Which two degrees of engineering have the most courses in common?
- Mechanical
- Electrical
- Chemical
- Nuclear
- Aerospace
etc…
Inquiring about the “double major”? Before you invest too much of your time and energy down this route, it doesn’t matter a lick to potential employers or grad schools. Let’s say your “prime” major will be MechEng. But you also take a heavy ChemEng courseload. When you pursue co-ops and internships, you’ll be able to market yourself regardless of your intended major. And once you’re a senior, your co-ops and intership experience will matter 500x more that what is major or majors are printed on your diploma. If you’re truly talented in two areas, you’ll have ample opportunity to display that to your co-op/intenship hiring managers. Any engineering student getting above a 3.0 from an ABET program in major will be proof enough. Focus on that once you get to college. Right now, your main hurdle is to vastly improve your ACT/SATs. That’s your huge limiting factor at that you face currently. Good luck.
One s is a ChemE and the other is a MechE and they both have essentially the same job. It didnt start this way, but they now do the same thing.
Probably mechanical and aerospace, or electrical and computer, since some colleges have degree programs that have ABET accreditation in both, and those that only officially have one often have electives in the other within the department (e.g. aerospace electives under mechanical, or computer electives under electrical). Of course, because of the closeness of the fields, having a “double major” is not likely to be much advantage over a single major plus appropriate electives.
Agree that computer/electrical are likely closest in overlapping studies/skills, but some schools combine chemical/biomolecular engineering, civil/environmental, etc. Was making a point that differing degrees can lead to the same employment opportunity.
Yes, I’ve seen civil/environmental together, certainly chemical/biomed, and EE/computer engineering.
Industrial and civil are sometimes together too.
Depends on the college too, at some schools getting a physics degree with an EE degree is easy, so look at sciences for possible dual majors too.
Do you recommend taking 2 engineering (mechanical and electrical) majors or a science and engineering major (physics and mechanical), as a double major.
Why double major?
You can have a better advantage when you apply for a job.
That is not necessarily true
Really? Then why do people take double majors?
Because they don’t know that what you just said is not true.
Double majors in engineering? Sometimes you do it because you’re interested in both fields (and you’re not in a rush to graduate).I had a few friends who did it (mostly EE/CS or ME/CS), while doing Co-ops…I think they really just wanted to spend some extra time in school and were interested in the subject matter….they didn’t need the 2nd degrees to land a job. It’s not optimal, but if that’s where your interest lay…
People typically double major if they have two ares of strong interest, often in different areas (eg Physics and English). Double majoring in 2 areas of engineering can potentially overload a student and have an adverse effect on academic performance.
@Gator88NE and @jym626
So you are saying you don’t need to double major to get a decent job? Would having a minor help?
Do not do it solely because you think it will give you an “edge” for employment. Do it if you have an interest in the other subject.
Ok. Does that go with the minor as well?
Of course you don’t need to double major to get a decent job. If you did, why would anyone ever study only one major field? Why would studying only one thing even be a real option if it wouldn’t lead to a decent job?
Sal - Look for other similar threads. You should be fine with “just” one engineering major. If you have some AP credits, I suggest take advantage of that by adding some extra courses in areas of interest when you are an upperclassman.
Exactly. One of my engineering s’s was minoring in psychology, but by fall of his senior year he had already accepted a job after graduation and decided to bail on the one last stats class second semester senior year he needed for the psych minor (funny after all that math and problem sets he had to do for engineering) so ended up with a “concentration” (IIRC) but not a minor in psych. It made not a hill of beans difference. Ditto for older s who was minoring is something like entrepreneurial studies with his engineering degree. Don’t recall if he has that on his diploma or not. Again it mattered not.