<p>ill be a freshmen engineering major in the fall. i havent really decided which type of engineering. my favorite classes in high school have been chemistry, all my math classes, and physics. im interested in energy and alternative fuels, and really just anything where i get to solve real problems. the two majors i was considering are chemical engineering and mechanical engineering. but now im kinda leaning toward chemical engineering, maybe with a physics minor. what do u think? can u offer me any advice?</p>
<p>At the risk of stating what is perhaps obvious: I’d say a Chem minor is more usual for ChemE and a physics minor goes along better with MechE.</p>
<p>I don’t think that’s “obvious” at all. I don’t know a single ChemE with a chem minor, but I know several ChemE’s with physics minors. At my school, it’s an additional 3 courses for both the physics or chem minors (if you’re a chemE, specifically).</p>
<p>OP- one big benefit you’ll have is that the majority of the classes you’ll take next fall you’ll need for both a major in chemE or mechE. In other words, you have plenty of time to decide which you like better, or might even dislike (for example, while I loved bio in high school, taking bio in college made me realize how much I actually hate bio…)</p>
<p>Agree ^^^. Leave this decision until you’ve taken some of your college courses.</p>
<p>well yeah im not gonna decide this right away i was just thinking about stuff. planning ahead i suppose. at my university u dont choose which engineering major specifically til ur a sophpomore</p>
<p>I wouldn’t solely use classes to decide. The freshman and sophomore classes that engineers take tend to be more methodological and less practical, so you don’t get a full picture. </p>
<p>I strongly recommend an internship between your freshman and sophomore year. Also, talk to professors and more advanced students.</p>
<p>I thought math minor is more common LOL
second what other said: wait.</p>
<p>maybe i should have explained myself more… im not making any decisions now, i know that i need to wait until i get to college lol. im just curious, thats all. that being said, i appreciate all the replies, thanks for the advice! jwixie, what do you mean about a math minor being more common?</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that minors matter very little in the hiring process. If you have a BS in chemical engineering, a minor in math or physics or chemistry doesn’t change your employ-ability. It doesn’t hurt, but it doesn’t help. </p>
<p>What will help your employment prospects are if you minor in something specific (i.e. a B.S. in chemical engineering with a minor in plastics), though while that might help you in some industries (i.e. plastics) it might hurt you in others (e.g. food). Another thing that helps is if you major in something normally unrelated (a B.S. in chemical engineering with a minor in finance or a minor in German).</p>
<p>I always believed that if one was to take a good amount of credits in a 2nd field, that you take enough to qualify for employment in that field. Usually that would be majors that can be combined easily and have a lot of courses that can “double count”, like:</p>
<p>Mathematics/Computer Science
Mathematics/Physics
Computer Science/EE (via CompE)
EE/Physics
Accounting/Finance
Economics/Finance</p>
<p>Let’s say your B.A./B.S. major is 120 credits. Usually, 40 credits are used for General Education and 50 more for the major. The other 30 should be in the OTHER MAJOR and 10 credits from the 1st major should be cross-listed courses that are in BOTH departments of your 2 majors.</p>
<p>Minors are usually not enough to solely work in that area.</p>
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<p>This is what I’d be pursuing if I were a freshman engineering student in 2011. Nuclear, wind, solar, tidal, bio fuels, etc. </p>
<p>I also encourage engineering students to explore subjects like:</p>
<p>Macro & Micro Economics
Cost and Managerial Accounting
Organizational Behavior
Engineering Economics or Intro to Finance</p>
<p>Engineers that can balance the technical with the economic/business/organizational objectives of an organization are more highly valued.</p>