girlfriendmb

what about an engineering major at like a party school like Arizona State? lol

aibarr

Y'know, I went to Rice for engineering and was accepted to all the top ten grad programs I applied to, and I did plenty. I partied a lot, had tons of friends both in and out of engineering, had a band of my own that rehearsed and performed regularly, performed with the choir, held two part-time jobs, was in a musical and tech'd for other musicals, and even found time to be drum major of the band and an area coordinator of Rice Beer Bike. I never pulled an all-nighter, either, so it's not like I didn't sleep ever. Just manage your time effectively, take advantage of review sessions, form study groups, and you'll be able to do whatever you'd like in college. Being an engineer is not a social life killer. Never let school interfere with your education!

golubb_u

"But think about the after college life. You'll be making mad money. You'll have a hot spouse, nice car, nice house, and life would be all milk and honey"

I think you're talking medical field....engineering is shrivelling....by the time you graduate, you'll be lucky to have a job.

Charman20

Engineers are needed everywhere. It definitely isn't shrivelling. Without engineering, doctors would be much less effective in diagnosis and treatment. Every faction of engineering is equally important.

1down22go

I'm an engineer's wife. Engineers do just fine, and unlike doctors and lawyers, he is home at night and never "on call" or meeting clients in jail. We have a very high quality of life so putting up with the hard college life has been well worth it to him.

MatthewM04

Thank you 1down22go for that dose of reality which some other posts demonstrate hasn't quite been experienced.

skierdude1000

Ok, well from all the responses I'm getting, it seems like engineering will not be a fun thing to do in college. I just personally am extremely extroverted and I need to have lots of social interaction, it leads to a balanced person I feel. I'm not worried about money right now, so I don't think you can justify having no social life by talking about money after college. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

aswat12389

Maybe you should consider a liberal arts physics major and then going to grad school in engineering.

golubb_u

"I'm an engineer's wife. Engineers do just fine, and unlike doctors and lawyers, he is home at night and never "on call" or meeting clients in jail. We have a very high quality of life so putting up with the hard college life has been well worth it to him."

Engineering is definitely shrivelling. Aside from civil engineering (which requires a P.E. license granted from the state), the others have no protection against outsourcing. Outsourcing is getting worse and worse every year.

Other negative points....

1> Once an engineer is over 30, there is pressure to move into *management*. It's as if engineering isn't good enuf for the more experienced engineers. At least doctors get to be doctors their entire lives. Why join engineering just to go into management??

2> Losing a job over 35 can be devastating to an engineer. They may not get rehired since there is always new talent. Engineers are afraid from 35 til retirement of layoffs.

3> For computer engineers, there's no barrier to entry. Even mechanicals and eletrical engineers can put their hands on the computer pot...they just need a crash course for 3 months, and some company will hire them over a computer science graduate.

4> Many computer engineers *are* on-call. They work shifts just like doctors. Worst of all, if a system goes down, they can't sleep until it's back up.

5> The most insidious thing to consider is that every computer engineer's wage is compared to the corresponding ruppee amount. For many companies, it's "calcutta or bust"...they don't even want to think of starting a company locally because of american wages.

6> Engineers cannot move around! They're locked into a specific company till death do them apart. Doctors can moonlight at any hospital they want to and still get paid ridiculous $$$.

aibarr

Golubb_u, I hear you saying "computer engineers," "computer engineers," "computer engineers." I know at my undergrad college, the major was computer science and it wasn't in the engineering school at all. I think that here, we're primarily talking about the more traditional engineering fields, like bioengineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, biomed engineering, chemical engineering, etc, which aren't being outsourced.

Pharmaceutical companies are strong and research is being done here in the states that requires chemical engineering expertise, most of which is recruited domestically; civil engineers will always have jobs as long as we're building stuff; mechanical engineers are needed wherever they're designing machines (which is a *lot* of places in this country!). Electrical engineers face some of the same problems in terms of outsourcing that computer programmers are facing, but not *nearly* to the same degree. There's still the demand for American designers at major companies like TI and Raytheon and countless others, and at smaller consulting firms. Bioengineering and biomedical engineering research and practice is mostly centered in this country, and industrial engineers are being employed as private consultants in droves by American companies who are trying to find alternatives to outsourcing.

