So, what happens to people like me who pursue engineering?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Basically, here is the deal.</p>

<p>I was born with a mild form of autism called aspergers and I have ADD. I am 22 years old(older) and graduated high school at 20. </p>

<p>BUT, I worked my butt off to improve my social skills, learning skills. Now, I am practically the same as a regular person</p>

<p>I am going back to school and I either want to do the following:</p>

<p>2 year degree in radiology technology.....then ultrasound</p>

<p>reason: I am good working with people(I work as a radiology tech assistant now) and it is science oriented.</p>

<p>Mechanical engineering.</p>

<p>reason: PHYSICS,MATH, and DESIGNING machines!!!!!!! Shall I say anything else?</p>

<p>However, I took trig at a community college and it was hard for me. Therefore, I figure engineering might not be for me.</p>

<p>So, few questions:</p>

<p>Can ANYONE go for an engineering degree and succeed with enough hard work?</p>

<p>How many hours do engineers work? As an Ultrasound tech, I would get an hourly wage of 32 dollars an hour. I am aware that engineers are salary.</p>

<p>Is engineering stressful? All Ultrasound techs do is "point and shoot" The techs have told me the job is really laid back. Ultrasound techs just have to know the body incredibly well(and physiology) to take a picture.</p>

<p>Would my age affect me if I went for it?</p>

<p>Can you get a job designing WEAPONS!!!!!!!!</p>

2

<p>You’re not really that old. I’m a mechanical engineering major and I know of a lot of people - some of them are very smart - who have ADD. If you really have ADD it can be clinically diagnosed. It’s a learning problem. They give you medication to take which allows your to stay focused and study like a “normal” person. You also get extra time so that you can perform as well as other students. So if this is something that really is hindering your learning, get it sorted out in the begining.</p>

<p>Yes, you can work for the department of defense but they will be very selective so you would probably need good grades and perhaps even an advanced degree.</p>

<p>Also, some people who have ADD take longer to finish their degrees because they learn at a slower pace. So it may take 5 or more years to finish a 4 year degree, but this should be no problem if you are really motivated to staying in college.</p>

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<p>Honestly? No. Engineering, and technical careers in general, require certain important skills (e.g. attention to detail and an analytical approach to solving problems). If you lack these skills, it will be incredibly difficult for you to succeed asan engineer. I know this claim isn’t very “P.C.”, but it’s true - everyone has some set of skills or abilities they can’t master no matter how hard they try. </p>

<p>The important thing is to find your limitations and accept them (and to find your strengths and exploit them). For example, at one point I really wanted to be an architect. One skill (at least back then) that was important for architecture was the ability to sketch. I took classes for years in high school and just couldn’t get it to work out. I realized this would severely limit my ability to perform as an architect, so I became an engineer. </p>

<p>Does that mean that you aren’t cut out for engineering? I don’t know you, so I cannot say. But you should look at your strengths and limitations and try to find out before spending tens of thousands on a degree. You might want to meet with an engineering professor at a local college</p>

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<p>It depends on the position. There are many engineers that work in an office at a 40-45 hour/week job. There are some that work in manufacturing plants that average 50-60 hours per week. Then there are some engineers on oil platforms that work 16 hours per day for 3 weeks then get 2 weeks off. I worked in one place where everyone showed up at 9am and left at 5pm (all of the engineers would leave together and talk on the way out to the parking lot). I worked in another place where everyone showed up between 7:00 and 7:30 am, then would compete to see who was the last to leave (usually 6:30 to 7:00 pm). The point is: it varies.</p>

<p>Even though engineers are on a salary, most companies still give some benefits for working overtime. For example, many companies pay overtime past 50 hours if you’re required to stay for some sort of issue. Most companies give you “comp time”, where if you work an extra 8 or 9 hours one week, you can take a day of vacation the next week, etc. </p>

