Awhile ago I asked is an economics degree a worthwhile major and got some good responses. Although some people see an economics degree as not applicable when getting a career and need atleast a masters degree is most jobs with this degree. While most people see STEM majors as being a good route to better jobs and pay, but here’s how I view it as. You have millions of other engineering/stem students across the country who have the same or slightly better GPA than you with possibly better credentials and probably went to a better school than you as well. So while going into engineering may have a good return of investment there’s no guarantee of landing a job. Besides that though is going into engeneering still worth it?
It’s worth it if you want to be an engineer.
The question here is a little different than for economics. Most people who major in economics don’t become economists. And it’s not because they changed their minds. Most of them never intended to become economists. An economics degree isn’t a professional degree. It’s a liberal arts degree that doesn’t prepare you for a specific career.
But the whole purpose of an engineering degree is to prepare people for careers in engineering (although a few may go on to do other things).
So if you want to become an engineer, major in engineering.
If you have to ask then the answer is no. What’s wrong with the study what you like?
This is foolish, but there’s this guy on youtube that pretty much looks down on most college majors especially economics because it"s not “applicable tothe real world.” So he views engineering and other STEM majors as an example for a successful career path. I do agree that engineering and STEM degrees are more likely in demand and have an interest into majoring in a STEM degree along with economics, but isn’t there an over supply STEM degrees?
There is an over supply of everything if you ask, so why pick on economics. Why do you care what some guy on YouTube?
I’m not picking on economics I’m still deciding what major is worthwhile to study in when I transfer to university and economics is one of them, but I also want to take up a STEM degree and was wondering was it still worthwhile.
Do you like science, math classes?
I didn’t take alot of them in highschool, but yes I do.
@Marian I thought economics was considered a social science degree?
I think, and I could be wrong, you have to be really into any STEM topics/material to want to study it. If you aren’t really interested in STEM topics/material then you not only shouldn’t consider studying in that area but that would also suggest you wouldn’t want to work in any STEM field even if could get a job in those areas.
I understand working backwards. In other words, what jobs could I get being the starting point and then back tracking towards what degree plans teach those skills. But you also have to listen to your heart. What is your heart telling you to do? My son, the 21 year old, is a junior at a public U and he is studying economics. He wants to teach economics at a community college so obviously he will get a masters in his field.
So for him economics is not a LA degree it is a vocational degree. However, he was bothered at first about teaching without doing. I didn’t understand his concern at first so I had to talk to him numerous times to pin down what his concern was. He felt, at the time, he needed to, no, let me say wanted to do something with his life before he got into teaching and he wasn’t sure he could find a job in his field first.
That is a legitimate concern. The job market is whacky to say the least. But I told him he could do certain things for a few years while teaching PT at a CC and if he liked the professional world he could stay in it. That helped him understand his options. So, to summarize, find something you like, listen to your heart, and then see if that matches up to any sorts of jobs you can live with without wanting to hurl.
You’re right.
And I’m right, too. The social sciences are part of liberal arts, along with the natural sciences and humanities.
Which reminds me is computer science and biochemistry considered stem?
Yes, that’s the S and T.
STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Of course computer science and biochemistry are considered STEM. That said, there’s nothing magic about being considered STEM. There is lots of unemployment and underemployment among people with bachelor’s degrees in various biology fields or physics, if they don’t go on to graduate school or professional school. Well trained engineers and computer science majors still have excellent prospects for jobs straight out of college, although if they don’t go into management or own really valuable patents their compensation may plateau fairly early, too. At least that’s been true in the past – who knows what the situation will be 5-7 years from now when someone now thinking about college graduates, or 15 years from now when his or her career is well underway?
If STEM interests you and you have some aptitude and preferably some rigorous classes in high school, study STEM. There are always jobs in STEM and you can likely do well coming out of a 2nd tier ABET program (not Ivy, not top 50, not private) if you get a reasonable GPA. There are jobs that would hire STEM graduates so that picks up some of the lower GPA 2nd tier schools. You can solve problems after engineering classes, you can use a computer, you can do math, you have some science background etc. Most jobs that engineers get will pay a living wage, likely 50K plus, with some real upside in later years.
