<p>These are the most useful topics to me. I have already got some help and have narrowed it down to probably EE, MechE, and ChemE, and maybe BME. If you had to pick a major today, what would it be? I think EE is what I would be interested in the most but theres other things that are important. Like salary, ease of work, and job oppurtunity. So factoring everything, what is the best overall major to get into.</p>
<p>Great new topic. I will be following. Also, what other resources do you think would be helpful in trying to narrow down what engineering discipline/schools one should be looking at. I have a rising senior D who is very interested in Chemistry, Engineering, and Biology. Thanks.</p>
<p>That is hard to determine because of other factors like geographic locations and employer demand for certain technologies. Now maybe, I am biased because I work in the I.T. industry, but I can tell you this....</p>
<p>An engineering grad with no emphasis (a.k.a. engineering science or interdisciplinary engineering) who takes an Oracle, Java, Unix or Cisco certification will make more money than an EE major with an double major in Computer Engineering.</p>
<p>I see it everyday.</p>
<p>I probably am no help, but I'll throw in my 2 cents. Older cousin majored in MechE (Purdue) and now works with Messer in Columbus OH. He seems to really enjoy it, can't say exactly what he does, but he's basically a project supervisor or something along that line. I think he oversaw the security systems when they were working on the Ohio Supreme Court Bldg. & the same or something similar for a police academy up around Columbus. He works with some pretty interesting & entertaining people, so there's always a new interesting story to be heard (recently it was the possums-don't ask!) Getting a job wasn't too hard since he got it shortly after graduation & Messer Columbus has their share of Purdue grads, so that helped. I have no idea what he makes but it must be enough to be in the process of buying a new house! I think MechE was the major that got him the job that best fits his lifestyle. It's all about what major will get you the job that will make you happy.</p>
<p>If you look at the following website, you can view a report by BLS on all the different engineering majors:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm</a></p>
<p>If you notice, a large percentage of the people working in engineering are in electrical or electronics engineering, and mechanical engineering. A much smaller percentage are working in chemical engineering and biomedical engineering. This could indicate that there are many many jobs out there for mechanical and electrical engineers. At the same time, don't be deterred by the small amount of people working in chemical and biomedical. Those small numbers could indicate that those industries will experience growth in the future. But it just goes to show how vast the industries are for electrical and mechanical engineering, if you're interested in those two fields.</p>
<p>The future for BME looks very promising, tons of funding for anything with the prefix bio.</p>
<p>best engineering major...which ever one interests you most? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>i'm going to give EE a shot</p>
<p>I agree exactly with phobos, whichever one you like is the best one for you. You can rarely go wrong whichever one you choose.</p>
<p>Well I guess I am probably going to give EE a shot.</p>
<p>One thing that could be considered is where do you want to live after you graduate? If you want to live in a specific part of the country, not all engineering majors are equally conducive to allowing you to select the area in which you want to work. If you want to do EE design work, for example, there are a few hot beds of this activity spread around the country, but vast areas where it would be very difficult to get a job. If you were to find one, a subsequent change in employers would likely require a geographic relocation. However, civil engineering is fairly ubiquitous and would allow you much more freedom in selecting the area that you wanted to work. ME may also be pretty good from this perspective.</p>
<p>Another consideration is immunity from outsourcing. Once again CE probably has a very good natural immunity from losing your job to an engineer in India or China willing to work for a fraction of what an American engineer requires to live on.</p>
<p>But, in agreement with the above posts, the most important factor is doing what you really enjoy doing and for which you have a good aptitude.</p>
<p>Actually I've heard that only lower level jobs which don't really require much interaction between the company and the engineer are the types of engineering jobs that will be outsourced to India and China. I've also heard that it's expensive for companies to set up networks in foreign countries for the purpose of outsourcing jobs, so I think the outsourcing thing is a bit too over-exaggerated.</p>
<p>How much interaction does an EE have.</p>
<p>There are plenty of EE jobs that won't be outsourced, especially if you work for one of the many defense contractors around the country.</p>
<p>At the risk of making this sound like a pep rally, woo, civil engineering!</p>
<p>Reiterating what fundingfather said... People always need buildings and bridges, and you can find a job pretty much anywhere. Even when clients can't pay for new buildings and bridges, the existing ones will need to be repaired, and they'll hire civs anyhow. Lots of opportunity for working outside, which I love... That, and civil engineering majors tend to be the least geeky of the engineers overall.</p>
<p>No, c'mon. It's true. Even if we don't have the highest salaries, we have the lowest nerdiness-to-normalcy ratio.</p>
<p>haha, I agree with what aibarr said. From what I've seen myself in NYC, there are a lot more CE jobs than any of the other ones. 1/2 the companies at my school's career fair recruit CE's, while very few look for EE's and ChE's. Of course that ratio could be very different in the midwest.</p>
<p>I'm doing EE...at UCLA where I am going you can select concentrations in Comp. E or Biomed. E...I might go Biomed. E.</p>
<p>CivilE seems the most interesting to me... but I'm a MechE, since I see better career prospects with that degree.</p>
<p>According to the Feds' stats, career prospects are pretty similar for MechEs and CivEs... I used to be a mech, until I realized that soil dynamics and steel design sounded a lot more interesting than thermodynamics and control systems. </p>
<p>And actually, looking at the spread of mechE courses now that I've finished my masters in structural eng, I've pretty much taken most of the mech courses, anyhow... Hunh. How 'bout that.</p>
<p>Anyhow. Why not go into the one you're interested in?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Actually I've heard that only lower level jobs which don't really require much interaction between the company and the engineer are the types of engineering jobs that will be outsourced to India and China.
[/quote]
This is the common line that one hears. However, my company is currently outsourcing the design of an entire product line to a company in Taiwan. Yes, there are some engineers back in the US that are involved with the project from a coordinating and specification perspective, but the bulk of the design work is outsourced. There will always be some jobs in this country in all aspects of engineering, but some are more prone to outsourcing than others. </p>
<p>As far as the expense of "setting up networks" in other countries is concerned, I'm not exactly sure what is meant by that, but in reality there are complete companies that exist in the far-east whose complete charter is to provide product design on a contract basis. All a US company has to do to "set up the network" is to sign a contract with these companies and provide the requirements for what is expected of the product. These companies typically have a few US-based employees who act as liasons with the far-east design centers.</p>