<p>I'm an upcoming freshman at tech who was accepted into engineering. I'm not really sure what specific type I want to go into yet, so I'm glad we have a year to decide. I do think I want to do something to help with energy conservation and to help find simpler ways to get oil, etc. I know tech doesn't have a petroleum engineering major, but sounding like something that might interest me in the future, is it still possible to get a petroleum engineering job out of college as a different engineering major? If so, which ones specifically?</p>
<p>I think you could do any of the engineering disciplines and be well prepared to enter a petroleum engineering or energy related career. Take a look at any of the Materials, Mechanical, System or Industrial Engineering course requirements for example, then take a look at an undergraduate degree that is specifically for petroleum engineering at another institution I bet you will see a lot of overlap as an undergraduate engineering degree is going to give you a strong foundation. Depending what direction you take you could end up doing a masters anyway which could be done somewhere else. I am sure you will find a great degree/electives/concentration to get you there.</p>
<p>Also take look at the undergraduate and graduate career survey reports (<a href=“http://www.career.vt.edu/PostGraduationSurveyReport/PostGrad.html[/url]”>http://www.career.vt.edu/PostGraduationSurveyReport/PostGrad.html</a>) to see which companies typically recruit from VT. You can filter by major or college.</p>
<p>Go to this link: <a href=“Engineering Expo | Student Engineers' Council | Virginia Tech”>Engineering Expo | Student Engineers' Council | Virginia Tech;
<p>Find a company you’d be interested in, and then look at what majors they’re interested in.</p>
<p>I’d go with ChemE, MechE or Industrial. The best thing to do would be to see what professors are doing work on that sort of thing once you get on campus.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great responses. I guess I’ve got a year to see what interests me the most. Do most engineering majors start working right after they graduate? Or do a lot go to grad school?</p>
<p>Also, I’ve read that since the class requirements for engineering are so math-heavy, you can minor in math by just taking one extra math class. Is this worth doing?</p>
<p>Last question… How hard would it be to minor in business while doing engineering? If something like that interests me would it be worth it? I hear many engineering majors go and get their MBA after graduating.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know the percentage breakdown but I think more are going on to get advanced degrees with the economy being what it is, but I’d be surprised if the majority aren’t going straight into the workforce.</p>
<p>Go ahead and get it if you like math classes. It’ll probably count as a technical elective anyway.</p>
<p>There is absolutely no point in minoring in business. You can have their jobs if you want them anyway, minor or no minor.</p>
<p>Chuy: are you normally in the habit of dispensing advice that you make up out of thin air? They should tag you with “BS artist-knows-nothing-but-likes-to-talk.”
Petroleum engineers make MORE money with a BS than with an MS or PHD. Go to any schools website that posts earnings of graduates. A&M and UT both do this, for starters. By the time you’d be done with school with an advanced degree the guy with the BS is out-earning you. Look at the new OOH that came out last month, this reaffirms this data.
Engineers do not get some sort of first dibs on management jobs. Getting an MBA is actually great for PROFESSIONAL engineers, ie licensed. Since it takes around 5 years for that to happen, most get their MBAs while working after they graduate.
It is possible to get PETe jobs or similar jobs with other disciplines, but they will not pay as much as if you had a PETe degree. I have a friend who’s civil that was just hired a month ago, but he took a salary 35k less than a PETe would have. I have a friend who is mechanical that is a rig manager making a PETe salary but he had to work his way up to that over the course of a 12 year career.
Minoring in PETe is worthless. The PETe degree is attractive to employers because of the high level of specialization in the education. You won’t get that with a minor. If you want to make the PETe salary you read about you need to go to A&M or UT AND graduate in the top of your class. Otherwise you’ll make slightly more than the average engineering salary. THE top graduate of UT last year got 150k. Guys in the bottom of UT got 50k. Guys in the top of their class here a TTU are getting 75k. Guys in the bottom are getting unemployed.</p>
<p>I think you might have misread something I said because we don’t actually disagree on much, except that yes engineers do get first dibs on many management jobs. I know this because I used my engineering degree to get a management job just out of college and the company exclusively hires engineers for their management program. Obviously different companies have different hiring standards but if an engineer and a business major are sitting down for an interview and all other things are equal put your money on the engineer. And I also said a minor was worthless so what are we disagreeing on here?</p>
<p>I suggested majors other than PetE because VT doesn’t offer petroleum engineering. My advice was to look at what majors the companies you want to work for are hiring for.</p>