<p>Alright, I'm making this thread so that I and others interested in the field can get as many facts, opinions, and experiences as possible from people working within this field, majoring in the field, or from those who have done research into the field. </p>
<p>My path has taken me from majoring in psychology my first semester, switching to economics (with a quantitative emphasis) after to that, to just realizing that I really need to pair my economics education with a more "practical" degree in business or engineering if I want good, solid job opportunities after school. </p>
<p>I work for a large retailer in Texas that really values education and likes to hire recent college graduates and I am always looking at company job postings to get an idea of salary, job responsibilites, education requirements, etc... I noticed that the entry level minimum salary for business/economics degree graduates starts out at a range of 37-43K. The other week I saw a posting for an entry level industrial engineering job and the starting min. salary was 63K, a stark increase. </p>
<p>The other thing that seems appealing to me about industrial engineering is that I have very braod interests, and IE to me, an outsider, seems to combine math, science, business, and economics. Another thing that interested me is that the BLS report on the career stated that most industrial engineers go on to start their own businesses or consult which is exactly what I want to do long-term.</p>
<p>The downside of IE is that it would take me at least 2 extra semesters of school to complete and I'm already feeling impatient to get my degree. The other downside is that I love having my 3.98 GPA and IE would clearly drag this down quite a bit. </p>
<p>OK, so thoughts, opinions, experiences, statistics would all be much appreciated. I'm hoping this can be a permanent thread for anyone in the future looking for insight into IE.</p>