<p>I'm going to be honest. I'm not fond of Engineering, at least the technical part. I'm all for finding out how the coffee maker works, but not for taking it apart then putting it back together. However, with my sister going into Engineering, my family is kinda pressuring me into doing something similar. </p>
<p>Now, I DO like the ideas behind Engineering. The applied math part of it, if you would. However, I just can't imagine a lot of those people existing, much less being paid anything decent. So, my question is, how much use is there for, say, a mathematician in the camp of Engineering? If I were to major in math, with a focus on things like PDE, ODE, Mathematical Modeling (which keeps looking even better as I keep reading the course description) and the likes as opposed to the more abstract concepts, or would I just be an Engineer who wouldn't do the technical parts, and thus suck?</p>
<p>Look into Operations Research. It’s a branch of Industrial Engineering that is heavily math based, probably moreso than any other engineering major. IEOR’s have practical application in industry and also have a lot of research oriented academia to get involved with if you like that stuff.</p>
<p>Math + almost anything you want = career that doesn’t need to involve engineering. Some of these will require masters study.</p>
<p>Math + geology = using diffeqs to locate oil reserves underground
Math + biology + compsci = gene mapping, bioinformatics, computational bio
Math + econ = financial stuff, maybe OR with a masters in IEOR
Math + comp sci = tons of stuff but cryptography comes to mind (could also go with just math on this one)
Math + chemistry = I don’t know but i’m sure there is something.</p>
<p>i highly disagree with those saying operations research and ESPECIALLY “management engineering” which would probably be the worst major out of the bunch for you.</p>
<p>you are definitely the applied math/physics type, and i can also see you happy in EE/CS.</p>
<p>I’m the same way as the OP, and I’m in CS. There are a few wildcard courses where it’s all technical information and messy details, but for the most part, it’s pretty awesome.</p>
<p>@Auburn: I’ve had people recommend CS, but the thing is I’ve never taken a Programming class. I have no clue about Computer Science. At least with other subjects, like Chemistry and Physics, I at least have a general idea of how they are.</p>
<p>@Scorp and 1337: What can exactly can a degree in Applied Math do that a degree in regular Math can’t, in terms of career options?</p>
<p>@Rest:
Operation Research is eh. Something about it doesn’t strike me as interesting as other subjects. I had thought about EE but again, I feel that if I don’t like the technical part, I’ll be pretty inefficient.</p>
<p>I disagree with your disagree. Operations Research is about as close to Math as you can get while still being in the guise of an engineering department. The entire degree is about converting a real-world situation into a mathematical model then using complex mathematical methods to solve (or at least build an algorithm to approximate a solution).</p>
<p>I view OR as more a part of business departments or even MIS. The collection of OR modeling techniques ranges from game theory, statistics, probability theory, queuing theory, graph theory, decision analysis, and simulation. Yes, IE can use OR too. In real world applications it is usually about finding near optimal solutions and solving large sets of simultaneous equations. Personally, I think it is quite fun.</p>
<p>Engineering physics is basically a physics degree with a focus on the industry and it have very little to do with the traditional engineering roles, so it could probably work if he doesn’t like engineering.</p>
<p>Edit: The only problem with that degree is that you basically take all other departments weed out classes in a single major so it can be a bit hard, while you skip the actual engineering parts of them.</p>
<p>From what my Physics teacher has told me about engineering, working engineers do the physics, then send it to the math guy to solve the actual problem.
I don’t know if it’s true, but he hasn’t been wrong yet.</p>
<p>How exactly do you “Do the physics”? Most of what I’ve seen about physics involves math. In fact, I think everything I’ve done with physics involves math.</p>
<p>So if I wanted to do the math portion of Engineering, I’d need to do Engineering Physics or a simple Math major (maybe Applied Math?) would do?</p>
<p>And of course if you really think you like maths you should take a maths degree, but this is roughly as theoretical an engineering degree can get.</p>
<p>"From what my Physics teacher has told me about engineering, working engineers do the physics, then send it to the math guy to solve the actual problem.
I don’t know if it’s true, but he hasn’t been wrong yet. "</p>
<p>I suppose my main concern is that if I don’t like it or if I get stuck doing technical stuff, I want to have an alternative job which is why I thought the Math major would simply be superior. I’m worried, however, that someone who wants to do Engineering calculations will just get an Engineer of that degree and ignore a math major.</p>