<p>I know that PetEs get more money in the beginning and will get more money overtime but I want to know if it's worth taking the risk to get into such a specialized field. I will be getting In-state tuition if I go to LSU for PetE (I live in GA) but not for any other major so it is either take the risk of being specialized in PetE at LSU for 4 years or go to LSU for a year and transfer to Ga Tech for Mechanical. Please help me out!!</p>
<p>LSU has a few majors where you can attend using the Academic Common market. Petroleum is the only engineering major but there are a few others.</p>
<p>You can enter LSU as another major that qualifies for instate tuition and surely then double major so if you do not like Petroleum you could go to mechanical. Its just you would obviously have to complete the major you went there on. </p>
<p>I imagine you have high test scores and a high GPA since you are applying to Tech so do you realize LSU gives very generous scholarships to out of state students. Its on their website. Also call the admissions rep for Georgia and talk to them about this. In any event you do transfer back to GA I think your Hope/Zell is good for you to use up to 7 years after graduation from high school. And no I don’t mean the Hope/Zell will pay for 7 years of college but the time frame in which it must be used.</p>
<p>I know that LSU offers more majors but I either want to do Mechanical or PetE</p>
<p>Do you know any schools that will take Mechanical Engineering as a Academic common market?</p>
<p>I found the website… Lafayette does it too… <a href=“http://home.sreb.org/acm/SearchResult.aspx?state=GA”>http://home.sreb.org/acm/SearchResult.aspx?state=GA</a></p>
<p>In GA you can’t use the academic common market for mechanical engineering out of state because it is available at instate GA schools. What I meant by other majors is that Petroleum Engineering + a few others at LSU qualify GA State residents for instate tuition. Any major offered at a GA public institution is not an option for the marketplace.</p>
<p>If your are a high stats student at LSU you don’t need the common marketplace because of their out of state scholarships which are based on GPA and SAT/ACT scores. If you have a 33+ on an ACT and good grades you can get about $20K making it cheaper than using the common market and you can change your major at will.</p>
<p>So with Academic Common Market you cant apply for any other scholarships. Cause I could do both right? common market and scholarships </p>
<p>Let me ask you this what are your GPA and ACT/SAT scores?</p>
<p>You need to directly ask the university that question as to what their policy is.</p>
<p>GPA 3.86 Weighted 3.52 unweighted… Test scores are not good right now SAT 1558 taking it again in October as well as ACT in Oct. so that will go up a lot. </p>
<p>Why would you attend LSU for a year to transfer to GaTech? Why not just go to a community college?</p>
<p>That said, if you want to work in oil and gas, then go to LSU. If you don’t, go to GaTech. I also see this misconception about your major on here from time to time. Your degree isn’t specialized, your career is specialized. If you graduate with a mechanical engineer and work as a petroleum engineer for 10 years, your degree is now irrelevant. If the industry goes bottoms up, you aren’t going to be able to just grab a mechanical engineering job because you graduated with a degree 10 years ago.</p>
<p>I work with a petroleum engineer who went right from civil engineering to oil and gas and has been with it close to 12 years. He can’t just go get a civil engineering job tomorrow because he has no relevant work experience.</p>
<p>Thanks man, that helps a lot. Its been really hard for me to decide whether to do Mechanical or PetE. I want to be flexible in job choice, that is why I see MechE as a good choice but PetE is also a very good field to get into but I am nervous how the industry will be 4-5 years down the road and how it will continue the same way throughout my career. Can you help me to weigh the options I have between PetE and MechE…thanks!</p>
<p>If you are nervous about the industry 4-5 years down the road, then you shouldn’t go into oil and gas. I would look into other industries.</p>
<p>The real difference between MechE and PetE is what doors are opened in terms of your initial job. If you want to go into oil and gas, major in Petroleum Engineering. If you want to go into oil and gas and can’t major in petroleum engineering, major in mechanical engineering and work your tail off and get a few internships. If you aren’t sure what you want to do today, I’d say start in mechanical engineering as that degree will open the broadest spectrum of career choices. These are all viable options. That said, if you want to go into oil and gas but decide to major in mechanical as a hedge, that probably isn’t a good bet. Nobody is going to care about your degree five years removed from school, they are going to care about your work experience.</p>
<p>I’ve only majored in one type of engineering (petroleum) but from what I gather talking to other people, most engineering degrees are a mix between problem solving and time management. That’s not to say all degrees are the same (they aren’t), but the fundamentals are all the same.</p>
<p>All that said, oil gas is a pretty hot field to go into right now. The industry is targeting more and more difficult resource plays that require a higher skill set than 30 years ago. I’ve read two separate estimates that the Bakken and Eagle Ford will be at zero growth by the end of the decade. Do you think the demand will stop growing? </p>