I’m a new college guy, and was wondering why you guys are majoring in Engineering. Do you really have a love for things technical? Do you like building things? Are you really just that curious about things. Love math?
Because for all my life, I have built impractical contraptions that look cool but don’t work.
Majoring in Engineering will allow me to get paid to do that for a career.
@hungryteenager Is it too much to ask that you let all your peeps on College Confidential know which company you get employed at and which product(s) you work on?
@hungryteenager HAHAHAHAHA!!! That’s great.
I like planes and spacecraft and would love to work on building them, so I’m going into aerospace engineering. Plus I’m decent at math, I don’t like stuff like history, health care, or finances, and have no talent for things like art or music. So that leaves engineering.
Take it easy, @JustOneDad, I think hungryteenager is just trying to be funny. But that is a pretty good rejoinder if it was meant in jest.
@JustOneDad
It depends on how well those products turn out 
Still have 4 more years though. I’m super excited to start working on it.
Because creative writing as a career is too impractical.
@hungryteenager By the 6th week of your first semester, I predict you (like me) will be dragging yourself to class thinking “Why did I choose to major in engineering? What crime did I do that I should subject myself to this torture?” Here’s to us getting through it!
lol.
Why are there 16.5k people on the engineering forum, and maybe about 1k-4k people on the other forums?
@TheScreenName Because Engineering is the coolest of them all!!!
@TheScreenName Engineering is very popular right now.
I think it has something to do with the money.
When I was younger everyone wanted to be doctors and lawyers and things.
Because I can change the world and affect many people with my work (civil engineering). I’ve already worked on a couple bridges and structures in Chicago.
I see the Burj Khalifa (sp?) and am inspired.
@Seirsly I see Mia Khalifa and i’m inspired
Do any of you feel like some of your classes are rote, while others (Like math) are not?
If anything, I think math is rote.
Everything else is more conceptual imo. Not something you can just plug and chug without understanding.
Mainly for the money, plus the fact that all I need for it is a bachelors degree. And I like math.
Engineers are considered one of the “creative class”. My D, a rising Jr. ChemE told me yesterday that she really enjoys the courses she has taken (they are hard, thermodynamics was a challenge but she still enjoyed the material). She likes the fact that engineering is about solving problems and is looking forward to her co-op this summer. Next fall she will begin research with a professor working with catalysts. She has wanted to be an engineer since 8th grade and has never looked back.
I have always been interested in how things work and enjoyed problem solving. I fell in love with science and math from an early age as well. Engineering essentially marries math, science, and problem solving into one field of study, so for me, it was a no brainier to study engineering (I graduated with a degree in Optical Sciences and Engineering, a really fantastic field).
I graduated last year and now work full time at a major defense contractor where I not only get to do what I love for a living, but I also get to change the world in a positive way. I can truly say that I am living my dream job. Choosing engineering was one of my best life decisions.
Growing up watching Star Wars and Star Trek, I’ve always been fascinated by outer space. I feel like it’s our generation’s next frontier, the unknown ready to be discovered, kind of like the way people set of to the New World without knowing much about it in the 15th century. If I could build something that could take us farther an we’ve ever been, I could be happy with that. If I could wake up every day knowing I was building something for the future, crossing boundaries on the way, changing the world for better, I’d never be tired of working because I would feel fulfilled.
That’s why I’m majoring in engineering.
Several reasons, actually.
I’m good at math and science, particularly physics. I can conceptualize physical processes very well, and enjoy working out those kinds of problems.
I am extremely logical and analytical by temperament.
If I could major in anything regardless of practical concerns, it might be physics, actually for a similar reason @1ondonbridge has; I love sci fi and in particular stumbled upon a website that spurred my interest in physics and engineering.
The money, the job security, and also the transferability (if that’s a word) of the major into other fields.
Designing and researching new technologies and gadgets sounds really cool.
I kind of enjoy the challenge in a strange way.
I can sleep knowing that I am doing something productive for society.
Essentially, engineering seems to me to be a great intersection between the four factors I have in mind for my career: something I’m good at, something I enjoy, something ethical, and something that will make me money.