<p>Hi Everyone,</p>
<p>I am going to be a rising junior at my college this fall, and am <em>thinking</em> about switching to engineering. I am not entirely sure if I'll go through with it or not yet, but basically, after spending some time exploring medicine more in depth, I am beginning to find that it is not entirely what I expected. One thing I do know is that I really love science and math (very vague, I know), so I've been trying to find out more about engineering. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm getting straight answers from my school's engineering department, so I'd like try to get a few questions answered by the CC eng. community:</p>
<p>1) After shadowing several physicians, one thing that I've noticed about medicine is that is very procedural, and there doesn't seem there is much room for creativity/original thought. An engineering curriculum seems like it would involve more creativity/problem-solving, but I have also heard engineering as a job can be very narrowly focused. In addition, I've heard jobs end up being very little actual engineering, and a lot of paper-pushing. Could someone comment on the validity of these statements? </p>
<p>2) I attend an Ivy League college where engineering is not a strength. The only ABET-accredited degree offered is a general engineering degree. I am wondering how much of a disadvantage I would be at not being specialized, in both finding a job in engineering after undergrad and when applying to grad schools. Also, how would my school's lower engineering rank affect me?</p>
<p>3) A lot (actually, probably most) of my school's engineering students end up in consulting, banking, law, and medicine. Do you think there is something about the engineering field that makes it unattractive to these students? Also, it seems that some jobs like consulting and banking aren't long-term in most cases, so I'm wondering if anyone knows what Ivy League engineering students end up doing after their stint in business. I would ask students at my school, but again, there are very few of them and I don't know many of them.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for your answers!</p>
<p>I recommend specializing in a specific engineering discipline.</p>
<p>Hey alchemist,</p>
<p>Thanks for the response. I guess I should clarify a little bit though: I know I need to specialize in a specific field in graduate school, but I would not have the option of doing so for my bachelor’s. My school’s degree has different tracks within the general engineering degree that I would have to choose from, but no matter which one you do, you still end up with a degree in “engineering sciences.” Do you mean I should try to take more classes beyond the requirements in specific discipline? I guess this makes sense, but I’m not sure that would allow me to graduate in a reasonable amount of time…</p>
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<li>I don’t think generalizations will be helpful here. If you want to be on the cutting edge doing things never done before, you will probably be interested in a research career. There are research positions in both medicine and engineering. Let’s be frank: most people do not want the surgeon operating on their child or the engineer designing a bridge to think “let’s see what happens if I try this!”</li>
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<p>At the same time, there may be something to your guess. Successful solutions to engineering problems may offer a larger number of permutations compared to medical diagnostics and treatments.</p>
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<li>Is the school Dartmouth?</li>
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<p>Anyway, some engineering certifications may require a degree in a specific discipline. You could check with the licensing authority in your state to see if this is an issue. Even if your school does not graduate many engineers, they probably keep some track of where they go so you can see if this has been a problem in the past.</p>
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<li>Well, I’d say your school does not generally attract traditionally-focused engineers. This shouldn’t be a surprise; if you knew you wanted a traditional engineering career, would you attend a school without a major engineering program? So, I’d say that most of these people probably intended to go other directions from the start.</li>
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<p>The fields you mentioned tend to offer higher pay than normal engineering jobs. They are also considered very prestigious among status-conscious society, especially in the Northeast. Such people are overrepresented at Ivy League schools.</p>
<p>Since I’m a high school senior, take all this with a large grain of salt.</p>
<p>1) There are a tremendous variety of engineering jobs - for example, I’ve held three different positions as an engineer. My first was a paperwork job, required no actual engineering practice at all, just engineering knowledge. My second was a straight design job, and was a mix of innovation and application, with some powerpoint presentations thrown in - great position. My third is a research/design job which is spent alternately trying out new designs and performing analysis to see what went right and wrong - also a great job.</p>
<p>2) Undergraduate ranking primarily affects recruiting - there may be reduced job opportunities because of it, and it may be harder to get into grad school if they question your preparation and academic rigor. A bigger issue is “general” engineering, because there are no jobs or programs in that. If you want to continue in engineering, a graduate degree would seem all but necessary just so you have a real field!</p>
<p>3) I think the reason so many of your engineering grads go into non-engineering fields is precisely because (1) there are no jobs for “general” engineers and (2) I think many of the grads had non-engineering intentions from the beginning - fields like patent law and inverstment banking are very lucrative and actually benefit from a lack of specialization in engineering.</p>
<p>Thanks for the helpful insights!</p>