<p>Okay, so I entered my college as an undecided freshman in engineering, and even after attending countless info/counseling sessions about what kind of engineering discipline I should choose, I’m still left confused. </p>
<p>My school’s biggest department (in engineering) is Mech E, because somehow most of the undecided kids end up in ME…as its the widest discipline (and doesn’t require too many credits relative to the other engineering majors).
I’ve been looking through the catalogs, courses, requirements, job prospects and I think I’m down to three: Industrial, Mechanical or Civil. </p>
<p>At first, ME seemed like a decent choice but then again…my dad says there are better ones I could be doing. I was informed over and over again that Civil is “rewarding” but the least paid of all the engineering majors, and finally I hear from a lot of people that Industrial Engineering is looked down upon and taken as a joke. Is this true?</p>
<p>I’ve looked at all the engineering majors. A lot of them that sort-of interest me require an insane amount of credits (Nuclear, Computer, Electrical) but stuff like Industrial/Mech/Civil seem like a decent fit for me. Plus, I do NOT want any more Chemistry after I’m done with the first semester; I despise the subject to hell and beyond.</p>
<p>So, is Industrial actually looked down upon? It can lead to a promising job, right?</p>
<p>First: Who gives a flying freak what your dad thinks? If you want to do ME, then do ME, don’t decide against it just because your dad “says” there are better ones. Instead, why don’t you ask him how other majors are better and see what kind of answer he comes up with, because I bet he spews some BS that doesn’t really make sense. There is no such thing as a “better” major, as it is all relative to the person in question. This isn’t your dad’s choice, this is your choice.</p>
<p>Second, civil is generally one of the lower paid engineering majors, but it is still a good salary, and if it is what you want to do, then you should do it. Basing your decision on money is one of the fastest ways to hate your major.</p>
<p>Third, IE is generally looked at as sort of a joke by other engineering majors if only because it is only borderline engineering. In general, the curriculum seems to be a bit easier, and there isn’t really much physics or anything like that involved 99% of the time unlike other engineering majors. IE is really only engineering in the sense that the problem solving methods are similar to those used by other engineers. That said, the problems they tackle and the jobs they do are still very important, and I think that while most of the rest of us like to poke fun at IE’s, we do it in good nature because most of us know that there really is a place for them. If you want to do IE, then do IE.</p>
<p>But again, I cannot stress enough how much this is NOT your dad’s choice. Choose the major you want. And if Nuke, Comp or Electrical interest you, don’t be afraid to do them. I am actually kind of surprised that they would require more credits. I think most places have the credit requirements roughly the same.</p>
<p>I think most engineering students consider it to be one of the easier engineering majors – however, I don’t really think it is considered a joke. I personally think that a lot of the stuff thrown around about IE is fairly unfounded. It may be easier than some of the others, but this is very relative and I think anyone going into to it with the attitude that it’s a joke would be a bit shell-shocked. I’ve known a number of people who switched out of ChemE, ME, NucE into IE with the expectation that it would be very easy comparatively, and most of them say that it’s still very hard. It also surely has a lot to do with your interests, as this is probably the largest difference between IE and all of the others. If you think the idea of solving complex business problems with mathematical models sounds interesting – then it’s probably a good fit, but if you like building physical things I would say ME or Civil is better.</p>
<p>As far as jobs go, there is a lot of opportunity. Pretty much every industry has adopted IE’s into their organization. Manufacturing, banking, consulting, construction, oil, airlines, logistics solutions, marketing, etc… all recruit IE’s. Starting salaries are good, around 60K on average, but vary greatly by the industry you go into. One thing about IE is that there is probably a 50/50 chance you will not have an engineering title. Heavy manufacturing firms, airlines, and logistics solutions all usually have an IE department, however, the rest of the companies seem to hire IE’s to fill positions without engineering titles – such as operations, supply chain, etc… Most of the IE positions are a fast track to management, and it’s unlikely that you will be doing actual IE work for more than about 5 years. This is because the problems that IE’s solve are greatly related to those that management faces.</p>
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<p>True, there is not a lot of physics. However, calc, linalg, diffeq and lots of statistics are widely used. IE’s also take the basic EE and ME classes such as thermo, statics and dynamics, and circuits – which all require physics.</p>
<p>Ah, I never said they didn’t take physics, I just said that their main focus had almost no physics to it, and I also freely admitted that they used the same problem solving strategies as the rest of us, which would imply that they are just as competent at math as the rest of engineers. I was not trying to put IE’s down.</p>
<p>Basically when it boils down to it, there are two sides to IE 1.) Human factors and ergonomics 2.) Operations Research. #2 would be the challenging side and where most of the technical work is done. #1 tends to lend itself to fairly soft and much less quantitative classes. If your tech elective is pretty boring, this would probably be the reason.</p>