<p>I know mechE is the broadest engineering, but what if I’d want to be a good “all around” engineer? Like be able to handle problems in all fields.</p>
<p>The fields of engineering vary so widely I don’t think what you’re asking is practical. Nor necessarily useful. “Jack of all trades, master of none.” MechE and ElecE are your safest bets.</p>
<p>check out Harvey Mudd</p>
<p>While Harvey Mudd does have a rather general program, there aren’t any practicing engineers who can effectively work in a wide range of fields.</p>
<p>Is this Harvey Mudd program accredited?</p>
<p>What about Applied Physics?</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd has a general engineering, engineering physics and engineering science accreditation.</p>
<p>Applied physics is broad but I still don’t believe it would give one the ability to work effectively in all engineering fields. There’s just too much information to know specific to each field.</p>
<p>Yeah that’s what I was thinking. Sorry to change the question but which engineering has mix between technical/managerial potential. Like I’ve heard civil is and I’ve heard industrial translates mostly to managerial.</p>
<p>It’s common for civil engineers to have project management responsibilities along with engineering tasks as they get promoted. It’s also common for civil engineering firms to be run by people with civil engineering backgrounds. I’m not familiar with the other fields enough to comment on them.</p>
<p>One of the basic foundations of engineering is Mathematics, which is the main reason I chose that as an undergraduate major. As far as graduate school, I would look into Systems Engineering which will include elements of Project Management. It gives you the “big picture” view of how a product is produced.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info guys. I think I’d enjoy civil. Or petroleum but that worries me.</p>
<p>Why does petroleum engineering worry you?</p>
<p>To the original question, pretty much everything that can be designed with only a broad engineering base has already been designed - the exceptions are too few to make a career anywhere but late-night infomercials.</p>
<p>To the second question, Systems Engineering is about right, but it is often unavailable at the undergrad level. Industrial Engineering often connects to management, but it suffers from a low reputation that often follows for a long time. I would recommend picking either ME or EE and looking at management training (one way or the other) after a few years of experience.</p>
<p>It worries me because I hear about lay offs when prices drop.</p>