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/sci/ - Science & Math

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4847733 No.4847733 [Reply] [Original]

What engineering major should I go for?

I've been thinking of three:
-ECE (probably more electrical than chemical)
-ME
-ChemE (I don't know what I'd do with this, as I don't want to go into medical or energy)

Why would each of these be good or bad?

Thanks in advance!

[
Notes on others:
-Aerospace: meh and a bit narrow
-Biomedical: never been one for health things
-Civil and related: not much of a buildings person
-Petroleum: narrow
]

>> No.4847745

Doesn't seem like engineering is your thing.

>> No.4847746

>hurr I can do baby calculus PAY ME 100K A YEAR PL0X durr

pretty much every single engineer ever.

>> No.4847807

>>4847745
Why?

>> No.4847829

Oh, an addition. I'd probably add a double major or a minor in Physics or Chemistry to this.

>> No.4848065

I suppose no one wants to help. Dang.

>> No.4848692

So /sci/ has different people on at different times. Does this mean that the /sci/ of morning in 4chan time will help? I hope so.

>> No.4848721

physics engineering is fun as shit. super duper multidisciplinary.

>> No.4848746

What do you look like? Most good looking engineering majors wind up in finance. Actual engineering jobs are for fob Asians, Indians, and Russians/Slavs.

I picked structural because it was the easiest and faster to finish. If things do not work out you can always be a MATLAB code monkey.

>> No.4848838

>-ECE (probably more electrical than chemical)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECE

>picking a major
>can't be bothered to learn what the initial stand for

Just don't go to college if you're going to drop out. You don't have to go to a college to go to it parties you know...

>> No.4848852

I took ME at the school in OP's pic. It's a good school, you'll learn if you work hard. Join the FSAE and do some work in their garage, try to find a good professor you can do research with, but most of all don't be a SAP.

>> No.4848863

>>4848721
Which of the branches I posted would be closest to that?
>>4848838
Shit I mistyped. I meant 'more electrical than computer'. Whoops.

>> No.4848918

Any more thoughts/ideas?

>> No.4848939

>>4848852
Why join the fsae? At least if I'm going into ME.

>> No.4849041

Anyone else like to say something?

>> No.4849062
File: 39 KB, 500x500, 1334193004753.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4849062

about ChE: its not only energy and medicine

you can make polymers, or be a manager and deal with that side of things for the most part, or do research on whatever. there's a whole array of things you can do. you can work at a water plant to come up with new methods, at a paper mill (also new methods), etc.

tl;dr - ChE has a lot more than just energy and med

>>4847746
pic related. u jelly because youre an idiot who cant do baby calc. sucks to suck

>> No.4849069

>>4849062
Thanks! I knew there would be other areas, but not specifically what yet.

>> No.4849472

All I can do now is the classic bump.

Bump.

>> No.4849786

More replies, please.

>> No.4849813

ChemE don't often work in medical or power. More likely you'd end up in process control, designing machines or improving the efficiency of existing machines in chemical plants or steel mills or something like that.

The pay is fantastic, though. Unless you have a burning interest in a particular engineering discipline, you're doing yourself a disservice by not going into Chemical or Nuclear. The other ones work just as hard in school but get paid much less.

>> No.4849959

Thanks for the ChemE responses; any for EE?

>> No.4850000 [DELETED] 
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4850000

If you want to sell out and make REAL money then do financial engineering.

I took some math classes in that as a EE major and some of the material went way over my head.

>> No.4850054

I think OP should do ECE or physics engineering. Idk too much about physics engineering, except that it's badass.

>> No.4850072

>>4850068
what do you mean by "the closest"?

>> No.4850068

>>4850054
Where I'd likely go, there is no Physics Engineering, just the ones I posted. Which would be the closest?

>> No.4850101

>>4850072
Which major of the ones posted in the OP is closest to Physics Engineering.

>> No.4850112

>>4850101
I think they're all pretty equally different from physics engineering, but if I had to choose I'd say ECE.

>> No.4850116

>>4847746

At my university, physics and electrical engineer majors take the same amount of math and equivalent amount of calculus. Physics takes a course called to "into to applied math" where engineering takes a statistics course. The only people who take more math than either is mathematicians. So stuff it babby calc physics faggots.

>> No.4850138

>>4850116
>>4850112

So should I look at the Physics courses and the courses in each of these engineering majors to compare?

What if I were to minor or double major in physics of chemistry?

>> No.4850148

>>4850138
Dude idk. Like I said, idk too much about physics engineering, except that it's badass.

>> No.4850168

>>4850148
Well what makes you say it's badass?

>> No.4850177

Do you even know what engineering is, kid?

>> No.4850188

>>4850177
As far as I'm aware, yes, but what's your definition?

>> No.4850203

>>4850138

Ok, look faggot OP. Pick the one you fucking like. I don't know how to explain it to you, but one of these types of engineering should already jump out at you. I'm a Electrical Engineering/Mathematics double major. Why? Because I love electronics, ever since I was 6 I've had my ass in front of a computer or various other electronics. I love thinking about circuits and making them, it's just "my type" of thinking. I also love math and I wanted to go deeper, hence the math major.

