Which engineering/science majors are the brightest?

College Majors Engineering Majors
21

<p>You learn more EE/CS in Aero than Mech though.</p>

22

<p>I’d assume AeroEs dabble a bit in a lot of things (controls, structures, materials) but at the end of the day we still see a ton of MechEs in aerospace.</p>

23

<p>I went to UIUC, and Aeros did exactly the same amount of EE/CS as we did, and I was a MechE. The major differences I saw were aeros took more fluids, less heat transfer, and a more specialized version of materials. Other than that, they degrees were more or less the same.</p>

24

<p>I love the way topics diverge on CC</p>

25

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<p>If only people would read before posting. No wonder there are so many negative responses. I even tried bolding.</p>

<p>I specifically said nothing random like Spanish. And even mentioned business and other engineering fields.</p>

26

<p>Bottomline guys, </p>

<p>Suppose we were comparing EE vs. ME.</p>

<p>Who would do better? The EE Major in ME type work (or ME double major), or the ME major in EE type work (or EE double major)?
Who would do better in the sciences (Physics/Math/Biology/Chem), the ME or the EE major? And by better I mean in a major or in real life? Who would do better in a business job?</p>

<p>That’s a direct comparison of ME and EE. Now suppose we compared all of the majors, who would win?</p>

27

<p>I think the math major could pick up any topic in engineering/sciences without much sweat, being very familiar with the mathematics that make up much of the models in the sciences/engineering. Physics major is second . . . after all, engineering is often just applied physics.</p>

<p>By the way,</p>

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<p>I think this really isn’t a matter of what subject you learn in school, but rather what personal skills you have.</p>

28

<p>

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<p>No, there are so many negative responses because this thread has been rehashed a million times, and it always devolves into a massive flame war.</p>

<p>The general consensus after a million times of discussing it is typically that people have different strengths and find different types of material to be difficult, so saying which one is the most difficult for <em>everyone</em> is like comparing apples to oranges.</p>

29

<p>This is not a difficult question. </p>

<p><a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools;

<p>From page 13: </p>

<p>English and Library Science majors have the best verbal scores. Math and Physical science majors have the strongest math scores. Engineering majors do not trail too far behind. </p>

<p>If there were detailed results for different engineering majors, I’d expect Electrical and Chemical to be the highest simply because they are very abstract and difficult.</p>

30

<p>[GRE</a> Scores by Intended Graduate Major](<a href=“http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/philo/GRE%20Scores%20by%20Intended%20Graduate%20Major.htm]GRE”>http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/philo/GRE%20Scores%20by%20Intended%20Graduate%20Major.htm)
=> Physics majors</p>

<p>[Average</a> LSAT Scores for 29 Majors with over 400 Students Taking the Exam](<a href=“http://www.uic.edu/cba/cba-depts/economics/undergrad/table.htm]Average”>Business | University of Illinois Chicago)
=> Physics/Math majors</p>

<p>[gre.jpg</a> (image)](<a href=“gre.jpg]gre.jpg (image)”>gre.jpg (image))
=> Physics majors</p>

<p>[LSAT</a> Scores by Major - IVC Economics Department](<a href=“http://www.ivc.edu/econ/pages/lsatscores.aspx]LSAT”>http://www.ivc.edu/econ/pages/lsatscores.aspx)
=> Physics majors</p>

<p>[The</a> Audacious Epigone: IQ estimates by intended college major via SAT scores](<a href=“http://anepigone.blogspot.com/2009/03/iq-estimates-by-intended-college-major.html]The”>http://anepigone.blogspot.com/2009/03/iq-estimates-by-intended-college-major.html)
=> Physics majors</p>

<p>[Political</a> Calculations: Ranking School Smarts by Major](<a href=“http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2006/02/ranking-school-smarts-by-major.html]Political”>Political Calculations: Ranking School Smarts by Major)</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/2e/9d/80.pdf[/url]”>http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/2e/9d/80.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It looks like the jury’s out, but a general consensus might be…</p>

<ol>
<li>Physics</li>
<li>Philosophy</li>
<li>Mathematics</li>
<li>Computer Science</li>
<li>Engineering</li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks for playing!</p>

31

<p>That, of course, assumes that your GRE and other test scores have ANYTHING to do with your success in a variety of fields, which I think is a very minor correlation at best. That shows your ability to grasp difficult concepts, but you could have gotten a 800/800/6.0 on your GRE and still be a failed businessman because, bottom line, it doesn’t just come down to brains. There are a lot of intangibles involved with this question, and it is literally impossible to say one major is better than the other because of the fact that the type of people within that major is so diverse.</p>

<p>I have a hunch that if you take a look at a single person, 9 times out of 10, whether he was an ME, EE, ChemE, or AE wouldn’t effect how his business skills are or his ability to comprehend the other engineering fields. What would affect it is his innate ability to do each of those respective subjects, his motivation, and his interpersonal skills.</p>

<p>If the argument is about which engineering is the most broad, I would have to argue that the answer is Mechanical, by a slim margin. However, that isn’t the question. Asking which major is better for being good at other majors is almost entirely dependent on the individual. Any perceived difference in the major itself is most likely just due to certain majors attracting more intelligent and flexible individuals, NOT because the major itself is and better or worse.</p>

