<p>Why do people say that Engineering major is a "GPA killer"?
I'm currently a college freshmen in the biochemical engineering major. I am unsure of what i want to do. I think engineering education is fun, interesting, and exciting, but i don't see myself being an engineer for the rest of my life. I don't think I am creative or smart enough for the competitive field of engineering, especially with all the people in India taking most of the engineering jobs today. I think I am leaning towards getting a PharmD. I noticed that many people who apply for pharmacy school are biology and chemistry majors. I don't want to major in biology, but i think chemistry is good because there is a lot of chemistry on the PCAT and many chemistry classes are required as prerequisites for pharmacy school. But chemistry majors in most universities have to take most of the same, if not all, math and physics courses. So what makes Engineering major a "GPA killer", as I always hear from people? Is it the actual engineering classes, which assign many group projects and such? How is Engineering major harder than Chemistry major, if they share the same required math and physics classes? Is majoring in Engineering a bad choice if I want to apply for pharmacy school?</p>
<p>Just do whichever you enjoy the most.</p>
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<p>Stick with engineering. Why switch if you really enjoy it. And dont believe all the outsourcing crap. But lets say u dont make it into pharmacy with a chem major what then?</p>
<p>Are you sure, because at my school, engineers are required to take the harder physics and more math.
My dad is a chemist and he said chemistry requires easy math and more memorization. It’s probably for you to do Chemical engineering since you enjoy both. You will potentially have a better job if you get a engineering degree than say just chemistry. And I hope your school is ABET accredited for engineering.</p>
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I’m curious - which professional field do you think is not competitive?
and whoever told you that?</p>
<p>Engineering generally only requires calc 1-3, diff equations, linear algebra and intro statistics, none of which are particularly difficult.
Unless you’re an ee or something, math shouldn’t be an issue. </p>
<p>Also, engineering is less competitive than most other jobs. + it really doesn’t require much in the way of creativity, at least not in the way phd type research work would.
I’d say it’s perfect for you.</p>
<p>Engineering gradewise really isn’t that bad. You will generally have a pretty rough workload but a large percentage( close to 30% at my school) get As or A-s. As long as you’re above the curve, you’ll do fine.</p>
<p>Those saying it’s a grade killer or equivalent things are trying to rationalize the fact that they’ve gotten As all through-ought high school and are now competing with people who are smarter than them and equally motivated. In other words, they’re just being whiny.</p>
<p>Just wait until you hit sophomore and junior level courses in your major. They’re WORLDS different from fish year.</p>
<p>First 2 years of engineering = foundational classes (math, physics, chem, etc.). But since lots of students are less than well prepared or just plain lazy for the challenges of these classes, they either get weeded out or have lousy GPA. </p>
<p>Last 2 years of engineering = core engineering classes specific to your major. Many engineering students find out during their junior year they either have no interest in their engineering major of choice or they simply aren’t very good at their major, and therefore they get killed in their GPA. These core classes can be some of the most challenging classes you will take in your entire time in college because you are required to apply all the math and physics and science you learned previously in an engineering specific environment. So if you have a bad foundation, you will have issues. </p>
<p>For all those that did well, they probably have a good foundation, picked the right major, decent smart, and really applied themselves.</p>
<p>Also, “engineering jobs” is a very broad term. There are many different type of engineering jobs. Anything ranging from design engineering, sales engineering, test engineering, and many other flavors. But If you are doing any kind of design work, modification of an existing design, or applying a design to solve an engineering problem, it WILL require some/great deal level of creativity, and ingenuity. </p>
<p>Afterall, why would they paid an undergrad $50k plus right after undergrad if all you do is turn the crank like a factory worker? Technology firms expect and demand original thinking in problem solving, and therefore creativity is a must.</p>
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<p>Probably because (a) some other subjects have slightly more [grade</a> inflation](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com%5Dgrade”>http://www.gradeinflation.com) than science and engineering, and (b) many people perceive math as being “hard”.</p>
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<p>“Is majoring in Engineering a bad choice if I want to apply for pharmacy school?”</p>
<p>yes, it could be a bad choice.
Engineering is about finding a good solution, may not be the best solution or the worst. Sometimes can be statistical, sometimes by experience. Pharmacy/medical may often times be imprecise but don’t tell anyone.</p>
<p>One issue with engineering according to the dean of engineering at my S’s U is that it doesn’t allow for a lot of course selection–much of the curriculum is pre-selected so that you can obtain your degree. This may limit your preparation for pharmacy school.</p>
<p>One good thing about strongly considering a major in engineering is that it is one of the few fields where many people CAN and DO get jobs with their bachelor’s degree. This could be an option for you, to save money before you go to pharmacy school or if you decide pharmacy school isn’t for you for whatever reason.</p>
<p>Some folks do find engineering (especially biomedical engineering which has a lot of pre-meds) to have a tougher grading curve. That can also be said of some other fields as well.</p>
<p>It’s good to study what interests you and inspires you to study, learn and do well. If it also helps you get a job, that’s ideal!</p>
<p>@himom You can take classes over the summer/online. If you haven’t entered yet and your school gives you ap tests, self studying for the tests are a fairly easy way to knock out a few general requirements. Both will free up plenty of space for grad school prerequisites.
