<p>I agree with your assessment of science. Is your BSc in Bio or Chem? I have an MS in Chem with significant research experience and am looking to do a career change, though, I am thinking of accounting rather than engineering. If your GPA is crummy in science I’m not sure you would do well in engineering which is harder. </p>
<p>I’d say one of the only decent jobs for science majors are in the federal govt. Working there for 10 years and you could be in excess of 80k. Otherwise you are a lab monkey earning $12-20 an hour without benefits via a temp agency. You might start applying on USAjobs and just grit an bear it even if it is boring it is stable with decent pay which would be a huge improvement.</p>
<p>To the poster who suggested biotech, I would not go there as biotechs are typically unstable and their only purpose in life is to be bought by a big pharma company at which time most of the employees are laid off in the merger or they end up going belly up at which time the employees are also laid off. Pharma is a complete mess and likely will be for the foreseeable future and science in general in this country has been offshored, h1-bed, and cut out of viability as a career.</p>
<p>To the OP if you are dead set on engineering look for a cheaper school and don’t go into debt more than 100% of your expectant first year’s salary which is ~$60k. Also keep in mind many areas of engineering are suffering via outsourcing and ChemE is suffering the decline of manufacturing and shutdown of chemical plants.</p>
<p>Well, I can say that my personal and professional experiences in the last 2.5 years have helped me mature immensely to the point where I’m certain I will do well, if not excellent, in my BSChE curriculum. As for pursuing an engineering career in biotech/bigpharma, I’ve heard, numerous times, that it was unstable for the reasons you mentioned, which is frustrating as I find engineering roles in those fields very interesting. However, I was also thinking about downstream petroleum production since there are some process similarities in both. </p>
<p>Right now my goal is to reduce the cost of my education as much as possible. Two options I’m considering are joining the honors college at my current uni, which will pay for at least half of my tuition; or transferring in-state after a semester or two. Both will require me to achieve a good GPA, which is very motivating</p>