Help me Decide a Major!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Event
  • 20 comments
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Which major?

  • Mechanical Engineering

    Votes: 5 33.3%

  • Computer Engineering

    Votes: 9 60.0%

  • Other Engineering (please specify)

    Votes: 1 6.7%

  • Other field (please specify)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    15
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GTP_event / kevinr6287 (farming account)
Well, I need to start applying to colleges very soon and I am still unsure about what major to take. My first choice is Mechanical Engineering. I'm a little unsure about it now though, because it seems a little too broad. My other choice is Computer Engineering. My uncle is a Computer Engineer, so I might be able to get an intership with him. Plus, I I recently built a computer, as many of you know, and it was a very good experience. I am open to new ideas, but I would like to stay in the Engineering field. I am planning on minoring in maybe some Digital Art class.

btw, please don't goof off in here. This is an important desicion and I trust you guys to give me some feedback and info. I trust that you guys (well, most of you ;)) can make a mature decision on this..

My College of Choice is the University of Illinois. It has one of the best engineering chools in the country (top 5)
 
Mechanical Engineering is the way I would go.
But since you excel in computers. I'd hit computer engineering.
 
I work with engineers on a daily basis. In fact, out of 400 people in the firm that I work for, 60 are not engineers. Of that 60, 30 are architects, and the other 30 are receptionists/admin.

Are you thinking of lighting design? Designing Dams, bridges and roads, and highways? Steel beams and concrete pylons? Comptuer chips and mother boards? Engineering is a wide range.

How about this, if you're up in the air, start researching pay rates. That'll help you figure it out.

And as far as getting into IT management, don't think of it as working with computers all day but rather working with other peoples problems all day. It's wonderful things, "I can't get my program to start." Well, let's see... Ahhh... this is called the power button on the monitor."

"Hey I was moving my speakers around, and now my monitor looks funny."

Good luck,

AO
 
I don't want to be Tech support, or anything like that. I want to do waht my uncle did. he helped design the Prescott cores on the Pentium Core. That kind of stuff. I know I probably wont do that stuff, but designing motherboards would be cool.

As to designing roads and stuff, I do not want to do that. Civil Engineering is LAST on my list!
 
Well, I did a small amount of research and the pay is a lot better in Computer Engineering. plus, the field is growing a lot in Cmputer Engineering, 20% in hardware from 2000 to 2010 and a whopping 80% in Software from 2000-2010! The growth in Mechanical engineering is a measly 6%.
 
Event Horizon
Well, I did a small amount of research and the pay is a lot better in Computer Engineering. plus, the field is growing a lot in Cmputer Engineering, 20% in hardware from 2000 to 2010 and a whopping 80% in Software from 2000-2010! The growth in Mechanical engineering is a measly 6%.
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What they don't tell you is where that field is growing, nor what portion of it is growing. Yes, the field is growing, but within that field are designers and programmers. How fast can you type?

Here's what I'd like to see. A variation of the windows scheme. No matter what skin I use, or what colors I use, it the base model that never changes. Take a look bakc at windows 3.1. IT's not much different than what it is today.

Now the Panther stuff from Apple (3-d animated interactive desktop) is slick. This is where your art back ground and computer engineering come in. I'd say focus on marrying the two of them together, and start marketing yourself to a programming company.

There's absolutely nothing in this world to stop you from writing to a nearby programming company and telling them you're interested in what they do (research it. Never ask a question you don't know the answer to). Write it to the president. Be thoughtful, clearly written and in less than a page and a half.

One of the best things in the world is sitting down at a first meeting and having the top guy address you by first name. The only way for that to happen, is to get out there and meet people.

You do own a tie and dress shirt/pants?

Good luck

AO
 
Looks like people have gotten pretty indepth already but I'd say take a look at Industrial Design (IDSA link in sig). If Engineering is the right foot ID is probably the left foot. Anyway, you'd be working with us to make our ideas reality. 👍
 
I'd suggest Mechanical Engineering, since it is a very broad field, which could be viewed as a drawback or an advantage. Besides, it is something I am fairly familiar with, since I am considering applying for that major when I apply to University in a couple of months. There are plenty of occupations avaliable to a mechanical engineer. Virtually anything that moves was designed by a mechanical engineer.

