<p>I’m interested in becoming an engineer, but I’m having a hard time deciding which specific field I should pursue. I want to work on building fuel and energy-efficient transportation and cities. Green cities, housing, cars, trains, etc. Would this fall under the category of Civil Engineering? Environmental? Please help!</p>
<p>Well I believe you would major in Civil Engineering then try to emphasize on transportation and environmental engineering</p>
<p>The beauty and the confusion is that your engineering field of choice doesn’t always translate into a specific industry.</p>
<p>For example; to build fuel efficient cars you need:
- structural engineers to make the structure lighter
- aerodynamics engineers to reduce the drag
- chemical engineers and computational fluids analysts to improve combustion
- electrical engineers to make more efficient batteries and electrical motors
and so forth</p>
<p>Study what you like. If you don’t know what you really like, mechanical engineering covers a lot of ground (but not all) and is about the most general.</p>
<p>Once you have a degree, you then get to choose an industry to look for a job in.</p>
<p>You may not feel that this helps you, but it really does. The first year in college is pretty much the same for all engineering fields (math, a little chemistry, a little physics, etc). Use that time to explore and talk to peolpe (students and professors, just knock on any professor’s door and they will usually want to talk your ear off about what they do). Sophomore year you will migrate to a major. </p>
<p>Some colleges will require you to apply to a specific major. IMHO, these colleges do their students a big dis-service by doing so. Also, IMHO, the reasons they give for making the students do this are lame (don’t want to get into that here) but they do so just the same. You can either avoid these schools or take your best shot and transfer later, if necessary. The key to transfering within those colleges is to keep your GPA up.</p>