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"The harder I work, the luckier I get." - Samuel Goldwyn

Mech E, ECE, Chem E, or Civil E have great job security from any ABET certified curriculum. I assume that MIT graduates will have better salaries than state school graduates, mostly because they work harder, not because they are lucky.

Bio Engineering pays significantly less! I started at a state school in Chem E because it has the highest paying average salary ($55k according to that CNN website). I really really hated Chem E, really really did not want to take P. Chem, so I transferred to Cornell. The average starting salary for a Cornell Bio E is 35k!

If you are pre-med you should be interested in Bio Engineering, as the material is related to medicine. Being a Mech E premed would be more difficult because the med school pre-reqs are not part of the curriculum.

Those are my opinions. Here are the facts:
Bachelor Engineering Degree | average salary

Aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical $50,993
Agricultural 46,172
Bioengineering and biomedical 48,503
Chemical 53,813
Civil 43,679
Computer 52,464
Electrical/electronics and communications 51,888
Environmental/environmental health 47,384
Industrial/manufacturing 49,567
Materials 50,982
Mechanical 50,236
Mining & mineral 48,643
Nuclear 51,182
Petroleum 61,516

src-http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm

eyeamher

My daughter has been given mixed reviews of perceptions of her intended major. She has chosen biomedical engineering. She wants to be an engineer- a biomedical engineer. She does not desire a career as a doctor.

What is the best major to choose?
Does the school really matter? What happens after 10 years? Or 15?
What are the best schools, [in order, if possible] where she can learn what she must without ridiculous amounts of stress?

Mr Payne

What does she think a Biomedical engineer does? Is that something which can be more encompassed in a traditional engineering skillset? ME?

Mr Payne

The biggest "stress" schools are those with large engineering bodies and have low proclivity to keep people in the program. Cal/Mich/GT/Purdue. Those schools will fail you.

hinmanCEO

wow really?

"The biggest "stress" schools are those with large engineering bodies and have low proclivity to keep people in the program. Cal/Mich/GT/Purdue. Those schools will fail you."

racnna

glad stanford is not on that list

Jason1117

Petroleum seems to be the most rewarding field.But I'm not sure whether it's stable or not.I've considered double major in Petroleum and EE....

Annubes

PetE I don't see many colleges offering that major.

Jason1117

you are right,Annubes.
Only a few colleges offer PetroE.
Stanford,UT austin,Texas A&M,U of Kansas,LSU..and a few others.

there aren't many petroE graduates while the demand is huge,which made PetroE a rewarding engineering major.Unfortunately,it is predicated that the demand for PetroE graduates will decline after 2014.

GatorEng23

Oklahoma also offers PetroE.

Jason1117

yes,Oklahoma is also a great school for PetroE

willpower102

Some of us find it fun

Venado

One of my doctors is on the admissions committee for a major southeastern medical school, and he said that they are looking for more humanities majors. He told me about one young lady who got admitted to their medical school and who had to defer starting for one year because she was going off to Europe with her dance troupe. She had her degree in performing arts. So take something you like -- even dance.

anovice

Maybe I'm in the minority here but I don't think that engineering is as hard as people are making it out to be. I'm going into my senior year with a 3.4 and I don't work nearly as hard in college as what I was expecting. I work steadily all the time. I don't cram and I have most of my assignments done a few days early. It's ALL about time management. I know that if I worked harder and gave up some of my social life(I'm president of my sorority... so I have a social life) I could do much better in my classes. I don't go to an amazing school but it's certainly not crap. Some of their engineering programs are ranked in the top 10 and so it can't be that bad. This past semester I took a full engineering load and then two writing intensive graduate level courses... I got a 3.67 and felt like I could have done better. I'm not super smart... anyone can do it. You just have to decide what you want in your life. If partying Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night is something you can't live without in college then possibly you should choose a different major. But if you can live with going out one or two nights a week you can survive. I've heard from many that the rigour of engineering prepares a student well for graduate school(be it med or law or whatever). If it's something you're interested in, you'll enjoy your college years more than if you take some dull major just because you want a 4.0. Being an engineering major isn't going to help you get in or make you a better applicant but I don't think it'll hurt you if you get decent grades.

Good luck!

cherrybarry

+1.
it's really not that hard. Most people don't know what a real day of work feels like. Simply being in a college puts you at the top 1% of the human population in terms of lifestyle and opportunity. I can't stand when people complain about having too much work and not being able to go out or that work is "depressing". Seriously, 90% of the world would dream to have the "problems" that we have. Stop complaining!