But I think the most important thing here is don't worry about what you choose to major in right now. First of all, most schools have the same program for all freshman engineering students, regardless of their specialized field. And secondly, it's common for people in their first or second year to change their major. The main thing to worry about is simply being accepted into a College/University. Concentrate on making sure you meet all the academic qualifications for the places you're applying to.
 
I'm going to go the engineering way as well, although our system is different, the job requirements are the same. It might be a good thing to keep an eye-out for nano-technological engineering though, as this is most likely the way of the future.

For the moment I can only apply for engineering in general, after 1,5 years i'll be able to further define my path, another 1,5 years later I'll be able to define that a bit further, and another year later I can define that a bit more again :)

Dunno how the system over there is, we don't choose our majors, we get told what they are.

<Z>
 
If you dont know what you want to do, how can you decide on the specialised field of study to pursue? If you dont know what kind of engineer you want to be, how can you make a choice between studying mechanical, or electrical, or aeronautical etc etc.

Decide what you want to do as a profession, and the study choice will be a lot easier.
 
i'm not sure about the university you go to, but the major engineering schools up here have the exact same curriculum for the first year for all the engineering students regardless of which area they want to specialize in. This allowed a lot of my friends to make their decision on which part of engineering they wanted to get into.
 
Ev0
But I think the most important thing here is don't worry about what you choose to major in right now. First of all, most schools have the same program for all freshman engineering students, regardless of their specialized field. And secondly, it's common for people in their first or second year to change their major. The main thing to worry about is simply being accepted into a College/University. Concentrate on making sure you meet all the academic qualifications for the places you're applying to.
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I dont think we have a problem here, I'm starting my Senior Year and I'm already going to be taking college Chemistry and Calculus. I would like to decied soon (but it doesn't have to be final) so I don't have to flip a coin down the line.

btw, Der Alta, I can't type well. Ask anyone I talk to in AIM. Looks like i'll need to learn that, lol.
 
Mechanical Engineering is a really hard subject and a lot of my friends who studied it at Uni found it really tricky... Computer Engineering is therefore easier (And I'm one) however being in the marketplace at the moment I would say that Mech Eng is more likely to have jobs going and they're more likely to be better paid than the computing equivalent...

I did click computing... but it depends on what you want from it... do you want to be challenged or do as little as possible... do you want more chance of a better job on the other side but will have to struggle?

C.
 
If you know you want to be an engineer, that's the important level of decision to make here. Go to a good technical university that also offers liberal arts classes and degrees.

You won't need to decide your major until your second year of college. If you're in the engineering school, then you have 2 years to sample and decide which particualr flavor you'd like to pursue. You don't need to commit to that right now; make the basic decision to pursue and engineering degree, but pick a university that lets you dabble in the arts as well.
 
Well, I need to start applying to colleges very soon and I am still unsure about what major to take.
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But you said ignornace was bliss, so this is going to make you really unhappy.



In the engineering school I went to, every class was pretty much major-specific - Meaning if I changed majors even after my first semester I had wasted lots of time.

I'd recommend computer engineering for you. You seem to enjoy that area and there is certainly not going to be a lack of opportunity there. Computer science would be easier but it would be harder to get a good job with that degree. Just try to stick with what you enjoy.

I went in to an engineering feild that has a tiny number of jobs and little growth - but I love my job so none of that matters.
 
Who are you? What are you interested in? It looks like you are into computers so you should go through with computer engineering.
 
If you know you want to go into engineering, but you're not sure what type, I'd reccomend that you just go in with "undecided engineering" as your major. I don't know about Illinois, but at most schools that I researched, the engineering program is pretty much the same for all Freshmen.

I'm going to leave for my first year of school at the University of Dayton tomorrow morning. I chose the undecided engineering track. Right now I'm leaning towards Mechanical Engineering, but I'm sure my views are going to change after a year of school. If I still want to go into Mechanical Engineering, I can make my choice at the beginning of my sophmore year and I won't be behind the kids who chose Mechanical Engineering as their major initially.
 
the thing is, I like computers, but I also like mechanical stuff, like how machines and robots work. That's what makes this tough...
 

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