I need a down-to earth talk about life as an engineering student.

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>Hi Everybody</p>

<p>I am a high school senior and I want to go into chemical engineering. I have recently made some college visits, and have found that all the ChemE professors that I talk to seem to think that I should only be motivated by money. I am extremely interested in physics and math so ChemE seems to be a good fit, but any time I mention how much I enjoy physics, professors tell me that I should stay away from physics because there is no money in that field. I want to make a good living, but I don’t want to go into a field where my only incentive is to make a little more money at the expense of doing what I enjoy.</p>

<p>Should I be concerned?</p>

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<p>@ cjack</p>

<p>You are still young. Soon you will realize that money is awesome.</p>

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<p>^ Personally I felt that the assertion that physics graduates don’t make good money isn’t true.</p>

<p>Well it’s right when they say people who close themselves in a room for years to write down the equation of e = mc^2 LMAO jkjk. His publications already made him famous and rich already. </p>

<p>You should do what you enjoy because you will make more money that way. Give a thought. I will pay you $60/h to stand outside for 15 hours with your underwear on. Will you take it? Probably not even if you are in a big debt.</p>

<p>Well even if you do you won’t enjoy it. You get stress out and you may become an insane person. The logic is that when you do something that you enjoy, you will perform with your full potential, and this may bring you a lot of motivations, thoughts, and innovations. </p>

<p>Many physics graduate move on to business and financial sectors.
Physics graduates are very easy to integrate themselves in other fields. In engineering, you literally do everything with physics. You can earn a B.S. in physics, and study ME, EE, BME in graduate school.</p>

<p>Don’t chemists also make zero money if they just stick their heads in an organic solution, like alcohol? LMAO</p>

<p>In general engineering fields open more potential employments. Traditional disciplines like electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, and civil engineering are probably the most “secure” in job outlook. These disciplines are best friends with physics and chemistry.</p>

<p>Unless your prospect career path is academia, money would not be your concern (although you get money from patent, inventions, and research).</p>

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<p>how difficult is it to get a 4.0 in chemical engineering at a school like Princeton or Berkeley?</p>

<p>and i hear MechE is considered generally easier than other eng disciplines</p>

<p>and jwxie i’d take the underwear job</p>

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<p>I hear vanilla is the best ice cream flavor.</p>

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<p>@ legion662
Sure. Welcome to America. Opportunity is everywhere !</p>

<p>Getting 4.0 is great, but if you have to stress yourself out would be stupid lol</p>

<p>I say it’s difficult to get 4.0 because the next four years are full of uncertainty.
You can have the most unfriendly professor who will appear on your hater list forever. </p>

<p>It’s doable. Some universities are actually known for their GPA inflations.
[National</a> Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/]National”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/)
Big curves can be very very good.</p>

<p>I don’t think any engineering is easy. It’s pretty personal. You might find one course easier than the other. You might hate programming but I think it’s a piece of cake. Right?</p>

<p>If it is hard to get 4.0 at MIT, then I think this guy from our school deserves a national medal lol. He graduated with 4.0, physics and chemistry major, and minor in mathematics, in 4 years, and also the valedictorian of the ENTIRE school. He was given full scholarship to Standford for particle physics. It is hard to get 4.0 at any school :slight_smile: Work hard, but don’t forget to chill.</p>

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I heard it was chocolate and all MEs are geniuses.</p>

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<p>As uplifting as this is for me to hear, I can personally vouch for the fact that it is completely untrue. haha</p>

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<p>It has been metaphysically proven that sound engineers, on average, have IQs of 175.</p>

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<p>I hear that some astrologer also proved that “sound engineers” who carry assault rifles in their trunk typically fall around 200 as well.</p>

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<p>I think it’s somewhere in the middle. Not the easiest and not the hardest.</p>

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<p>It is generally considered that mechanical engineers is the “jack of all trades.” At my school it regarded as one of the easier majors simply because its the most popular major by far. Industrial systems engineering also comes close to a easy engineering major because its a bit more business related and less technical. </p>

<p>But back to the original post, engineering is hard. But there are several things you can do to make it easier. Don’t think you can invest little time into this an expect a good grade. There are some weekends where you just have to stay in to finish assignments/study for a test, but you generally find time to go out and relax. Stress plays an important role, like someone said if you are aiming for a 4.0 you are going to stress out a lot more than someone who is aiming for a 3.5 (a very good gpa). Pay attention in the freshman and sophmore classes, it is the foundation for your junior and senior level classes. Luck plays some part into it, missing an A in a class by a percentage point, getting the exact test score to get this grade. Ex. i got a 15% 94% and a 45% as my test scores which make up for 90% of my grade in my class and somehow ended up with a C. I was elated.</p>

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<p>I don’t think studying any one field of engineering in this day and age makes one a “jack of all trades.”</p>

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<p>Well then apparently doing pre-med is incredibly easy as well. Tons of people do that!</p>