Should I change my major from Industrial Engineering to Business?

Student Lounge International Students
1

Hi, (if posted in the wrong forum, please move it)

I am currently a first-year student studying Industrial Engineering with a technical specialization in Electrical Engineering (i.e. a mix of Electrical Engineering and Business Administration) in Germany. I wasn’t sure if that is what I really wanted to do from the day I applied for that degree program, but now I am realizing that it is very difficult for me to follow the lectures or do the homework. I also didn’t have Physics in school in the last two years. To be honest, I do not understand a single thing in the Electrical Engineering lecture anymore and I can’t solve a single homework task without help from a tutor or other students. Also, I don’t understand much from the Higher Mathematics lecture, but I may pass the exam even without understanding everything, if I only focus on learning the things that aren’t too difficult.
The Electrical Engineering Department, the professors and the whole university don’t seem to care about the students. We do not have any advisers at college, but as far as I know all public universities in Germany are like this. And this is even though my university is ranked #3.

The problems I have in Electrical Engineering did really kill my motivation to continue that major, so I am asking myself whether I should change or not. I am really interested in the business classes I take; they’re easy for me and I nearly don’t have any problems with the homework we get. But then I’d “only” be studying business, which is something everybody does. The other degree program that interests me is Medicine, which is a six-year program, which you enter directly without a Bachelor degree, here. Sadly, my GPA is too low to be offered direct admission for that program, but I have the chance to take a test in May and if my score is among the best 7% (scoring is similiar to the SAT scoring), I may be admitted. I know that it is very unlikely, but at least there is a small chance.

I have an offer to change my major to Business for the “summer semester” (which begins in April over here); otherwise I’d have to complete the year and start in the “winter semester” (October) again, so the question is “continue and loose one year or change and loose one semester”. I would have to start from the beginning, they may only transfer one or two business classes, there is nothing like general education over here.
If I’d change now and be offered admission for medicine in the winter semester, it is possible that I would be uneligible for receiving any financial aid anymore in my country, because it is allowed to change one time for no reason; for the second time I’d have to explain that and it is not guaranteed they will accept the explanation.
So I have to accept or decline (and pay the fees) my offer to study Business until Friday next week.

I also did apply to a university in Scotland to which I could change to, but they didn’t reply yet. I would be studying the same I am studying here. Some people say it is much easier there and that staff is much better in explaining stuff than here.

My questions:

  1. Would you say I should change?
  2. Should I change now or is it better to wait, even though I may loose a complete year?
    Forgot to say, Industrial Engineering and Business Administration are only 3-year programs, so in comparison to other countries I’d have studied 4-years.

Many thanks in advance! :slight_smile:

2

Well, it sounds like you’re not understanding anything in the “Engineering” part of your degree, hence your odds of graduating would be super low. So, unless you think you can improve enough, I’d say switching is necessary.
I’m not sure what else to advise you as I don’t quite understand the situation about having to justify changing or how Scotland gets in the mix, etc.
However, if the math is too hard in engineering and you never had Physics, how can you be sure it won’t be too hard in medicine too, where there’s the same high level math and physics?

3

In medicine there’s only one Physics lecture which isn’t hard as students told me, also there is no Mathematics besides the calculation one needs to do in Chemistry etc… Medicine has the reputation to be very easy, all written exams are multiple choice. You only need to study much and learn many things by heart.
Would you say it is too much if I’d loose a whole year studying IE?
What I meant with justifying changing: You are not allowed to change more than one time without an important reason, otherwise they’d cut financial aid (no interest rate) and you’d have to take loans with 3.3% interest rate for the rest of your studies.

4

Are you sure that you’re putting the necessary effort that is required for such a degree? it may be possible that the reason why you’re having such a difficult a time is that you’re not putting more effort.
I can’t speak for engineering but engineering majors are difficult in general, I think you need to put more though in this.

5

Yea, I am and was putting much effort in it, especially in Maths and Electrical Engineering. I studied very much for both classes, but when we had the basics done after a few weeks I found it impossible to follow the Electrical Engineering prof anymore. But we are going to have the first Electrical Engineering examination in March, so I can’t really say if I’d pass or not. Even if I passed, I’d have a bad grade. And I’m not sure whether I can work in the Investment Banking field with an Industrial Engineering degree-companies do always write they are looking for either business administration majors or industrial engineering majors, but I think it’s hard to prove one’s better than a BA major after they’ve had a specialization in their studies we’re not going to have.

6

To be honest, I presume you’re going to want to work in IB in Germany,right? If yes, then switching to another degree shouldn’t be a problem but let me make you aware that the lack of difficulty in courses will be made up by the increased competitiveness in the industry.
So unless your school is also a good school to study business/finance/economics then you should think about transfering.

You’re in your first year so don’t really worry.