<p>My son is a junior in high school and has been interested in majoring in Engineering for years. We are planning to visit a number of LACs and Research Universities this year as he looks at programs. He does not want to attend a polytech in case he changes his mind once he starts engineering. We are planning to visit Swarthmore, Lehigh, Bucknell, Carnegie Mellon, Trinity, Dartmouth and Yale (I know that's kind of an odd variety, but he wants a variety....) But here's my actual question.... he's started wondering about majoring in Physics and attending an LAC so that he can take a breadth of coursework to be certain of what he really likes. He could certainly then go into Engineering in a graduate program. My concern is if he goes the Physics route and decides he doesn't want Engineering, what can he do with a degree in Physics even if he continues his education with a master's or PhD?</p>
<p>Physics is more applicable than the other sciences in terms of employment opportunities at the undergrad level. Since it’s a fairly math-oriented major, physics majors can be found in both the lab setting (albeit very few), but primarily in finance/business, and a few in engineering related positions. However, of course, engineers are preferred to engineering positions than physics majors are.</p>
<p>Typically, Engineering can be studied for undergrad and then study physics as a PhD if you wish, but its not really the other way around. Since engineering is a whole field of its own, you really can’t go into a Master’s or PhD for it with physics, as far as I know. I may be wrong but that’s the info I’ve been told.</p>
<p>Physics isn’t really a bad major. I think the average starting salary for physics majors is around $50k, in the same realm as stuff like mathematics.</p>
<p>But, both physics and engineering are very difficult majors, among the lowest average GPAs, so he’d have to work hard to gain admission to graduate schools, but I think engineering graduate programs are more lenient on the GPA thing since engineering is so difficult.</p>
<p>I just switched from mechanical engineering to physics, mainly because it allows for more elective credits. As an engineering major, every course is laid out for you, usually 5 courses per semester. As a physics major, I can now get my $cience degree, but also take a lot of the classes that I find interesting but are unrelated to physics, i.e. game theory, irish history, etc. Anothor thing I’ve noticed is that as an underclassman, alot of Engineering classes are 'weed out" classes, meaning they are meant to deter students from the major (not completely sure why, likely to keep engineering as an “exclusive” thing) However, in physics, the environment as an underclassman is more welcoming and encouraging. This is all true for my school at least…</p>
<p>Actually I was just posting about this topic in another thread.</p>
<p>I found more details: For an Electrical Engineering Masters, some additional courses would be required, for a physics bs to Mechanical Engineering Masters, there are no additional courses required at the state university I contacted- I have it right from the graduate program director- it’s the same as if you had an engineering bachelor’s degree.</p>
<p>Now there may be some Masters in MechE that do require more, but there is at least one I just heard from that does not require any additional courses.</p>
<p>Not hearsay- got it in an email.</p>
<p>I think it is a great idea to go to an LAC and major in physics and save the engineering for grad school especially if there are other courses you want to take and maybe even double major in another area. You should try to get an engineering internship in the summers or do engineering related work in the physics lab… Another good strategy is to take an engineering course or 2 in the summers to see if you like it. These summer courses if chosen carefully could help satisfy some of the ‘extra’ courses you may or may not have to take in an Engineering masters program.</p>