How do you know if you're an engineer?

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>Some people obviously “know” that they should be engineers, and they’ve been making/tinkering with things their entire lives. I haven’t. But I love math and physics, and I like computers especially, so I’m thinking of going into CS. I have made my own website but that doesn’t require that much CS. So, can you guys give me any pointers for how people know they’re into CS or EE majors (or how you decided to be an engineer). Thanks!!</p>

2

<p>If you like CS, study it… Keep in mind that if designing website and just using computers (even if you’re a windows “power user/expert user/elite hacker” ) has nothing to do with Computer Science. Do some more research into what CS is and then decide.</p>

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<p>Sorry OP thats not a terrible good judge if you want to be CompE or EE. I am very adept with computer hardware. Not much I haven’t done with 'em for my age and experience. Did an internship @ local comp. repair shop. What is my major now? IE…Don’t set your decision in stone yet. Enroll in engineering, select whatever you want to for admissions. The nice thing is that you can change, since the first year is same for all engineers.</p>

<p>Funny thing is that the only engineering thing I had going for me is the fact that most of my family are in the business. I was never a huge tinkerer, never big into Legos either (I was really good at breaking stuff though). Sure, I was good at math, science, but just as good in humanities. It wasn’t till 2nd semester senior year I decided to go for Engineering…I had toyed with History/Economics/Pharmacy as well. Even then, I chose Chem E/Mech E…Things change, believe me. I don’t know what grade you are in, but I guarantee your decision will change ;-)</p>

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<p>Scorp acually being an elite hacker as you put it has everything to do with CS. It has everything to do with it because all of the encryption schemes that a “elite hacker” would be trying to break would be based on math based algorithms, whether in polynomial or quadratic time.</p>

<p>If suddenly we were able to computer in quantum time or even in polynomial time, all security we are so used to would simply fall and we would all be screwed, this is why there is such a push for quantum cryptography.</p>

<p>The good thing is the only thing fast enough to compute that much info in our lifetimes is a living organism.</p>

<p>As to the original question. I just knew when I was 8 that I was a engineer, lol sorry.</p>

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<p>Well, if you love ‘pointers’ that much, you probably should consider being a CS major.</p>

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<p>Disagree. The love of debugging, whether it’s on html code or ‘user’ issues w/home computers, indicates an aptitude for computer science or computer engineering or electrical engineering. I agree w/those who say take your freshman year in engineering and pay attention to whatever exploratory class they have you take to help you choose a major. If you love math and physics, you’ll love engineering.</p>

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<p>i586, you’re right I meant “3l33t hax0r d00d” – the kiddies who download warez, and torrent random stuff and think that they are the greatest thing in the world, of course real hackers or people who enjoy real hacking would be well fit for CS. </p>

<p>Treetopleaf: I was speaking specifically of CS, yes tinkering will help in CS but unlike more traditional engineering the true CS stuff is really mathematical and theoretical (or so it seams to me…) being a good tinkerer will help in EE/CompE/SoftwareEngineering but pure CS, not as much. In any case what I meant was that designing websites is not what CS is about, a lot of people seem to think that CS is about Javascript and HTML or writing programs in C. That’s more software engineering.</p>

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<p>I was a CS major for two years and it was much too theoretical for me. While I was good at writing simple programs, I was not good once it came to using data structures and stuff like that to write complex programs. I ended up getting a MechE degree, but not because I like to design stuff. My job as a power plant engineer I find ways to make the plant run better and come up with solutions, but if there is any strict engineering calculations that have to be made, a PE from our projects office gets involved with that to ensure compliance with the right codes. So while the PE will design a system, it is my job to manage the plant resources to get that system installed and operational.</p>

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<p>I agree that pure CS is theoretical. I also feel that in practice, ‘computer people’, no matter what their stripe, have to figure out why something they designed doesn’t work and make it work. That’s where the theoretical and practical meet.</p>

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<p>I would never describe software engineering that way! See: <a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

10

<p>If you haven’t seen “The Knack”, you might find this humorous.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.metacafe.com/watch/410397/dilbert_the_knack/[/url]”>http://www.metacafe.com/watch/410397/dilbert_the_knack/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;