Don't think too hard about what job you exactly want in a certain area, chances are you won't get it very early in your career. Pick the one that jumps out at you. Do you like working with chemicals? Are you fascinated by chemical reactions? Pick ChemE. Are you fascinated by circuits or just machines in general? Pick ME or ECE.

If you HAVE to pick one and you're too stupid to differentiate between them, pick whichever one runs in the family, might sound weird, but there's a higher chance you might like it I guess. Nearly everyone on my dad's side is an electrical engineer with a couple chemical engineers. My mom's side has a couple chemical engineers too. It just runs in our blood I guess, so I would suggest you do that if you're too bland to pick something on your own.

>> No.4850229

>>4850203
I suppose that all three jumped out at me. I've always been interested in both chemistry and electronics, as well as the general 'machines' type of engineering that most children think of when they think of engineering, after bridges.

I mean, when people think of a symbol for science, the average person will likely think of an ernylmeyer flask, right? That sort of thing is what has me interested in chemical.

Robots, computers, and other machines have me interested in ECE and ME.

Granted, I've always been indecisive, so this will probably eventually come down to the wire.

Thanks for the advice!

>> No.4850453

BO-AMP

>> No.4850772

>>4850453
What?

>> No.4851027

If anyone else has any more insight they'd like to share, please do.

>> No.4852000

New day, new advice.

>> No.4852133

Anyone have anything to say about how ME is good or bad? I've seen it low on 'tier charts' here before. Why?

>> No.4852147

All engineering is applied physics with a bit of creativity thrown in. All engineering majors have to take basic chem, physics, calc (through ode/pde). Only major differences are in the last two years. So really, pick whichever subdivision interests you more. Barring that, join the ChemE master race

>> No.4852153

I have no idea how the USA values each Engineering, but EE tends to be the most broad area, so if you are thinking how much you would make it's the best area.

But that's really personal, man. Most people must give it all to learn something, don't just go around choosing anything you think it may be good for you, speaks someone who changed majors 3times already.

>> No.4852182

>>4847733
I am told that MineE averages about three job openings for each graduate each year. Good field to get into if it is something you are interested in Op

>> No.4852190

>>4852182
MineE?

>> No.4852223

>>4852190
Mine engineering. Only 14 schools in the nation offer it.

>> No.4852399

What else?

>> No.4852547

Why is Mechanical Engineeringgenerally low on /sci/ tier lists?

>> No.4852551

>>4852547

Because it is toilet fixing science

>> No.4852569

ece - waves. radio waves and shit.
me - machines. engines, if you wanna get into it.
chemE - food and drugs too.
aerospace - narrow, but boeing and airbus
biomed - health.
civil - buildings, hardass architecture
pertroleum - nope.
industrial engineering - management with math
electrical engineering - quite obvious. narrow though.
comp engineering - lol

>> No.4852587

If you go ME at a school that has a NRE program, consider going that route. It's a more niche but more explicitly employable major.

>> No.4852835

>>4852587
Will it continue to be?

>> No.4852889

In an effort to avoid starting my own retarded thread about majors, I'll use this one:

What does /sci/ think of computational engineering?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_Science_and_Engineering

>> No.4852904 [DELETED] 

Environmental engineering? I'm currently doing that as a PhD student. I like it very much since it's highly interdisciplinary, giving me the opportunity to do research in materials science, mathematics, electrochemistry, microbiology...etc and other fields.

>> No.4852912

Environmental engineering? I'm currently doing that as a PhD student. I like it very much since it's highly interdisciplinary, giving me the opportunity to do research in materials science, mathematics, electrochemistry, microbiology, and nanotechnology. Other students have equally diverse research areas.

>> No.4852918

Fast becoming a dead industry unless you're willing to work abroad for less money.

Manufacturing is decreasing year on year in the EU and USA, so Mechanical isn't as solid choice as it used to be. Electrical is always in demand, but only if you work with things such as superconductors - everything else is shipped out east. Petroleum is cutting jobs and will need to seriously revamp itself if it wants to survive the next few decades.

Do Chemical because it's practically the only one that's guaranteed to survive in the west for a long period of time.

>> No.4853046

So with chemical engineering the only one, it seems, with guarenteed results, what would be the jobs associated with that guarentee?

>> No.4853064

>>4852918
Mechanical is still not a bad choice because it's broad enough to allow you to follow a few different paths if you want. It's easy to focus electives/graduate work towards aerospace applications and get a job as an aerospace engineer, or specialize studying control systems or robotics. There's still plenty to be done outside of manufacturing processes and machinery.

>> No.4853558

???

>> No.4853580
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4853580

>>4852918
You do know that mechanical eng is different to manufacturing eng don't you? Furthermore, despite the apparent decline in manufacturing across several nations and a wide range of industries there's still a strong demand for most engineering disciplines in this sector.

