The Sciences

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>In my experience, engineering curriculum is catered towards the application of science in the "real world." The majority of engineers in the non-research based fields don't have a firm grasp of the theory behind what's actually happening in the application. </p>

<p>Do you think it's better for an undergraduate to pursue something like Physics, Biology or Chemistry and later (in graduate school) study the respective Electrical/Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering or Chemical Engineering? </p>

<p>I feel that if one had a better grasp of the theory he would be much more versatile and productive as an engineer.</p>

<p>What do you think?</p>

2

<p>not trying to flame or anything, but what exactly is your "experience"?</p>

3

<p>Yeah... I was wondering about that, too. At most of the schools I've encountered (GaTech, Cornell, Illinois, Rice, UT, MIT, etc...), even in as practically-based a field as civil engineering, your undergraduate education is nearly exclusively based upon the underlying theoretical principles, and you're left to fend for yourself in the "real world," where they teach you the practical...</p>

<p>That's at least my experience...</p>

4

<p>Well, what I'm getting at is this. At my school you have to take up to Physics II to be in the Electrical/Computer Engineering program. Beyond that it's only engineering courses and those courses are more of a "learn the theory as you go" type atmosphere. </p>

<p>I guess let me restate my question. Would I be at a loss if I studied something like Physics undergrad and moved to EE in graduate school?</p>

5

<p>depends what kind of physics, but in general, you'll be at a loss...there's a lot more to engineering than simply "applying" the science</p>

6

<p>Great, thanks. That's pretty much all I needed to hear.</p>

<p>Though, a few more inputs would be appreciated.</p>

7

<p>I second what cherrybarry said. Although they are similar subjects, they are not identical and you'd miss a lot</p>

8

<p>Also, practical application can be a very powerful way to learn the theory.</p>

9

<p>Keep in mind that though engineering courses may imply a certain tilt towards the practical, that just because you're not taking a "physics" course doesn't mean you're not going to be learning any more physics... It's just that you don't necessarily need to know about quarks and quantum physics and parallel dimensions to be an electrical engineer. You <em>will</em> still be learning a ton of theory... probably more theory than practical... so don't discount an engineering curriculum or course as being a walk-through of a how-to-engineer manual. You'll learn the concepts behind everything, and <em>then</em> you'll figure out how to apply those concepts to the problems you encounter in practice.</p>