<p>Basically I have no idea whether I want to major in engineering or science. So for universities that require me to apply to a certain school, should I put the engineering school or the science school?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>A couple of considerations:</p>
<p>It is often more difficult to get accepted into Engineering than L&S (Letters & Science, or something similar, the school that usually contains science majors).</p>
<p>It is usually easier to transfer into L&S than Engineering if you later change your mind.</p>
<p>On the other hand, it is definitely possible to not be able to transfer to the engineering school, so consider that if you value keeping your options open. (Transferring to the L&S school is generally not as hard.)</p>
<p>The difference is fundamental. Do you like applied science or theoretical science? For instance, as a chemistry major, you would be working on the bench, perhaps discovering a new drug. But as a chemical engineer, your job would be to figure out how to optimize production of that drug and mass produce it. Engineers also make more money than their corresponding science counterparts. </p>
<p>Most schools have a stricter course requirement for engineers. So if you start out in engineering, you can usually switch over to BA with those classes you’ve already taken count towards your major. If you major in science, however, you may not have the pre-requisites done to switch over to the engineering degree. For instance, it is standard for engineers to take Gen Chem, Gen Physics, and Calculus their freshman year. If you started out with a BA and didn’t take one of those classes, it would be more difficult to transfer into engineering since you don’t have the pre-reqs done.</p>
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<p>This is an extremely narrow definition. There is a lot of applied science, both physical and biological, that is NOT engineering.</p>
<p>Yet all of engineering is applied science.</p>
<p>^Quite true, but that wasn’t what I said. I stated that you left out the all of applied science that is not engineering.</p>
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<p>The OP can’t decide on whether to major in eng or sci. You tell them if you like applied sci, do eng. But:</p>
<p>applied sci = engineering AND the applied part of all sci fields</p>
<p>Your implication was that if the OP didn’t want to do theoretical or basic science, that that meant they should do engineering, ignoring all of the applied work that is done in just about every science discipline.</p>
<p>Therefore your answer was not wrong in the sense that eng is an applied science, but it was incomplete and misleading.</p>
<p>What’s the difference in the coursework? My limited personal experience with this is my dad, who switched from electrical engineering to physics because he didn’t like the lab work. Now he has a PhD in physics and works as an electrical engineer. So based on this very limited info, it seems like the degrees are somewhat interchangeable? Also, I want to go to grad school if that matters.</p>
<p>Anyway, I guess I might as well apply into the engineering school because I definitely want to keep my options open.</p>
<p>An engineering student takes math and physics courses that would allow him/her to switch to one of those two majors fairly easily up to about the third or fourth semester. But s/he may also take some introductory engineering courses as well. Afterward, the course requirements diverge between physics and engineering, and between different engineering majors.</p>
<p>The core classes are completely different. Science majors take classes that deal more with theory. Engineering majors take classes that focus on optimizations and industrial processes. My ChemE classes are different than the ones Chem majors take.</p>