There is plenty of demand for engineers in the United States. A good, conscientious, hard-working engineer *will* find a job in this country.

golubb_u

"A good, conscientious, hard-working engineer *will* find a job in this country."

saying it doesn't make it so, and besides, you didn't address my other points.

For civil engineers, there are barriers to entry (i.e. state licensure), so they will be stable. For the others such as biotech etc., the research can easily be done abroad! Merck, Phizer (sp?), Glaxo etc. are already talking about partnering research divisions with indian pharmaceuticals such as cipla and ranbaxy.

Most of the medicines are already manufacturedabroad, even though they're sold with US brands.

Engineering is an "ok" field to go into....though medical is much, much, much better. Why study so much math/science just so that you have to play politics and get pressured to get into management???

Things engineers need to know are:

1> You'll be expected to give presentations in your career...the better your presentation, the better you are as an engineer!...forget your technical skills.

2> You'll need to attend meetings at least weekly. If you're older, you are expected to lead the meetings...to gear up for management.

3> In medical field, the managers all make less than doctors and are expected to do paperwork only. They don't control the doctors. Whereas in engineering field, the manager controls the engineers.....it's a military style approach. Mangers make more, talk more, and last longer.

4> Communication, presentation , organizational, politics and people-skills are very highly valued in engineering, in addition to a technical degree...... In the medical field, you only need communication skills and a degree. That's sufficient to get you 200k per year.

5> If you're 35 and still engineer-ing, you'll be looked down upon. "What, you're not a manager yet??"

6> Doctors get wiser with more gray hairs...Engineers become a cost center, and young-blood is much more valued.



.....you get the drift.

MatthewM04

Sounds like a certain *somebody* is bitter about never getting accepted into Engineering School.

But seriously, being a medical doctor isn't a walk in the park. Whereas engineers can do fine with just a bachelors degree, doctors MUST go to med school, which the best are extremely competitive. And even once you make it through that and your residency, depending on what you do, you also have to worry about malpractice insurance--which I hear can run up to $250,000 a year. And unless you're one coldhearted person, you always feel at least somewhat bad when you lose a patient.

As for your comments about older engineers, experience is extremely important and absolutely vital to getting the top jobs. It doesn't matter if you were summa cum laude and hold PhD in engineering, if you've never worked before you'll never *start* at the top.

aibarr

Hmm... Golubb, out of curiosity, where are you getting your information about the engineering profession? Much of what you say about the engineering field is just not true, like about how young blood is valued more than experienced engineers. MatthewM04 is right on in his last paragraph. I think somebody's been feeding you incorrect information about what engineers do on a daily basis, and about what engineers value in their field... What's your background? Where have you gotten such a negative impression of what the engineering world is like, and what can we do to change it?

golubb_u

"Whereas engineers can do fine with just a bachelors degree,..."

Well, you can do just fine being a union truck driver or RN..


"experience is extremely important and absolutely vital to getting the top jobs. "

...you're joking, right? After 5 years, you're maxed out of experience. After 10, you're over the hill

1down22go

golubb, I'm sorry, but I do disagree with many of your assertions. I can only speak for our family's experience, though, and what I have seen of my husband's co-worker's experiences. My husband has a Master's degree in MS & E and works in telecommunications, in chip packaging. Two years ago, he decided the company he was working for (a top 5 company) was headed in a poor direction, so he got connected with a head hunter. Almost immediately, he was off to an interview, in our home state no less. Within a week of the interview he had a verbal offer, with many extras that we didn't expect, including matching vacation leave accrual and a relocation bonus. He was working at the new company within 6 weeks, and it has been great. Most high tech companies offer two career ladders; a management ladder and a tech ladder. My husband has done both, and prefers the tech ladder, which is his current job. By the way, my husband was over 40 when he got this most recent job.

What we have found with technology companies is that they really prefer prospective employees who have experience at other companies. It's a good way to get new technology perspectives. In fact, he has heard that one engineer was asked why he stayed so long at his last job at an interview, and it was apparently held against him.

There are a lot of meetings for engineers, it's not just sitting around doing equations and experiments. And public speaking ability is a plus, but it's not a career limiting factor by any means.

And as far as the degree goes, you really can attain a high level job with a bachelor's degree, and there is very little advantage to having a Ph.D. in real-world engineering.

It's a good life.