Prof told me to switch out of physics and math if I want a job upon graduation...

<p>No, it would be Princeton. They do have an engineering physics certificate but he did not apply to the engineering program. He won’t make a decision on schools until April, so he has some time. I just find it really hard to believe that engineering majors are so hireable but physics and math majors aren’t.</p>

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<p>You know why it is hard to believe?..because it is not true.</p>

<p>Many jobs at my employer…I am talking outside of my area of software engineering will say that they are looking for someone with a BS/MS in engineering, physics, math or computer science. Some schools have a physics degree with electronics emphasis or nuclear emphasis or materials emphasis. </p>

<p>I know the OP mentioned not doing programming but why are more schools investing in computational science?..because they need folks who can do the software and have the physics or chemistry or biology experience. Remember, nowadays an CS program only requires Physics I & II and math up to Linear Algebra.</p>

<p>So why are their books and research on Computational Electromagnetics?..or Biostatistics?..or Analytical Chemistry.</p>

<p>The GREAT thing about physics and math majors is that even if they do not get to their desired research goal, they are usually more than prepared enough to do other jobs that pay well.</p>

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<p>No, for example, you are very likely to have much greater quantitative skills that an average high school student. These may come into use if you may want to become an actuary, or go into finance.</p>

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This has not been true in my experience, as an upper year physics/math major who has even tried for unpaid internships and employers categorically declining and telling me flatly that I would be worse than useless for their company. In one of my friend’s experience, an employer told him he would much rather prefer an intern that is majoring in liberal arts than one majoring in physics. Despite the fact that we’ve both taken mechanical and electrical engineering classes, and finished in the mid 90’s where the class average was a 65. It has been the experience of many physics students I’ve talked to looking for internships or even employment after they graduate that engineering employers take a strong disliking towards physics and math majors and would much rather</p>

<p>Finance is only an option if you graduated from a top 3 school here in Canada and this is largely dependent on who you know, not what you. Your typical math and physics major won’t know much people in finance in the first place, so its mostly math and physics grads from affluent backgrounds that go into finance. Programming jobs are so rare these days that even CS grads seem to have trouble finding employment. It seems to me the only options math and physics graduates have is either to teach high school or go on to graduate school and do research.</p>

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<p>I don’t know about this as software engineering employs probably more non-CS grads than any technical area…when mentioning the usual “type” of grad for the area. What geographical area are you in where software development is so rare?</p>

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Canada, but then again my experience is mostly hearsay. According to my friends in CS and EE, there isn’t much software development being done here anymore with giants such as RIM soon to collapse. Software development in this country is pretty much a dead-end and much of the work has been outsourced.</p>

<p>Canada is a big place; there may be differences in various local job markets.</p>

<p>Of course, there are also greater possibilities for Canadians to work in the US than there are for most other nationalities (e.g. see the [TN</a> visa](<a href=“404 - Page Not Found”>404 - Page Not Found)).</p>

<p>This Wall Street Journal article has statistics showing exactly how physics, math and many other majors fare in their careers. It’s based on US 2010 census data, so Canadian results might be different.
[Best</a> College Majors for a Career - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://graphicsweb.wsj.com/documents/NILF1111/#term=]Best”>http://graphicsweb.wsj.com/documents/NILF1111/#term=)</p>