<p>One thing you also get as a salaried employee is that you usually have a very flexible schedule. No one tracks when you come into work in the morning or when you leave. So if you need to leave an hour early on Monday to catch your kid’s baseball game, no one cares. You either come in an hour earlier that morning or work an extra hour on Tuesday to make up for it. </p>

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<p>Again, it will depend. At the beginning of my career, I designed a lot of safety systems, so there were many cases where not carrying a decimal point could have literally killed people - sometimes thousands of people. Then there are other engineering positions where a mistake just delays a project by a few days. </p>

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<p>No. In many engineering schools it’s common to see late 20’s, early 30’s students. Engineering is a common field for students seeking a second bachelor’s degree or going to college after military service.</p>

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<p>Yes, but the amount of exclamation points at the end of that question does concern me.</p>

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<p>Even if one wants to design weapons, you will not be designing the whole weapon. You will get a “piece” depending on your strengths/weaknesses/expertise. A typical systems development process goes…</p>

<p>Conceptual (CONOPS)–>Design–>Development–>Testing/Validation–>Deployment–>Sustainment</p>

<p>You may get a “piece” of one of those areas MAX!</p>

<p>Even so, you would probably have to obtain a security clearance where your lifestyle and other background is checked and probably a polygraph. That process AIN’T fun, let me tell you.</p>

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<p>Can I develop my anaylitical ability as well as my lack for detail?</p>

<p>If not, I might want to stick with the Bachelors in Radiology Technology</p>

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<p>Probably not. Engineering is a tough field, even for people naturally inclined towards the skill set. </p>

<p>If you have any art-inclinations at all, look into industrial design. </p>

<p>/from a non-engineer</p>

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<p>Psh, you’re all full of yourselves. If an idiot like me has lasted this long in engineering, anyone can if they put in the work unless you really were dropped on the head as a child.</p>

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<p>What about Mechanical Engineering Technology???</p>

<p>I think the Bachelors in Radiology Tech might be best.</p>

<p>It combines machines,math and physics.</p>

<p>All three are my loves!!!</p>

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<p>I know some guys who did MET at a university a few hours north of me and they got jobs at Boeing doing the same jobs as recruits from MIT. Not a bad career choice, but since this is CC, people will talk down about it.</p>

<p>Honestly you could figure out cold fusion and be elected president and someone here will still try to play it down. I suggest leaving this website entirely, it is pointless.</p>

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<p>Did you ever take physics classes in high school? It seems like that if you have a real drive for physics and math, then you can somehow overcome some difficulties you may have. I don’t know really, since I haven’t taken any -real- engineering courses, but it’s a bit like that in most fields in where if you have enough passion for something, then you can get through the tough stuff.</p>

<p>If you haven’t got any experience with physics yet, you could look at MIT’s open courseware, they have classsical mechanics video lectures and calculus lectures that you can watch and listen to, with complimentary material. Should give you a better idea about it all.</p>

<p>Then again, I don’t know anything…</p>

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<p>

I agree. Many people can get an engineering degree with middling intellect (retaking failed classes, gaming the grading system to the maximum amount, taking 8 years to get a degree, going to an easy CC and transferring to an easy university). I figure 30% of the US population can get an engineering degree <em>somewhere</em>. However, becoming a valued employee by a major (or highpaying) company is much harder than that. Considering that Engineering might make up 4-5% of the workforce (just a guess) it takes a little more to have “the right stuff”.</p>

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<p>^^^ See, that is what worries me. I might be able to get the degree after brutally hard work. However, then what???What if I am not a good engineer after all is said and done?</p>

<p>Maybe, doing the Radiology degree might be best and THEN going back for a degree in Mechanical enigneering part time just for fun.</p>

<p>I think the Radiology degree with requires Calulus and Physics!!!</p>

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<p>If you’re that scared of math/physics then you have no place in engineering. I was just saying that you don’t necessarily have to be above-average in those subjects just to simply survive getting the degree.</p>