Biology seems to have a bit of a placement issue … likely due to more women (sorry, there is a gender gap in salaries), too many graduates, work that requires a PhD, etc. Math, engineering, comp sci women graduates do well, they have skills that don’t need interpretation (the right answer is the right answer and things like leadership style … not so important) …
If you just are going to engineering for the money …
- engineering is gosh darn hard major and you are working harder all 4 years
- pay in other fields can be higher and can have more upside
- engineering is impossible if you don’t have STEM aptitude and more difficult if you have to start with precalc and no science background from high school, since most of your competition is starting from a better place
If you don’t want STEM, some of the discussions about elite schools may change flavor a bit. An art history major from Harvard or a good flagship may get some really good job offers, someone from NWSE podunk school might be selling prints or designing frames at Joanne’s. That’s just the way it is. If you have 100K in debt from NWSE private podunk U, that is a problem.
PS - lots of engineering jobs really require you to use your STEM skills everyday, so getting the BS is not the only hurdle. And if you want management, there are other paths, often end up having engineers working for them.
Salaries for top engineers and consultants can be high, but that implies you are good at engineering and can design things or fix designs or run a plant or whatever plus have good people and communication skills.
The biggest issue with salaries capping out is that there a limited number of jobs where companies really want to pay a senior or above salary. If they can hire someone with 5 years experience at under 100K, they will do that rather than hiring a high paid person.
Or you become a manager, but see above - there are easier ways.
I’ll just mention that to be a success in Engineering (or Computer Science for that matter) you have to really love learning the subject. Not just to get through your degree, but because the subject changes every 6 months, and what you learn in school will be relevant for a millisecond in the context of your career. So don’t think it’s “get the degree, I’m home free”. You are going to be reading up on new technology for the next 30 or 40 years.
You need to WANT to be an engineer in order to graduate with an engineering degree. It’s not easy. It’s a lot of hard classes with a lot of very smart, competitive people. Engineering is one of the few majors where you almost have no influence over your schedule or course load. It’s hard to fit in study abroad, for example, or “fun” classes.
Yes, engineers usually get offers and good jobs right out of college (if not before.) But they also work very hard, many burn out, and those wanting to make the really high salaries often go into management (ideally with an MBA they’ve gotten in the meantime.) And they’re NOT immune to layoffs and job insecurity.
Plus learning a new computer language or software package every 5 to 10 years, including CAD, Labview, Matlab, simulation software, whatever language the simulation software takes for custom stuff, maybe Java, etc and this is not for CS, CEs
In 30 years, we have gone from one PC per 20-30 people with Lotus 1-2-3 to laptops with every type of software imagined 20 years ago and more. CAD has replaced drawings and is now used by larger project teams. Labview is ubiquitous, as is all kinds of other stuff (long list here !). Simulation packages can do CFD, stress analysis, very sophisticated circuit analysis, etc.
Also expect to be googling obscure technical topics that only you could love and having to understand poorly written papers that then lead you to another paper …
Working with hardware now means working with very complex items … electronics, precisioned machined or 3d printed parts, etc, setting up test software, etc.
Also, you need to want to do engineering to survive the first 5 years of “training” which consists of getting an assignment you likely know nothing about, finding people who do who will explain it to your (once, so you better get it), you trying out some clever new way of solving the wheel problem, being told to stop solving the wheel problem, getting the hint of a way to solve the problem, solving the problem … getting a new problem … repeat.
I don’t think there are a lot of 80K jobs that involve pre-chewed food and doing work that others have figured out and will train you in (seriously, once its that far along, you can run some batch files that will do 30 or 50 cases or let techs do the testing).
After 5 years of this, maybe 5 years of doing what you know, the next step is to be able to fix problems, which means once again … you don’t have the solutions … wheel … hint … repeat.
Or you have to flee into a support field or management or tech sales or whatever. I will let someone else describe those type of career paths and why engineering degree helps you in those. I am sure there are plenty of jobs that require you to check the BS Engineering box for entry … and then maybe not do engineering.
I think what everyone is saying is that you should really love STEM subjects to pursue that course of study, or you will be miserable during your college experience, and if so, not get a GPA competitive enough to provide you with a lot of job options. I also think that trying to game the current environment is like timing the stock market - tell that to the thousands rushing to petroleum engineering b/c of the high salaries being paid. Then oil halved in price. Oops. Maybe now there’s a high paying job working for the Ayatollah in Iran…
While some on CC may disagree, I believe in studying what you enjoy and/or are passionate about and good things will come of it. I started as an engineer and switched to Econ with close to an art history minor - my GPA went from C+ to straight A (of course, this was 30 yrs ago…). I am about to invest a lot of savings into what many here on CC would consider to be a fluff degree for my son, but it’s his passion and I believe he will make good on my investment.
In sum, do what you like…