32

<p>^Exactly.</p>

<p>It depends on the individual, not really the major. For example, Physics majors do well on LSATs (and MCATS I’ll add), yet the number of physics majors who take these is quite small. And if you have a physics major who is going into law, they’re likely to be smart. They majored in something rather nontraditional for med or law school because they knew they didn’t have to worry too much about getting in.</p>

<p>Physics doesn’t make you smart. Smart people take physics.</p>

<p>By the way, I know many math majors who don’t really care at all about physics. They may know their way around the math, but there is a certain amount of spatial reasoning and intuition required to excel in physics and engineering. Then the math majors are screwed when they realize that a lot of advanced math is quite intimately tied with physics. i.e. the math gives us multiple (or infinite) solutions, but we use conservation of energy/momentum/mass or entropy to select a certain solution.</p>

<p>@OP
I understand your question. Choose a major that challenges you, but don’t loose sight of what you ultimately want to do (even if it ends up being related to your major). And don’t forget to work on your people skills and speaking skills. Those will REALLY help you cross disciplines.</p>

33

<p>My answer is the best one to a bad question.</p>

<p>For the record, I already said what both of you said in my first post, the first reply to this thread. I said it in one line and the thread could have ended there, if it were up to me.</p>

34

<p>I understand that it depends a lot more on the person. Nonetheless, we can’t simply ignore that a major also changes the person. Suppose we have a person. He could take 2 paths in undergrad. One he could major in Music, while the other EE.</p>

<p>Now will that same person be as good in the quantitative/analytical sense at the end of his 4 years REGARDLESS or major choice? The answer is simply a no. The major impacts the person, depending on what the major brings.</p>

35

<p>Since I can’t read, I’m looking for Music in there:</p>

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<p>I think it’s pretty obvious to most people here that any quant or analytical field would make one much more prepared to pursue another quant or analytical field. I think that the level of success that person will have in the other quant/analytical field will be base more on the level of that person’s inquisitiveness and openness to the exposure to the other fields and less on their previous degree. For this reason it might be less difficult for a pure math or physics major (quant) to pursue an engineering major (analytical) because they have no, or few, preconceived notions on how it’s suppose to work. Whatever “it” is.</p>

<p>As I see it it’s akin to changing industries, nothing can prepare you for the culture shock.</p>

36

<p>The only evidence I was able to find was pretty unequivocal: Physics.</p>

<p>Is this discussion over yet, or what? In CS, at least, they teach you that you need to have sources to make a convincing argument. I gave some sources. Feel free to find others to contradict mine. I’ll consider other arguments when I see proof.</p>

<p>Unless you take the sensible approach and realize the question doesn’t really have what one would traditionally call an answer…</p>

<p>Here’s the bottom line. This is a silly question. After some brief research, Physics turned out to be the answer. If you take issue with this judgment based on the information I presented, please feel free to comment. If you have information which confirms or denies the information presented in my sources, please feel free to comment.</p>

<p>If we’re just going to go around saying that our majors are the best, we can go ahead and lay this thread to rest.</p>

<p>(I’m not completely innocent. I’m a double major in CS and Physics)</p>

37

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<p>For someone asking for the thread to die you sure are posting a lot in it.</p>

38

<p>Your argument is pretty convincing. But you didn’t address the question, which, I’ll add, is perfectly legitimate albeit difficult to answer.</p>

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<p>Only a select few ‘skills’ are measured by GRE/LSAT/IQ scores, test-taking among them. There is a very poor correlation being drawn here. It’s like saying people with higher IQs make more money…
[Correlation</a> Between IQ and Net Worth (Wealth) : eLearning Technology](<a href=“http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2007/04/correlation-between-iq-and-net-worth.html]Correlation”>Correlation Between IQ and Net Worth (Wealth))</p>

39

<p>RacinReaver:</p>

<p>An interesting observation. I’m not sure what your implication is, perhaps that my posting in a thread I want to die is hypocritical, but I can assure you that my intention is this: to put this silly thread to rest and thereby instruct people to not invest time in such trifling matters. I’m doing it because I think it’s the ethically right thing to do.</p>

<p>And where else do you suggest I put these posts, so the poor misguided souls who think these thoughts might benefit from my help? If I put it a dedicated thread, I’d undoubtedly be preaching to the choir.</p>

<p>Perhaps you should think through your arguments, rather than making snide comments that do more to highlight your pettiness than prove any real point. Thanks!</p>

40

<p>jumpcondition:</p>

<p>I agree that the evidence I cite might not be the best way to go about things, but…</p>

<p>(1) It is promising in that it might provide valid insights
(2) The data are well-organized and readily accessible
(3) The data have been subject to scrutiny by professionals and peer-reviewed
(4) Other better, complementary, or supplementary data have not been forthcoming.</p>

<p>If you have other promising avenues of making a comparison, by all means, throw it out there. Perhaps average GPAs, or studies on the success of people of various majors upon changing careers, etc.</p>

<p>I think it’s all a load of crap. It’s the person, not the major, that is better or worse at certain things.</p>