My daughter is a sophomore in HS and has expressed that she wants to pursue civil engineering in college. When I ask her how she knows she will like engineering, she admits that she doesn’t “know” she will like it. She thinks she will like it, because she enjoys and is a strong math student, and she is loving physics and chemistry.
While it is early (she is class of 2026), she is starting to think about what colleges she wants on her list, and she is really only considering those with engineering programs. I worry that she will go down a path that is hard to veer away from, and then have limited options if she decides she wants to select a different major.
Can anyone recommend a resource or experience that might help her to understand with more clarity what it would be like to (1) major in engineering and (2) work in engineering?
It isn’t difficult at all to change majors out of engineering. It is very challenging to change into it though. It is VERY sequential, relying on classes most other majors don’t take. So, for that reason, I always advise that students with any interest in engineering start in engineering.
How then will she know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s the right major? She won’t. Engineers don’t even figure out what the day in day out will actually be until they are deep into their curricula. Her interest now though is a strong indicator that it’s the right call.
I would avoid your inclination to talk her out of engineering in a quest to find the “right” major. Many students change. What’s important though is finding the right schools.
I would avoid institutions that are almost exclusively technical. Beyond that, she’ll have a WIDE range of choices. There are 271 schools in the US with ABET accredited civil engineering.
Back to your original question, take her to your state flagship and ask for a tour of the college of engineering and the civil department. Have them discuss the things they do and show her some lab projects.
Robotics is essentially a combo of three things, ME, EE, and CS. Civil is almost the antithesis, non-moving, non-powered, non-“thinking” objects. Certainly civil engineers can and do work on moving things, but students who express an interest in the field at that age are typically interested in the grand projects like bridges and dams.
OP, my son is a mechanical engineer. By the time he graduated from high school he had no exposure to the field, not even robotics. He was just like your daughter. He loved math and science. That’s all he needed.
And this is why I almost never comment on engineering topics. I don’t know what I don’t know! I understand the difference in the disciplines at the career level, but apparently not how kids identify that at an early age. I took a chance with a high school sophomore, but it sounds like I was off-base. Thanks for the correction.
I agree it is usually a good idea to make sure to go to a college where if you start in engineering but then decide it is not for you, it will be easy to switch into something else without feeling a need to transfer.
I also agree about shadowing, clubs, summer programs, and so on.
Generally, there are many different types of engineering that appeal to different people. I think of most engineers as people who enjoy actually applying math to solve problems, and they are usually the sort of people who are curious about how things work, what they are made of, how they are made, that sort of thing.
But again, there are so many variations on that, so what that actually means for both a successful engineering student and a successful working engineer varies a lot too.
My son did 3 summer engineering camps in different discipline. Berkley, Michigan State (robotics) and Milwaukee school of engineering have some really good programs in different areas but for civil look up
My son didn’t want civil but they do lots of the same things the camps do. It’s during the school year. Lots of fun and learning how to work on teams. You get almost 1:1 mentorship from an engineer. There are college scholarships and in my sons case in Chicago, free food and bus /train passes.They actually were part of a real build on paper of a shopping center and got to go on site
I think for this family, the parent want to feel confident that her daughter will know engineering is right for her. In the end though, it doesn’t really matter as long as she has options if she changes her mind. After all, roughly 80% of college students change majors.
There’s no downside to following this path until the daughter decides otherwise, and not much chance anything will guarantee she likes engineering until she’s experienced some of it.
To add… They will write recommendations if needed and help with college apps. They even had some program to follow the kids through college if needed. It looks great on a college app also
I’m not sure where you live, but Cal Poly SLO has an excellent summer program to expose high students to different types of engineering. They also have one week for junior high students.
A good engineering job in almost any engineering discipline is centered around logical problem solving and viewing things as a system. Really good ones allow for a level of creativity, almost artistry, also. If those things are interesting, then engineering may be a good fit. And as mentioned by others, engineers routinely transfer into other fields with relative ease because logic and problem solving apply anywhere as almost anything can be viewed as a system.
A “bad” engineering job involves “solving” the same problems again and again or just following prescribed procedures. A student might liken it to doing 50 math problems that follow the same process to solve. I suspect this is analogous to any field, and some people might actually prefer this. Don’t avoid the field, avoid the bad jobs.
I hadn’t thought about the fact that moving from engineering to another major is easier than the other direction. That is a really great point.
We are near Worcester, MA, so I’m going to look into WPI summer offerings as someone mentioned above.
My daughter’s school is SUPER small (graduating class of about 20 students), so the club options are not all that many. She is pursuing a full IB diploma and will be doing HL AA math plus two sciences (one at HL, one at SL), so she should have some good academic background under her belt before undergrad starts.
Roads have traffic lights that may need to adapt to changing traffic volumes. Water and sewer infrastructure may need to adapt to changing flows and use. Bridges may include draw bridges. Buildings may have HVAC systems and elevators that need to adapt to use.
This is very normal. My son was pretty sure he wanted to go into engineering but we had him explore local opportunities. He settled for this program: https://www.acerdu.org/
This is a national organization that specializes in civil and architectural engineering opportunities. They provide scholarships to seniors too. I cannot speak highly enough of this program. Check to see if they have a local chapter. The kids work with practicing engineers and learn a ton by visiting sites, doing projects and internships.
As I mentioned above, there are opportunities for civil engineers to work on smart projects that move. Most of those projects are collaborative amongst many disciplines.
My point however is that most 10th graders probably aren’t thinking about those types of things when they throw out civil as a potential discipline. They’d be far more likely to name ME.
In the end, the OP and her daughter know why she chose that.
OP, certainly visit WPI. They are well known for project based learning. She can get an idea not only of what civil engineers do, but other disciplines too.
The WPI summer programs look amazing but they ended up being much too expensive for my family. But I think they could have high value in trying to determine if engineering is a good fit. Hopefully they will work out for you!