The science ap tests are worlds easier than what you will encounter once you get to college. As are history, psych, statistics, …</p>
<p>My S entered engineering with the max (60 credits from APs and having completed a college course), but still didn’t have a lot of space to take extra courses. He only got exempted out of a few courses, mostly general ed. There were a TON of courses that ALL engineering majors HAD to take unless they wanted to fight with the engineering department to get exempted. S opted to just take them.</p>
<p>I’m sure it depends on the school. Some are more lenient than others.
For us, there were ways to get around the general requirements.
After getting As in differential equations and complex analysis, it’s pretty hard for the program to justify forcing someone to go back and take calc 1-3.
An A in physics 2 (e & m) was enough to convince them that physics 1 was not needed.</p>
<p>every school is different though. This obviously won’t be true everywhere. Going to professors/the department head and forcibly asking can work wonders.</p>
<p>biomedical engineering is not supposed to be full of pre-meds. It is supposed to be people who want to design the next wave of replacement hips and pacemakers with better materials that won’t wear out and need to be replaced. I doubt it is full of pre-meds as they could probably get better grades in chemistry, biology or bio-chem. As you said engineering is a grade killer. A 3.0 in engineering would be equal to a 3.3 in any other major. Same thing for pharmacy. But I have to ask, Do you want to be a behind the counter pharmasist or a works for big pharma coming up with new drugs and testing them pharmacologist? (Sorry about the spelling)</p>
<p>Yep, a 3.0 in industrial or civil engineering is equivalent to a 3.3 in math and physics.</p>
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<p>Surely plenty of students in the first two years of humanities or social science majors are lazy or unprepared. Yet you don’t really see them being weeded out or being consigned to terrible grades. </p>
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<p>But you’re not really taught original thinking and creativity in most engineering courses. In fact, ironically, you’re mostly taught the exact opposite. The vast majority of engineering courses are graded via a combination of problem set and exam questions for which there is only one, or at most a handful, of ‘correct’ procedures. You can’t simply argue that you would have ‘solved’ a particular exam via a highly creative idea that is not sanctioned by the official solution key, and if you try, you’ll fail the exam. </p>
<p>The one notable exception is the capstone design course where creativity is indeed encouraged. But that’s just one course, usually taken in the final year, after students have been actively discouraged for years from being creative on pain of failing. Honestly, how much design creativity can you expect at that point?</p>
<p>2 questions for you</p>
<p>1) Have you ever studied engineering? Or rather, do you hold an engineering degree of any sort?</p>
<p>2) Have you ever worked as a full time engineer? If so, for how long?</p>
<p>Are those questions directed to me? </p>
<p>If so, then I could just as easily ask you the same questions. Trust me, my qualifications are solid.</p>
<p>Fair enough.</p>
<p>Then you know, for most of us with decent IQ, it is trivial to skate by in most liberal arts classes, even during our first 2 years in college. Most science classes demand precision in our work results, often with an exact right or wrong answer. Conversely, for most humanities classes, results are subjective and can be argued. </p>
<p>Given this context, engaging in endless rhetoric in humanities can earn you an A. Rhetoric in science will get you an F. Moreover, just the sheer complexity of science subjects make science classes substantially more challenging. Therefore, the probability getting weeded out of foundational science classes are infinitely higher. Also, being good at science requires a lot of practice, engaging in rhetoric a bit less. </p>
<p>Engineering trains you to think in a structured manner which enables you to problem solve in a systematic approach. To give you this structured problem solving approach, you first need to learn by repetition on how to solve a complex problem in a right way. Therefore, although an engineering student is learning this process in a very rigid approach, when he gets out of school, this foundation will enable him to solve previously un-encountered problems.</p>
<p>Another words, engineering education is not about the miniscule details, but about learning a structured problem solving thinking approach.</p>
<p>If you ever saw the movie Apollo 13, the engineers in the movie were depicted in creating all kinds of ad-hoc solutions to seemingly impossible problems, like building a C02 extractor with socks, paper and tapes. That was creativity in engineering at its best.</p>
<p>As for my qualifications, I previously served as a principal design engineer for a leading Silicon Valley fab-less semiconductor firm for years and earned numerous design patents while leading large scale engineering groups. I am sharing this with you not as an act of self-aggrandizement but to let you know I have a decent idea on this subject.</p>