<p>What’s the most versatile undergrad engineering degree?</p>
<p>I would say its a tie between EE, ChemE, and MechE. Hence, these are often referred to as the ‘big three’.</p>
<p>How are you defining versatile? The most number of industries you can work in? The most number of hiring companies? The most number of transferable skills outside of engineering? </p>
<p>Aside from that, don’t worry so much about versatility. Do you what you enjoy and want to do. Also, don’t get caught up in the interdisciplinary engineering fields. There are very few real jobs for interdisciplinary engineers like biomedical or systems engineering. The problem is that companies either don’t know how to utilize them, or they don’t have the appropriate experience and knowledge. In the case of systems engineering, it is much easier to take a disciplinary engineer and turn them into a systems engineer, than it is the other way around. The same can be said of biomedical engineers, they don’t have the depth in background in biology and mechanical or electrical systems. This applies to the undergraduate level. Obviously, if biomed or systems is your thing, get whatever engineering degree you want at the undergrad level, then do the specialization at the graduate level. </p>
<p>The point is, versatile doesn’t really mean anything.</p>
<p>Probably mechanical engineering. After that, EE or CS.</p>
<p>I’d say MechE is by far the most versatile. But, ChemE and EE also are pretty versatile…</p>
<p>Id say ME.</p>
<p>As for defining versatility, I am talking about the the most number of industries. For example, computer science degrees can be used to develop software for a wide variety of purposes, and can thus be employed by many different types of companies.</p>
<p>I’d say CS, you can work everywhere with CS degree literally. Everyone ranging from biotech labs to music-audio industry and even to wallstreet firms needs computer savvy people to run their dbase management system or website or numerical analysis, whatever.</p>
<p>If by versatility you mean the number of different industries you can find work in, the answer is clearly CS. If you mean the number of things you can do with your degree, well… engineering degrees pretty much prepare you for a given field, but ME degrees should be fairly flexible, by comparison. Otherwise, many engineers get degrees in math or physics, which are more flexible than any engineering.</p>
<p>Is AERSP the least versatile then?</p>
<p>No, I would guess that civil is the least versatile, or perhaps biomedical/bioengineering or something like that. If you want versatility, AE / ME / EE / CS are good bets, whereas CE (computer and civil engineering) and anything interdisciplinary with BIO in the title might be less so. I might be wrong about computer engineering, too… in fact, it’s probably as versatile as EE, if not moreso.</p>
<p>Sigh. Another thread that turns into a dump-on-systems-engineering thread. </p>
<p>I just did a search on the Washington Post website for systems engineering jobs. Alas, they would only list the first 250 of the 2722 hits. </p>
<p>For versatility, I’ve found that my field of operations research (or systems engineering–a closely related field) allows you do work in a wide range of domains. There were 956 openings for OR. </p>
<p>There were 526 EE positions advertised.</p>
<p>And, there was one political scientist position.</p>
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<p>AE isn’t versatile. It’s a nice field, but you’re limited to basically one industry.</p>
<p>ME and AE are pretty darn similar.</p>
<p>They are, but AE is much more specialized. That’s why I wouldn’t say it’s versatile if you are defining it as the number of industries the discipline can be applied to.</p>
<p>at my school AE and ME is like a 3 class difference for those who want a double major.</p>
<p>Yes, for those that want to double. But it’s different when you are only after one of the degrees.</p>
<p>Amongst the following 3 majors, Comp Eng, Mechanical Eng, and Comp Sci, how would you rank them in terms of versatile?</p>
<p>CS
ME
CompE</p>
<p>Close gap between CS and ME though.</p>
<p>Yes, CS is the most versatile, followed by ME, and CE is the least versatile of the three. ME is much more versatile than CE than CS is more versatile than ME… but CS is still far and away the winner, as it will allow you to work in literally <em>any</em> engineering field (as well as a wide variety of non-engineering fields), as a software developer.</p>