These are my interests/career aspirations, what should I major in?

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>So the title pretty much states the question. There are several fields I'm fairly interested in, and a few careers I really would consider, I'm just having a tough time selecting a major. Currently I'm a freshmen at George Mason University, I was also accepted into the Virginia Tech school of Engineering and the TU in Delft, the Netherlands. I didn't go to either of those schools because of a small dilemma I had, more on that later.</p>

<p>In High School , my favorite subject was always math, I like it for its straightforwardness and usefulness. 1=1 and here is why. It's not like English where there are set rules, but as soon as an author breaks those rules in a creative way, they're groundbreaking pioneers. So when applying to Universities I applied to each one as an Engineering major, thinking that if I was good at math at the time, I should do math as a career. And I am fairly interested in design and engineering. But I contacted people in the industry and thought about it myself, that I would be doing lots and lots and lots of math for the rest of my life. I'm also a people person, in my career I'd like to go out and deal with others. What these engineers were telling me was that that rarely happens. </p>

<p>So from there I began to rethink everything I was doing and I began to look at my other interests and what I could do with them. Those other interests are;</p>

<p>Atmospheric Studies
Medicine
Physics
Outer space
Earth Systems</p>

<p>So hopefully you get my point, I was very unsure of what I wanted to do. What I did was I decided to go to Mason, figure everything out, and re-apply to schools the next year (UVA and McGill seem to have the programs I want). But what I want to do as a career is really the big unknown. Here they are;</p>

<p>Design and Engineer Formula 1 cars (That was the big one that I had my sights on Senior year of high school, I contacted several teams and they told me it was math, math, math). On top of that, I'd like to design and engineer just about anything, cars, bikes, boats, bridges, oil rigs, etc.</p>

<p>Study the human body in extreme conditions (Do something with atmosphere for a BS and then go to Med. School to study physiology) I would like to take that career and maybe employ it in outer space doing research on the human body. But when I sit here studying Bio, I think to myself "man this is boring". Then I hark back to math and realize why I like it so much, you learn the rules and you can figure almost anything out. In Bio you just memorize a lot of stuff, then do research.</p>

<p>Study the Atmosphere (Not like a weatherman, but study the physics of Atmosphere; fluids, pascal's theorems, etc.) The question is, which major would that be? Earth Systems is to much on the political policy and geology line and that's not what I want. </p>

<p>Those are the big choices. I have 3 goals in my life that I would like to accomplish;</p>

<p>1) Become a member of the 7 summits club (Ascend to the highest point of each of the 7 continents)</p>

<p>2) Sail around the world in a sailboat (It's nostalgic and a true test of courage)</p>

<p>3) Go to Outer Space (What is more bada** than that?!)</p>

<p>When I grow up I'd like to live in the Netherlands, I'm from there and have lived there most of my life. Maybe work for Dutch Shell Oil? Not sure what that has to do with it, but figured I'd mention that. </p>

<p>So I've presented my dilemma to you, the reader. What do you think? In re-reading this, it seems like I should do something with mathematics because I have a passion for it. Just not sure how that would help me accomplish the cool things I want to do with my life. For the possible careers I want to do, what should I major in. </p>

<p>Well thank you for reading this far, any insight would be greatly appreciated,</p>

<p>-Steve</p>

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<p>You seem like a typical high school senior. There’s a thousand different things going on at the same time here :)</p>

<p>You say math is one of your biggest interests. There aren’t a whole lot of careers involving purely math outside of teaching it (only things like staticians comes to mind). There are plenty of careers where math is used though and engineering is one of them. </p>

<p>Mechanical engineering would be a good fit for you. </p>

<p>Otherwise environment engineering could also fit. And if you’re interested in medicine biomedical engineering could work too.</p>

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<p>well if you want to work for an oil company then i would say petroleum engineer, they also get quite a bit of time off. aeronautical/aerospace engineering might be in your interests too, you could design anything from space shuttles to race cars. or even just get a BS in pure mathematics and then hopefully you’ll have a better idea of what you want to do, then go get a masters in it</p>

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<p>Going with mechanical engineering would let you design and engineer race cars. It might even help you out with atmosphere since it’s basically all fluids and you do learn about that and aerodynamics.</p>

<p>Environmental engineering isn’t about engineering the environment though. It’s concerned with wastewater treatment plants, environmental remediation, sewer lines, etc. I don’t see how this fits in with your goals.</p>

<p>The goals that you did list don’t have to be accomplished with your job. You can do it on your time off, which means you can major in whatever you want to and still get to do those things.</p>

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<p>mechanical or aerospace sound like a good fit.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the responses. So if I were to head back into a math based curiculum, and I am planning on transferring after this year at Mason, where would you recommend going? I would major in Mechanical Engineering, and would like to remain in state, the only exception being McGill in Canada. The most expensive school would be UVA at $16,000 per year. I didn’t go to VTech because I didn’t like the atmosphere, and the structure of the engineering department (It is rather difficult to maintain credits and transfer out. Once you’re in, you’re in, for good). So where else should I apply to? I don’t want to go to Mason another year, It’s a good school, I just want to move out though and get the college experience. </p>

<p>Thanks again,
-Steve</p>

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<p>You may want to look into medical physics. Seems like that subject would fit you.</p>