<p>What the title says.</p>
<p>Yes, I loved school. More than actually practicing as an engineer!</p>
<p>No only would I do it, I did do it by signing up for 5 more years of graduate school.</p>
<p>Absolutely, It was tremendous learning experience. I enjoyed much better than any subject. I’m in the same as MaineLH, I enjoyed school much more than work. I think sitting in front of a computer all day was a problem for a person like me.</p>
<p>@boneh3ad, I went through my MS and thought I would go on for a PhD, but the thought of the oral exam was too terrifying for me!</p>
<p>Absolutely would do it again! </p>
<p>The way it formed how to think, how to observe details, how to solve problems has so many applications both in and outside of Engineering itself. Helps in many aspects of life, too. </p>
<p>I liked it so much, I went for the MS. Wish I had stayed for the Ph.D.</p>
<p>@MaineLonghorn The oral exam wasn’t as bad or as stressful to me as the written qualifying exam before that. That nearly sent me to the looney bin stressing out about it, and as it turned out it was a lot easier than I feared. I think that’s part of the rite of passage, though.</p>
<p>I loved my undergrad experience, so yes, I would do it all over again. I did go to grad school, but its not just not the same…</p>
<p>I doubt anyone who absolutely regrets going to engineering school would even come by here.</p>
<p>That said, there are certainly a few turn-offs that I never could have known would come up (because it’s not the kind of thing you think about when you have to choose your major). A few that bugged me a lot were:</p>
<ol>
<li>Engineering students tend to be less pleasant than average, mostly due to their obsession with money. Most of the friends I made that are worth keeping came from other majors.</li>
<li>The obsession of the program in general with money (yes, greediness is a pretty big deal to me). It’s as if a substantial portion of the program teaches you about how to optimize your life to squeeze out more money, at the expense of other values.</li>
<li>In the core engineering courses, a surprising obsession with formulas, quick fixes, etc., rather than an interest in understanding how and why certain methods work. The sciences definitely take more interest in the origin of the tools that they make use of.</li>
</ol>
<p>Would I still go? More likely than not, yes. Definitely wish I could have known these things ahead of time though, so I could better plan for how to approach the education itself.</p>
<p>If I had been interested in money, I would have gone pre-med!. My motivation was that I loved math and liked the idea of APPLYING it to design buildings.</p>
<p>Not so much about money as about greed, really. We all want financial stability, but it isn’t the kind of thing you should obsess over. Engineering students tend to be much worse than average in that regard.</p>
<p>If you are hanging around a bunch of people that you consider obsessed with money and about “greed”, maybe you better start looking for a different crowd or maybe should have gone to a different school. I doubt the average engineer is obsessed with money but maybe I just haven’t had the pleasure of meeting one yet.</p>
<p>You will hear it from many people that engineering school is tough and it was for me and most of my classmates. Some put up with all the work without too much grumbling but some grew to really hate it. While they have mellowed a bit over the (30+) years, they still hold it in some level of contempt. We all did have fun outside of our classwork, but the classes, the homework, etc.!!! </p>
<p>I didn’t hate engineering school and actually found some parts fun; especially the project work and some of the seminar classes. But I wouldn’t want to have to do it over again. I did find the career as an engineer to be interesting, challenging, and, at times, exciting. I wouldn’t have wanted any other career.</p>
<p>Someone once asked me why I didn’t become a doctor (he was a doctor). Well, I like to make things that work and figure out puzzles, which is what engineering is. Seeing something you worked on being used and functioning in space and on other planets is VERY satisfying. Seeing sick people all the time would be so depressing to me and I didn’t want to be depressed all the time.</p>
<p>
Most laughable comment on CC. What about investment bankers?</p>
<p>Yes - I still would choose to major in engineering if I had it to do over again (and would still use the credit from all the AP tests to allow the freedom to minor in Math and English Lit, to add breadth)</p>
<p>
A lot of engineers take that route if it’s open to them.
Notice that the “backup” major to engineering is generally business, the money major, rather than science, which would be more likely to be along the same lines of work.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the allure is to investment banking/finance/trading on here… sure, you <em>can</em> make good money doing those jobs, but the amount of stress you subject yourself to on a daily basis can really hurt your health in the long run.</p>
<p>I would pick engineering again, but i would not want to spend more time in school. its so exhausting and it left me with massive student loans</p>
<p>My comment about investment bankers is regarding greed, not engineers. Engineers are not usually known for greed, there are other careers.</p>
<p>No, I would go into Finance or Actuarial Science instead. As much as Engineering is a great field and has work, th compensation is not worth the work it takes to get the degree and your salary will plateau after a certain age and a lot of companies tend to only want to hire recent grads and pay them less. Experienced is only so good, watch the movie “Falling Down” if you want an example of a burned out Engineer.</p>