In the coming months I’ll be going off to college, yet I still can’t decide what I want to study.
A little background: I’ve always been an A student. I study well and never had problems in any course. In high school I excelled in both scientific and humanities courses, and I’m having a hard time choosing between Civil Engineering and an Economics/International Affairs double major. I’ve taken both economics and physics all through high school as well as advanced math courses. Physics interests me and I feel like engineering would always be interesting because I enjoy hands on work and projects.I am also always curious about structures and the work that goes into building and designing. But I am also very interested in International politics and the economy (how politics affects society, how refugees effect countries, how to help refugees, etc…). I did Model UN and a summer International Relations camp and loved both because I’m quite a social person who enjoys expressing opinions and speaking in front of others, and I’m afraid the engineering field would leave me without that excitement. My dad is a successful engineer with his own company and he loves it, but he pushes me to study whatever I want to.
ANY suggestions or insight into both fields would be greatly appreciated. I want to know which of these would be more realistic/useful to study for the future. Thanks!
It’s not entirely clear from your post whether or not you’ve already been accepted to a particular university. If you have, then that will determine the options available to you.
If you have not yet applied to a university, there are a number of options to consider:
- Engineering major + International Studies/Relations major, minor, or certificate
Some universities offer enough flexibility in their curricula to permit dual majors of this sort; a few universities have established such joint majors on a formal basis.
Some examples:
https://engineering.lafayette.edu/engineering-international-studies-dual-degree/
http://www.engr.psu.edu/global/students/ConcMajors_IntlStudies.htm
http://laes.calpoly.edu/content/about
- International Engineering: An increasing number of universities offer International Engineering programs, which build an international component into their engineering curricula.
Some examples:
http://web.uri.edu/iep/
https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/undergraduate-academics/certificate-in-international-engineering/
http://www.ce.gatech.edu/academics/undergraduate/leadership-minor
https://www.mtu.edu/d80/programs/isde-certificate/
https://global.engineering.osu.edu/go-engr
- A 3-2 Engineering program
Example:
https://sfs.georgetown.edu/stia/
- Undergraduate Engineering major + Graduate IS/IR Master’s degree
If you use your electives to get some preparatory coursework (e.g., a language, economics, IR) while pursuing an undergrad engineering degree, you could apply for a Master’s program in IS/IR.
Also, some universities offer engineering master’s degrees that incorporate a Peace Corps component:
Example:
http://gradschool.oregonstate.edu/pcmi/faq/faqs-pcmi-engineering
I think Economics/International Affairs is better for you because of your greater enthusiasm for that, your academic strength, your bent toward extracurriculars (which presumably will include internships) and the appearance that economics is as likely to lead to employment as civil engineering for those who have flexibility about the work they will do, do internships and put a fair amount of work into the job search. A search today of ‘civil engineering degree’ on the jobs website Indeed.com gets 15,352 results, one of ‘economics degree’ gets 46,264 results. Of course, there are considerably more economics graduates: 2.3 times as many economics bachelor’s degrees were awarded in 2011 as civil engineering bachelor’s degrees (https://www.asee.org/papers-and-publications/publications/college-profiles/12EngineeringbytheNumbersPart1.pdf and https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=429).
Economics graduates tend to work in business, particularly financial analysis (http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Degree=Bachelor_of_Science_(BS_%2f_BSc)%2c_Economics/Salary, http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Degree=Bachelor_of_Arts_(BA)%2c_Economics/Salary and Students Review dot com). International relations/affairs graduates also tend to work in business and, sometimes, in the running of non-profit organizations (http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Degree=Bachelor_of_Arts_(BA)%2c_International_Relations/Salary).
My husband was an engineer and was an honors student. He was good at math and his advisor nudged him that way. However, he likes people. He took some type of profile test his senior year and realized that out of all the engineering students he and one other student were in the same quadrant while the entire rest of the class was in another one. He is a CFP (certified financial planner) and left engineering because it was not a great fit. It has given him an edge in his analysis of the markets, his interaction with analytical clients and his gift for complicated planning. He can speak to his clients (many of whom are high level engineers that have gone into management) in a way they understand and he truly believes engineering has opened doors. Having said that he wishes that he had taken upper level finance courses and that he had gone into some upper level economics courses. You need to find what makes you happy. Just because you can do something well, does not mean it is a good fit. You have to balance can I find a job, can I get paid and if so what would I make with does this make me happy and can I do this for 40 years? It is such a hard thing to do when you are young and obviously good at so many things. Good luck!
You’ll be a freshman. Generally speaking, you’d take a variety of classes that’ll help you decide what major is ‘you’. However many engineering majors require specific sequences that arent’very conducive to double majoring, unlike, say, physics or CS.
Do you have advanced standing /AP credit?
Does your university go with 4x4 credit classes per semester, of 5x3 credit classes per semester?
Is engineering a separate college?
All these answers will condition what we can suggest.
If you provide us with your university it’ll speed things up.
You don’t have to decide now - you can take some classes in college and figure it out (although as MYOS suggested, that might extend your time to degree in engineering).
The thing is, most people are interested in multiple things. I love music, history, and international relations, for example. But you can’t pursue a career in everything - and some of your interests won’t be suitable for a career, either because they aren’t really careers (nobody is going to pay me to sit around and read books all day, lol!) or because the career’s other demands or rewards don’t appeal to you (the supply for historians is bigger than the demand, for example, and the pay is pretty low relative to the amount of education you need).
It’s hard to decide in this case because engineering leaves you with less time to try things out and switch - you kind of need to start the engineering sequence your freshman year. But you can do that and also take an intro economics class, like microeconomics, in your first year.
Also, there are many jobs that involve speaking in front of others and expressing opinions - even in engineering. Think about meetings, think about ascending through engineering management, think about presentations to investors or the business side.