Help a college student with 'major' choice

[snakekilla88]

I am a freshman entering college.... I am currently taking a labor intensive nutrition class (summer school). I am watching many fellow students struggle.... I am not trying to sound like a know it all- because I have barely dipped my feet into the water. Yet, I seem to realize college has nothing to do with who is the most intelligent, it has to do with who works the hardest. From getting mediocre grades in highschool (3.3 gpa), to scoring one of the highest grades in my first college class. Basically I learned I am very intelligent and can do anything but I have to work very hard. Okay I will stop being so repetitive....I have set a goal to achieve presidents honor roll (3.5 gpa or higher). As of now my intended major is electrical engineer. Most people grow up and hate their jobs and right now I dont have any true passions. I also do not want to major in something like communications or buisness simply because I want a job that provides security and a high wage.

[RunDownHouse]

I can't imagine being an EE without actually caring about being an EE. Why'd you pick that one?

[SammyKid11]

Start a rock band and take them to Europe to record an album and tour instead of going to college. That way you won't waste 5 semesters of tuition money before ultimately arriving at this very obvious choice.

Believe me when I say this is the very BEST way to become a person who plays poker during the day to make real money and plays music every night to make SOME money but also stay happy. This is the obvious choice for you.

In all seriousness, dude...you need to take some intro classes and do a lot of reading -- I also agree with trying to do a couple of internships. Find out what moves you and what you think you'll be happy doing. I personally enjoyed my philosophy major at TCU, but I can't say it ever really did anything for me on a professional level (nor that it would were I to go get a regular job instead of poker/music). I think majoring in liberal arts is more fun (phil, history, sociology - sorta, English, humanities, etc.)...though business, marketing, advertising, etc., are majors which will typically get you higher-paying jobs. Or, if you're into science, become a chemical engineer. They make loads of bank. Part of your decision has to be weighed in whether grad school is in the works (ie - a history, philosophy, poli sci major is great if you're planning on going to law or economics school or something -- maybe not that great if your plan is only to pursue a bachelor's...just cause the money with a BA or BS in one of those things might not be what you want it to be).

Of course, with any major...there's always sales as an avenue to big bucks. I'd just hate my life too much to be in sales.

[Check_The_Nuts]

I've taken 3 years of engineering. I have a diploma, and going for the degree, yehaa. I chose Chemical Engineering.

As far as a math degree goes, it doesn't take much more math to get a degree in it. Engineering requires calculus up to differential equations anyways. I also had to take an intro stats course and a linear algebra course. Electrical engineering, from what I could see, has a lot of math in it. Prehaps the most math intensive. Leplace transforms, matrices, etc. I never like linear algebra that much, and it appears to have a lot of that in it (as well as diffies).

Mining engineering is where the money is at. I've heard stories of guys making something like 20k in 3 months of work as a student. The downside is the work environment. You have to either live next to the north pole, or work underground, yuk. A big upside is ya just blow [censored] up all day.

I'm taking chemical engineering. Its a mixture of physics and chemistry. Seems to deal a lot with the processes of making stuff, rather then the chemistry side of things. Money in this field is pretty good from what I can tell, something like 40k starting. That really is just a guess tho, and I've seen wildly different estimates...

The difference between physics and engineering is physics is very theoretical, where engineering is extremely practical. I agree that it is hard to choose between physics, math, and engineering. Chemistry is another relatively easy fun one. Physics is kinda how things work, engineering is how do we make science work for society, and math is the backbone of physics/engineering that allows the analysis to take place.

So I say, get a math and engineering diploma if you feel like it. Engineering rocks tho, don't let anyone else tell ya different....

hope this helped? I made my choice just by what I found myself interested in the most while I was taking it. Funny thing is I'm not sure if I'm going to stay in chemical or switch to mechanical....

[mmbt0ne]

I was EE for a while. Then I took a co-op job as an EE and hated life.

I'm industrial engineering now, much better.

[Check_The_Nuts]

kinda interested on anyones take on the different engineering types. Never really got the lure to industrial engineering either...although starting salaries are suppose to be great in that one...

[toss]

Not trying to sound philosophical or anything but first you've got to ask yourself what you want out of life.

What are your likes and dislikes?

How much money do you want?

Find a job that best balances these three things.

[PokerintheI]

If you're not sure what you want to do at this point, try and get as much of your Gen. Ed. stuff out of the way first. Hopefully by the time your first 1 - 1.5 years is done, you will have some further idea as to what you like.

My suggestion is that whatever you pick, pay close attention to the courses you take. The way most college students pick classes, (and the way the Academic Advising folks set you up if you ask them) most college students end up wasting about 2/3s of their course work.

A standard 4-5 year degree requires around 120-130 credits. A major is usually 30-45 of those credits. But using the advice of the average Advisor (read: useless) you will get done with your engineering (or whatever) degree and when you look back you'll find that you were 1-3 classes away from a major or minor in 2-3 other areas.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO: Decide upon a major or occupation, we'll take EE in this case. Now figure out what other areas interest you and are marketable. Assuming that EE is one of the 45ish credit majors, lets pick a second major and a minor. Based upon income potential let’s figure you want to go into engineering management. So pick business administration as a second major and managerial accounting as a minor. Then all you need to do is make sure that whenever you pick an elective or one of the standard liberal education course categories, you pick one that satisfies more than one requirement.

Just as an example from my experience. My school had 10 different categories of courses required for all majors to graduate. These are the "we want well rounded graduates" categories. Stuff like: Health and Wellbeing, Diversity, Music and the Arts and so on. When I went in for "Academic Advising" I came out with a course plan that picked ten classes to meet these requirements that had absolutely nothing to do with the main purpose of my education. After going through the lists myself and reselecting classes that matched up with my degree, I had 6 of the 10 courses counting for both my Gen. Ed. requirements and my majors. I saved myself a semester of school and like $3500 at today’s rates, just by planning carefully.

Other good second majors or minors that come to mind are: Marketing, Communications, Computer Science, Business or Computer Information Systems. There are lots of others, but these are the ones I can think of at the moment.

Now, for about the same amount of time and money where most people would have had a engineering degree and 50-60 credits worth of "liberal arts education" and other random coursework you have a much more useful engineering degree with a secondary emphasis in business and accounting. Generally speaking, a well-planned course of study should allow the average student to end up with somewhere between 1 major and 2-3 minors and 3 majors.

Oh yeah, I forgot. For your primary course of study… PICK SOMETHING EMPLOYABLE!!! (not directed at OP)

[BreakfastBurrito]

FWIW, with an EE degree, besides the obvious types of jobs you'll be offered, the doors are wide open to law school, med school, obviously EE graduate school, bioengineering grad school, and MBA school. Also, right out of undergrad, you will have a chance if you want it to get in with the FBI, CIA, pretty much any other gov't agency, plus consulting or finance if you decide to pursue the opportunity.

EE is a pretty fricken good major for someone willing to work real hard who isn't sure what they want to do yet. Just be sure to continue trying to gain experiences and thinking about what you really want to do. It will be very easy to just go along with the flow, take a readily available good paying job that keeps you just interested enough to stay, take on some debt with the best home and car you can get your hands on, decide to get married, and get stuck.

[rjoefish]

Construction Management. Thread over.

EDIT: Average salary in 2006: 97,573 and its a booming field. Enjoy!