p>I tend to agree with NeoDymium about the 2 degrees. One thought I had is that if you are majoring in math, computer science (as opposed to computer engineering) may be a route to explore since you enjoyed the programming classes. You might consider a minor in CS which will give you more options should you decide not to go to grad school.</p>
<p>Engineering doesn’t really teach concepts. Rather, it teaches an approach to problem solving for that given discipline. In a manner of speaking engineering is a method of thought more than a set of skills. I personally believe that this method of thought is good for a lot of walks of life, from science through business. So, in a sense I think your friend is right, but I also agree that if you aren’t mildly interested in engineering the training would be a pain. </p>
<p>It’s like saying that soccer is a great sport for getting in shape, if getting in shape is your aim. However, if you don’t like soccer maybe you should try swimming, the end result will be the same.</p>
<p>Pure math will teach you a completely different methodolgy for thinking. It is not the same. I would find it difficult to major in both.</p>