>> No.4854063
File: 330 KB, 1072x946, 1339977278551.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4854063

<-- Explain this

>> No.4854221

>>4854063

Why is biomedical so low and nuclear so high?

>> No.4854274

>>4853558

>> No.4854530

Which should I choose? Why?

>> No.4854744

Which kind of engineering majors does /sci/ generally have?

>> No.4856039

>>4854744
It seems like Cheme, but I'm not sure.

>> No.4856865

What does /sci/ think of biomedical engineering?

(Don't want to start a new thread)

>> No.4856884

>>4852569
By the way this list is completely retarded as it lists "ece" as a separate category from "computer engineering" and "electrical engineering" when in fact ece stands for "electrical and computer engineering" and anybody who gets an ece degree likely took either the computer or electrical option, not both.

You fucking mouthbreathing lying retard.

Also, electrical isn't narrow at all. It's the fuckin' r-radio waves and shit + communications + systems + anything you fucking want because every tech industry needs EEs.

>> No.4856889

Also, OP, really think this out before becoming an engineering major. Don't lie to yourself when you ask if you're only doing this because you read on /sci/ that it's a good career choice.

Don't be another fucking bitch that drops the program mid-fall semester sophomore year. I watch you bitches drop like flies and I think of /sci/.

>> No.4856891

>>4847733
>Petroleum: narrow

But 300k starting

>> No.4856900

>>4854221

Because you will never get a job with biomed and nuclear is the first step towards clean energy (we LFTR now)

>> No.4856902

>>4854221
because that is essentially a list of what sounds the coolest (as most tier lists are). don't worry bout it

>> No.4856906

>>4852569
>electrical engineering - quite obvious. narrow though.

Applications range from microelectronic circuits to power grids to electromagnetic field theory. Every industrial undertaking in the modern world requires EE. How is EE narrow? Explain yourself.

>> No.4856914

>Lists areas of engineering specialisations
>Decries them as narrow

Well then stick to Physics, retard.

>> No.4856979

>>4852918
Lol are you trolling? The reason why so much work is being shipped to the East is because there is so much to be done. There are still tons of jobs for engineering in the US, even though much of the actual manufacturing is done in Asia. And it's not even like you have to be working in those specific industries, either, there are always going to be jobs available for people in the US with engineering degrees, whether it's in design or management or whatever.

Now, on to the serious stuff, OP, EE is the best engineering, no doubt. Think about the future, there will be huge advancements in alternative energy, robotics, computers, smart grids, etc. Everything in our age is becoming digitized, so the hardware/software/robotics field is huge. The power industry also has many opportunities with photovoltaic technology advancing more and more every day; within 10-20 years, we will probably be seeing huge shifts towards alternative energy as it becomes more efficient. Plus, the entire power infrastructure of the US will need to be revamped in the near future as smart grids become more widely used. Especially since most of the people in the power industry are old baby boomers, meaning there will be lots of jobs available soon.

>> No.4856998

Coming from a guy with a neuroscience degree, I regret not majoring in BME. Turns out the field of neuroprosthetics is entirely in the domain of BME. So instead of doing neuroprosthetics research right when the field is about to explode and become a real-life David Serif, I'm going to have to settle with becoming an MD/PhD psychiatric researcher or maybe I'll just say fuck it to academia and become a neurosurgeon.

Anyway OP, I'd say go BME. It's the best of all worlds. What's more awesome than creating computerized devices that interface with the fucking brain?

>> No.4857008

>>4856891
Yeah, $300k starting...for now. Just wait until society transitions away from petrol energy though. Hell, that doesn't even need to happen. The petrol industry is very cyclical; sometimes it's awesome to be a petrol engineer, and sometimes even the packaging engineers are laughing at you.

>> No.4857016

>>4857008
>Just wait until society transitions away from petrol energy

People have been saying that since the advent of fossil fuels. We haven't even reached Peak Oil yet. Plus the US hasn't even started hydraulic fracturing their massive shale reserves of Natural gas.

For the next 50-100 years at least everything will still run on fossil fuels.

>> No.4857022

petroleum
there is always work
you make shit tons of money

>> No.4857033

>>4857022
Yes. My best mate did his BSc. in Petroleum, then a master's in Engineering Management. He splits his time between London and Qatar. He has a BMW and a Range Rover plus a kickass flat. Although he has a shitton of other qualifications and certifications that he got through training provided by the company he works for (BP).

>> No.4857041

What does it mean to become a chartered engineer?

>> No.4857051

>>4857041
They charter a plane to fly over your house and air drop your daily 10 gallon semen ration.

>> No.4857463

Petroleum is a good field now, but I think many people don't realize industries involving oil and minerals and other resources are indeed cyclical based on the markets. Oil companies might be signing everyone they can get one year, then not being able to fire enough the next.

tl;dr electrical engineering is and always will be the best

>> No.4857771

So EE and ChemE are good. What about Mechanical?

>> No.4858562

Boop