<p>Hi. My son is a rising sophomore in Industrial Engineering. All of his friends are telling him that he should go into Mechanical, because he would be able to do Industrial Engineering with a Mechanical degree, but not vice versa. And they say that IE is a "cop out" and a joke of a major. He actually thought it looked interested - kind of like a cross between Engineering and Business. But now he is stressing because he feels Mechanical might be better, but he is still leaning towards Industrial. What is everyones thoughts? Are jobs just as easy to find and how are the two different pay scales??? And is IE necessarily easier? I though that statistics was hard - and there are quite a few statistic classes in the curriculum.</p>
<p>I’m in IE and I can definitely tell you that it is not a cop out. People like to disparage it for some reason and I just don’t think they have researched the field- at all. No, we don’t make ‘things’. But we do make processes, which optimize these physical things. From parts to people, we have a hand in it all. My program is very OR based and requires a lot of Stat, but on top of that we have Deterministic Prob, and Stochastic Prob (tell me that is easy…). No it is not a physics heavy degree, but it is seriously employable. I have gotten multiple internship offers, all at around 25/hour. Tell him to not stress about getting a job in the IE field, and to not let his friends sway his direction because they more than likely have no clue what they are talking about.</p>
<p>Industrial gives more job options and the skill set is more transferable. Studying mech engineering is a great way to become an unemployed middle-aged engineer.</p>
<p>Is it possible to double major in both of them? Are you more appealing to employers?</p>
<p>Chuck - thanks and I agree. When I looked at the curriculum, there is a lot of Statistics - and I have always heard Stats is HARD! Also, my son got an IE internship this summer - so that is also why he thought he might change back. What year in school were you when you got those internships? And do you mind me asking what companies???</p>
<p>Duecey - I don’t like hearing that about Mechanical because my sophomore son is studying Mechanical lol. Is that really true?</p>
<p>gotmilk - no, he could not do both. His program is 5 years - where he goes on 3 6 month coops, and will take 7 semesters of classes. It would take significantly longer to double in both.</p>
<p>His classmates are idiots. College kids think they know everything about everything and that their major is the hardest/coolest. They might have read a one-paragraph description of what industrial engineering is and concluded that it “sounds easier” and had this idea reinforced by every other college kid who read the same paragraph. Most people don’t know what IE is, even the ones taking classes right down the hall. If he likes IE, he should stick with it. His job prospects will pretty much be no better (or worse) with ME than with IE. Giving into this kind of peer pressure would be really unfortunate, especially when the pressure is based on nothing more than his friends’ ignorance.</p>
<p>Yeah, no problem. I actually have 2 years left, and those offers were from this summer. I had offers to internship at Norfolk Southern, a local consulting group, Volvo, and almost (final two candidates) got one more with Premier (a large healthcare firm). So the options are there, and and they are varied!</p>
<p>I just finished my first year and switched into Industrial and systems engineering from civil, I still don’t really know what I’m doing and am thinking to switch over to ME, but really are the job prospects a lot better for mechanical, I remember from the commencement ceremony at the beginning of the year that at least 40% of the people in the college of engineering at UF are mechanical. I did real well my first year and ended with a 3.9 GPA, but I don’t know what engineering field to apply myself to, I even thought about leaving and joining the military to clear my mind for couple of years and go back really knowing what to do. I find both ME and ISE very interesting but job prospects is a real deal breaker for me because I’m paying for my education and I will graduate with at least 20k in debt. What major is best?</p>