I’m a junior in Running Start, and I know I want to do something in engineering or architecture, but how do I decide which one? I enjoy math, and I’m good at it, and I love to draw and plan things out. And is it possible to get a bachelor’s in both? Or would I need to get them separately?
Since you’re a junior in high school. Try to join clubs that are related to Engineering. Take any science AP courses as you can
Well I’ve taken advanced science classes all through high school, but my school isn’t open because of COVID. Is it still possible to join clubs?
Maybe civil engineering or construction management?
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As @taverngirl suggests. Look into Civil engineering!
Engineering majors and architecture are both voluminous majors in terms of course requirements (note that a BArch is a 5-year bachelor’s degree), so it is unlikely to be able to double major in them.
However, some schools with both offer an architecture minor, with civil engineering majors being common students in such a minor. USC has a “building science” option to its civil engineering major that is basically like adding an architecture minor.
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One thing to note is that there is more of a path to switch to architecture later than there is to switch to an engineering field later.
If you get a bachelor’s degree in (for example) civil engineering, work for a while, and then decide to switch to architecture, you can enroll in a 3-year MArch program, whose prerequisite is a bachelor’s degree in anything (there may be some course prerequisites like calculus and physics that an engineer has taken), although it may be expensive.
Going the other way to civil engineering would likely require finding a college that offers civil engineering as a second bachelor’s degree program.
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You might want to consider Architectural Engineering, which is what I majored in. It IS possible, although very challenging, to double major in Arch E and Architecture, at least at UT-Austin. I knew one guy who did it.
I’d say most people, though, are suited for one field or the other. Are you more interested in figuring out how to design the structure of a building or in designing its appearance and flow? Those are very different jobs.
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