<p>I’m gonna go ahead and say that computer science is the exception. You really do need a certain brain-wiring for that stuff.</p>

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<p>^I agree with the comment about computer science</p>

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<p>You guys totally mis-interupted my post.</p>

<p>I was saying that I am EXCITED that it requires heavy Math/Physics!!!</p>

<p>I believe the MRI modality does too(a branch of radiology). I think MRI tech might be a better fit for me because you get the following:</p>

<p>-Work with math/physics(YAY)
-Work with machines
-Help people!
-Work with people!</p>

<p>Anyway, I really don’t know if engineering is do-able for me as I am NOT detail oriented.</p>

<p>My story is basically this:</p>

<p>I couldn’t read or write at age 12. The public school system REALLY had screwed me over. I decided I on my 12th birthday that I was going to work my butt off to become just like everyone else.</p>

<p>So, my parents homeschooled me for 8 brutally hard years. I graduated high school very late at age 20. Throughout the years, I never gave up. Sometimes I would cry because I was working so hard. Eight years later, I have just starting to stratch the surface of Calculus.Learned what a dervative is(slope of a point).</p>

<p>Word of warning:
Don’t send your kids to public schools if they have learning disabilities. Public schools REALLY screw mildly disabled students. For whatever reason, they invest more money into the severly disabled kids who will end up working at Safeway(not that there is anything wrong with that).</p>

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<p>Two more questions"</p>

<p>-Do engineers make a decent salary(20 dollars an hour)? I had heard they do ok.</p>

<p>-Does Chemical Engineering involve a LOT of chemistry? I love chemistry too!!!</p>

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<p>Although I am not yet on an engineering path, I still believe I can adequately answer these two “more” questions. I plan to go into ChemE next fall. Also, my brother and father are both engineers.</p>

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<p>It depends on the type of position you get into. I can honestly say that an engineering job will probably not pay hourly. Engineering is the top paid field RIGHT out of college. But ultimately they fall a little short in the long run. You can probably expect anywhere from $60,000 a year to the triple digits (I have a friend whose father makes $500,000 a year in engineering). Also, back to the type of position. It’s not only the type of position, but also the type of engineering. Some engineers will make more simply because of the type of engineering they go into. In the short run, ChemE are expected to make more than Mechanical Engineers, while Petroleum Engineers are expected to make more than ChemE. So there is a fluctuation in salaries. And this also goes with whatever type of position you get. If you are working for a small business you will probably not make as much as someone working for a large corporation. It just all depends.</p>

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<p>There are many threads on CC that have to do with this very topic. The general consensus is is that yes, ChemE does have Chemistry, but there is also a lot of other things mixed in. Someone in a past thread said that it is probably more around the lines of half Chemistry and half Physics. Also, many say that they do not know exactly how to say what is physics and what is chemistry because the line between the two gets fuzzy when looking at higher order classes. If you really want to delve into this question, then look at the link below to a past thread on this.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/832826-chemical-engineering-chemistry-physics-based-musings-college-senior.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/832826-chemical-engineering-chemistry-physics-based-musings-college-senior.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thank you for the imformative responses!!!</p>

<p>Also,this middle aged ******bag at work decided to go in and edit my first post…I am 21.</p>

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<p>myownclumsy:</p>

<p>Click on this link: </p>

<p>[On</a> Yer Bike](<a href=“amputee-online.com”>amputee-online.com)</p>

<p>Most things are not impossible if you got the drive for it!!!</p>

<p>Engineering might be one of those things…</p>

<p>I am going to be experimenting with Aderell next week</p>

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<p>to the OP: obviously you feel that you have the drive necessary to complete an engineering degree program. If you truly believe you can do that, then why question your abilities to succeed. Entering any task with doubt will not lead to any results that you are wanting. When you ask any person whether you are cut out to do something (especially considering your ADD), what do you expect the answers to be? So, quit listening to all these people who are telling you that you can’t and just give it your best shot.</p>