<p>My house is a mess.
Over the last few years I've turned the dining room into an electronics workshop in which I do simple repairs and mods to anything I can. I'm creative and have a knack for understanding how things should work, or could work better. It also helps that I've a steady hand and I'm a good copycat. I've also been recently working on a website with an innovative way to present technology reviews and how-to's. The truth is... I'm thoroughly obsessed with technology.</p>
<p>The problem:
I'm in my third year and have a lot of electives.
I aced my chem seq, physics I, cs I, and made B's in calc I & II, but ended up disliking all of those after the initial curiosity wore off. That was part of the reason I took them, the other being to keep the possibility of engineering on the table.</p>
<p>I'm an excellent problem solver and decent with data structures, but I hate coding unless absolutely necessary. (Eg my site.) I think that building, dissecting, and/or tweaking electronics is appealing and want to further my skill, but have no desire to take calc 3, linear algebra, differential equations, discrete structures, advanced physics, statics, dynamics, thermodynamics, or any more math and science that come with the engineering degree.</p>
<p>Is this really a dilemma? Or is it an obvious decision that I'm simply finding difficult to accept?</p>
<p>Perhaps you should look into doing engineering and finding a job as a technician? I know they're pretty well compensated, and every research lab out there needs someone that's really good with taking apart/putting together electronics. You'd be surprised how many engineers out there aren't blessed with "the knack."</p>
<p>I doubt your electronics skills will help you that much in EE...because in a research university the typical EE program is very theoretical so it's basically Math, Math and more Math. If you like thinking about concepts abstractly and in terms of equations go for EE...and if you think EE is tinkering with electronics you are very wrong.</p>
<p>yeah, what Citan said... Tinkering with, repairing, fixing, modifying, tweaking are very small parts of engineering education at good schools. Your description fits much more that of a technician, kind of like a car mechanic but more on the side of electrical. You really can't avoid all that math and physics anywhere and although, depending on your job, you may not need too much of all that, it is still very important. Better jobs, especially at the research level, will almost definitely require you to have a good grasp of the mathematics and physics.</p>
<p>And I don't think anyone finds math "fun" in the same way as one would have "fun" making a new website or putting together your own computer or writing a script that helps you hack wireless routers in the neighborhood (..hehe), but as an engineer you really do have to want to be intellectually challenged and prepared to be able to design the technologies of tomorrow. Technicians only get to tinker with these things.... but engineers actually make them.</p>