I am very interested in Engineering but I am not sure which field I am more interested in, I am interested alternative energy, particularly nuclear fusion, and the food industry (creating artificial meat and other foods to increase efficiency of food production). I feel that mechanical is more suited to my interest in the energy crisis while chemical is more suited to my interest in the food crisis.
Which engineering should I pick? I want to keep my options open.
You might want to take an intro course from each discipline and then decide which one you like better and/or have greater potential to succeed in.
The required courses you’ll take in your first year of college will be similar (if not identical). So if you’re a HS student, this isn’t a decision that has to be finalized right away.
I probably won’t be taking most of the first year courses because I already have all my general science covered from AP courses.
Then your second year is when you start taking actual engineering courses. Therefore, ask an advisor to tell you what are the intro courses for each of those areas.
Alternative energy can be under ChemE too. My D is ChemE major and she is interested in alternative energy.
We will play a quick game here. Pick any engineering major at random just in your head. Got it? Okay, now don’t forget it; we will need it later.
Now, think about that discipline you just picked. Ta da! That major is involved in alternative energy!
Okay, that was a pretty lame game, but it’s absolutely true. “Alternative energy” is really just a catchall term for many different technologies requiring many different engineering specialties. That said, if you are specifically interested in nuclear fusion, then you will want to do mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering, or physics. Aerospace engineering will work, too, and to a lesser extent chemical engineering might suffice. Basically, you will want to get involved with some field that gives you a solid fluid dynamics and/or plasma physics background. There are also opportunities in the fields of electromagnetics (so electrical engineering or physics) and lasers (optics!) that all go into fusion research. You options are pretty wide open.
Is that true for industry jobs as well? I know ChemEs do a lot of research in alternative energy but I have heard that in the industry their jobs are mostly limited to the chemical industry with companies like Dow and BASF. On the other hand, I have heard that MechEs have a wider variety of industries available to them including that of energy production.
Sure, the majority of chemical engineers end up in the chemical industry, but the majority of mechanical engineers end up in industries other than alternative energy as well. Mechanical engineers do have a broad range of industries in which they work. They are probably pretty even with electrical engineers as the most versatile degree in terms of industries served. Of course there are a whole lot more mechanical engineers out there than chemical engineers, so the percentage that go into a particular industry isn’t particularly telling. You are better off looking at the sorts of companies you home to work for and seeing who they are looking to hire. If you end up going the graduate degree route, your best bet is finding the best research fit for you regardless of department.