Ah I remember when I first came to Uni. I was so sure on Mechanical, but so much has changed. So I'm in a general first year program right now and I'll be picking my discipline in April, but I have no idea what to pick! The top two choice are probably mechanical or materials engineering. Back in high school when I was applying, I didn't even know what materials engineering was, but as the year progressed it seemed more and more appealing. Mechanical has always been my top choice until now cause its so versatile. But now I'm not sure at all. Other possible choices I was considering were: Biomed (Don't know if I wanna go to med school though...), Chemical (The school also offers a Chem & Bio program combined), Electrical/Computer, and mechatronics. Options that are out for sure are civil and software. Current ranking of preferred courses: 1. Mechanical or Materials 2. Mechatronics 3. Electrical/Computer 4. Chem or chem&bio joint program 5. Engineering Physics (nuclear preferably) 6. Biomed I was just hoping to get some thoughts from current and past engineering students. How were your experiences in your specific field? What did you love about it? What could you have done without? And if there are any working engineers out there. What did you study? What are you doing now? Just trying to gather as much information as possible before April!
I think it's really a matter of liking or not. I was majoring in Human Biology until my advisor told me to quit cuz I was so miserable in it. I ended up with a double major in biomedical engineering and symbolic systems engineering; a lot of similar classes so I was able to get out in 4 years. Looking back though, I should've just stick to symbolic systems engineering cuz the degree is so versatile. Should've major in finance/business instead of both engineering. Oh well, hind sight is always like that. My advice to you is that with the current economy, it's better to stick to realistic and marketable major such as engineering or business. Sciences suck big time .. you don't get anything out of sciences. My wife was so pissed that she quit lab and went on to pharmacy school. If you are truly into sciences, you better get your PhD degree; otherwise, your degree is worthless cuz you're not knowledgable enough to get promoted to higher position. No one listens to you. Anyway, it's BEST if you can get two degrees; offering you more of an edge as a job applicant later.
There's no such thing as general engineering program .. anyway, sorry, i was meant to say; do a double major .. if you have to go engineering wise .. go into environmental engineering .. it's HOT now.
What is it you dont like about Mechanical? I still think its the best out of the choices I had, which were Mech, Civil, Chemical and Aero. I like mech cause of all the options open to me. I mean for my placement year, I could have built tanks, designed fighter jets, worked on offshore oil rigs, sat in an office, designed wind turbines, etc etc. And now i get to play with explosives So I am still loving mechanical engineering. Ive seen the materials engineers, and tbh its looks highly boring. Chem also looks boring as your constantly working on flow processes and thermodynamics.... and it looks hard unless your good as the chemistry thing biomed is pretty interesting, but as a career, it looks quite niche mechatronics, again interesting, but also niche electronic/computer engineering could be an option, but you have to have a natural talent at electronics, programming, etc or youll end up hating it im sure But i guess it all depends on what your courses are actually like and what your career aspirations are. I would say stick with mech, but im biased so...
I'm a graduated mechnical engineer - I highly recommend it because it opens a lot of doors and the career options are much wider than say, materials engineering, biomed, chemical etc. I remember when I was deciding, I was advised to stick to one of the three 'pillars' which were Mechanical, Electrical or Civil. All other fields are basically either a specialisation, combination or application of one of these three 'pillars'. So unless you have a particular interest in one of them, sticking to the basics will give you a lot more options when you graduate. Just to let you know, I've graduated for just over a year now and am currently working in a petroleum company in their upstream business as a Production Engineer. Hope that kinda helps... ^^
Well if do mechanical I have to pick a stream to specialize in 4th year. There are four in total: General, Flowdynamics, design, manufacturing. Which one would you recommend? I'm kind of iffy about staying with general stream, cause I think I wanna be specialized in something.
its true, science degrees are useless by themselves. You need to have a professional designation to make any use of it, like pharmacy or something like biomedical engineering.
What do you mean by enviro eng? Never heard of such a thing. I think you're talking about sustainable engineering, which is done through any field of engineering =\ McMaster engineering level 1. Is a general first year program everyone is required to take for the first year. Its meant to introduce students to engineering so they can make a better decision about which field they wish to go into.
I would recommend doing one that you like and I reckon you probably won't figure that out till you actually do some subjects in it. e.g. I always thought I'd love design and work in consulting but after doing 2 design units in 2nd and 3rd year, I absolutely couldn't stand doing anymore. Let alone as a career. My uni had slightly different specialisations, and to be honest, it didn't make a huge difference at the end of the day - probably because engineering grads was in such high demand where I am. Based on your options though, I'd probably go either Flowdynamics or General just coz I'm bored by the others. Keep in mind that this is knowing nothing about your uni's reputation (i.e. they might be really famous for their design or manufacturing programs??), job prospects in surrounding industries etc.
i think it's similar to sustainable engineer but again, every school has its own little labeling. http://cee.stanford.edu/ check it out!
honestly dood... if u don't like engineering, or don't know what kind of career u would like in the future related to engineering... ur screwing urself in the long run... you shouldn't ask others if they like their job or not, cuz in the end, you're not the same person... what you should ask is what to expect out of a job in their field... you should ask urself what you want to do 10yrs from now... material possesions is pointless cuz there are plenty of other degrees besides engineering that will give u that balla status... what do you want to do in 10yrs that an engineering degree will open doors for... if you can't plan 10yrs ahead, you're fcked cuz dedicated Chinese and Indian engineers who plan atleast 10yrs ahead are gonna run ur ass out of a job...
^ lol .. i have engineer degrees but i am not doing any related to it. but yeah, he does have a point there .. you should ask yourself what you want to study cuz at the end of the day, you're the one going through the course load; not us. don't worry too much about job market and just enjoy your study. i am sure you will get a job once you graduate. also, get an internship in the field if you're interested or get a feel of the industry.
^negiq hit a point i wanted to add to as well... just because u get an engineering degree doesn't mean u have to be an engineer, you can work in a field that relates to engineering... lol if i was an engineering major, i'd be all over the mechanical engineering and end up building cars
mechanical engineering is not all about cars, in fact only a small portion would be that would be automotive engineering your talking about or a mechanic its funny when i tell people im a mechanical engineer and they go "oh so you fix cars"............................................................................
Yeah dude, its best to think of what you want in life and then go through without regrets. I was an engineering major in telecommunications and was in my final year. I realised that it was not something I want to do for the rest of my life thus I changed major and had to start from scratch, at least now I am doing what I like and it is vital we go to work each day looking forward to it instead of dreading and hating it.
enviro-engineering is a pretty big thing these days. Chemical engineering will also assure you a job with 60+ an hour pay, but i believe its one of the most complicated types of engg.
