Math/Physics or Engineering

College Majors
1

Hello,
I am an incoming freshman this year with plans to hopefully double major in math and physics. I really enjoyed what I’ve learned of both of them in high school and my calculus class was absolutely incredible, but I admit I’m at a loss.
I hope to someday work for a company like Tesla or SpaceX or something really innovative like them, but i feel like they really don’t have a use for a pure science major. I have done a little research and it turns out they have needs for mostly electrical engineers.
I, being the stressed out and angst-ridden person I am, have scheduled my whole 4 year college career to make sure I can complete all requirements for math major and physics major in 4 years, but now i am second guessing everything. I want to have as many opportunities for employment as possible, but I’m afraid I’m doing myself a disservice not going into engineering and pursuing pure sciences.
So I need help.
Can I find a good job that isn’t research or teaching with math and physics? Or should I switch to some sort of engineer to get the most out of my undergraduate career?

Sincerely,
MadEpsilon

2

You don’t want as many employment opportunities as possible. You want an appropriate range of employment opportunities that you will find enjoyable on some level. It doesn’t matter if there are 20x as many openings for electrical engineering majors if you have no interest in being an electrical engineer! Focus on quality, not quantity.

Also, I think you should focus on career and type of job, not company. When I hear you saying Tesla or SpaceX, what I really hear is that you want to work for a company that is on the cutting edge in science and engineering. Maybe you want to be involved on the edge of discovery, and that’s exciting. But remember that Tesla and SpaceX - being large companies - also hire positions like accounts, lawyers, business managers, etc. Tesla’s current openings have tons of engineering positions but also lots of positions like account manager, HR business partner, inside sales, inventory analyst, legal counsel, logistical analyst, operations analyst, real estate advisor, and recruiter. Some of these positions - like data engineer, operations analyst, and reliability analyst - explicitly ask for a math degree, and some of them require no specific BA or BS, just that you have one. SpaceX, similarly, has lots of engineering positions but also jobs in business management, corporate communications, HR, and supply chain management. Lots of tech companies hire math and physics majors on to analyst or program management positions.

Do you simply want to work at an innovative scientific company, or do you want to do innovative scientific work? Even if the latter one is the answer, you can certainly do that with a math and/or physics degree. You’d probably eventually need a graduate degree in a math or physics-related area if you wanted to do R&D. But you could start out with a BA or BS and work for a few years first before earning the MS.

Also keep in mind that Tesla was founded just 13 years ago (and really didn’t enter the public consciousness until maybe 5 years ago) and SpaceX was founded around 14 years ago (and, similarly, didn’t enter the public consciousness until much later). They are young companies. The hot new company of the future doing innovative stuff might be something you haven’t heard of today, or that may not even be founded yet.

3

Broadly speaking, science is the study of the natural universe, while engineering is the solving of design problems using principles from science. Which seems more interesting to you?

4

Does your school have an intro to engineering class you could take? Maybe make an appointment with someone in the electrical engineering dept to talk to about how majoring in engineering works at your school? Some schools’ engineering programs are more difficult to switch into than others.

There is some overlap between physics and electrical engineering at the freshman level (and even a couple of upper level electromagnetic wave courses.)

If you are attending a school where you can enter engineering without major complications, you could always declare EE as a major right now in order to see what it is all about and not lose ground in physics and math bc the physics and math courses probably overlap EE freshman courses.

A lot of intro to engineering courses cover career options.

Fwiw, my ds started off triple majoring in EE, physics, and math. His dad and older brother are both engineers. He decided engineering is not for him and he is now just a physics and math major. He needed to explore his options. You don’t need all of the answers as a freshman.