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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Oct 15, 2009 05:12
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Thoguh posted:Yeah, but if you want to move into higher level management then something like finance or other business disciplines seem to be a better choice (based on the executives at a lot of engineering firms). Most engineers who who move into management don't advance beyond middle management, which doesn't pay any better than the higher experience levels of engineering. I wasn't trying to start an argument (I love engineering and don't intend to leave it), just pointing out that in most cases, becoming an engineer means you'll be solidly middle class your whole life, never moving above or below that level. I'm pretty sure that this is not neccesarily the case - I believe there's a forbes report out there saying that the majority of company CEO's have majored in engineering. I'll root around and see if I can find it. EDIT: Not forbes - Just a study i guess. 22% Have engineering degrees: http://content.spencerstuart.com/sswebsite/pdf/lib/2005_CEO_Study_JS.pdf (2005 paper) EDIT 2: The 2008 paper: 22% again http://content.spencerstuart.com/sswebsite/pdf/lib/2008_RTTT_Final_summary.pdf#page=8 Enzo fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Oct 15, 2009 |
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Oct 15, 2009 08:50
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Thoguh posted:I wasn't trying to start an argument (I love engineering and don't intend to leave it), just pointing out that in most cases, becoming an engineer means you'll be solidly middle class your whole life, never moving above or below that level. As an engineer you will, if you play your cards right, make more right out of college than 80% of the population. You might have to move into management to get big bucks, but right out of college you will still be doing better than the majority of the population even with just 6 months experience. The cap is there, but it is a great way to start earning good money as soon as you graduate. Most of the guys I knew doing engineering coops in college were making more per hour, as students, than the USA median household income. The earning potential is massive, and compares to people making a whole lot more when you consider lifetime earnings and educational costs versus strait hourly pay rates.
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Oct 15, 2009 10:11
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Huskalator posted:Besides the $$$ why would someone want to be an engineer? For example what are some cool things engineers get to do? Job satisfaction. Some kinds of engineering let you express your creativity in ways most people could never experience through their jobs. Ask all the Art Studio majors in the world how many people are interested in paying them for their creativity, and then ask all the electrical engineers (especially those working in FPGA/ASIC design). Anybody who ever dreamed about being an "inventor" when they were a kid, I'm convinced that what they were actually picturing in their head was either an electrical engineer or a physicist. Also, I think a lot of people got into engineering for the "gently caress yeah!" factor of the things they wind up doing. How many people can say they've worked on a satellite that's in orbit? Or that they've designed a new tank/fighter plane/missile/what-have-you. Or that they designed a bridge or a skyscraper. Or that they are responsible for planning out highway development. The money doesn't hurt either. Poopernickel fucked around with this message at 11:03 on Oct 15, 2009 |
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Oct 15, 2009 11:00
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Poopernickel posted:Also, I think a lot of people got into engineering for the "gently caress yeah!" factor of the things they wind up doing. How many people can say they've worked on a satellite that's in orbit? Or that they've designed a new tank/fighter plane/missile/what-have-you. Or that they designed a bridge or a skyscraper. Or that they are responsible for planning out highway development. This. Working on large projects like aircraft gives you a new perspective on just how much time and effort actually goes into the end product. I was working on a small subsystem of the JSF project, but it kept me busy for months. I'm still in graduate school now though as I want to pursue a more theoretical/research oriented path.
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Oct 15, 2009 12:48
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It's time for me to pick a senior design project (senior in EE) and my choices are either a wireless robot made to pick up cans or a report on network security containing current exploits, how to use them, etc. The latter is more interesting to me, but it's got me to thinking: Do network security specialists really get paid big money? That's what this professor claims, but it all seems like glorified "IT guy" stuff. So is there really a big demand for so called network security specialists with engineering degrees or is it kind of a niche career that most companies aren't going to pay you an engineer's salary for?
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Oct 15, 2009 17:06
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Holy Diver posted:The latter is more interesting to me, but it's got me to thinking: Do network security specialists really get paid big money? That's what this professor claims, but it all seems like glorified "IT guy" stuff. This is kind of what I do. It is a heavily experienced based industry. Your degree in Network Security Engineering means pretty much nothing compared to someone with a CCIE in Security, or other industry certifications. Even if you get hired right out of college, you will be making 40-50k for the first couple of years, and during that time you will basically be the "glorified IT guy." After that advancement is totally on you. When you get enough experience and certifications, you will be able to apply for the coveted "senior network engineer" positions that usually pay in the 85K to 150K range. But it takes a long time and again your degree means nothing. So my advice, do whatever is more interesting to you, but don't really expect it to get you a sweet job. Have to get in the door first.
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Oct 15, 2009 17:39
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Any advice for a mechanical engineering grad with a BS? I graduated in 07 and took the first job I was offered which was for a position as a patent examiner and worked there for about a year and a half. I never took the EIT and worry that I may never be able to having been out of school for as long as I have. I had two solid internships with a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant and have what I think is valuable experience teaching Pro/E as a teaching assistant in the ME department back in school. My grades were not great, my overall gpa was just over 2.9/4.0 but my so called engineering gpa is a bit better at 3.3/4.0. I lost my job as a patent examiner some time ago, (I technically quit, but I didn't have any choice, it is a long messy story involving a discrimination case I felt I had against my supervisor which did not go well for me, and I'm rather bitter about the entire experience, but of course I don't let this come through at all when writing cover letters, or dealing with professionals in the few emails I've had with potential employers). My job search has been utterly depressing I've had zero call backs in almost 6 months of applying for jobs every day. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. I am beginning to feel very under qualified for even entry level positions despite the experience I have. I'd like to get a job as a design engineer, but I really don't understand what I could be doing differently or better to improve my employability.
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Oct 15, 2009 18:32
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Dukkha posted:Any advice for a mechanical engineering grad with a BS? I graduated in 07 and took the first job I was offered which was for a position as a patent examiner and worked there for about a year and a half. Have you tried the oil and gas industry? Lots of the service companies are looking for design engineers. Try Rigzone.com, nov.com, halliburton.com, bakerhughes.com, schlumberger.com, smith.com, weatherford.com, etc. You'd likely have to move to Houston, but a job is a job, and there are always chances to move elswhere and internationally once you get on with a company.
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Oct 15, 2009 20:11
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Chadula posted:I'm studying Electromagnetics and I'll be school for the next 4 years. I heard electromagnetics is the most challenging topic in EE, can you comment on this? What kind of research are you working on?
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Oct 15, 2009 20:17
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Mongolian Squid posted:I heard electromagnetics is the most challenging topic in EE, can you comment on this? What kind of research are you working on? For many people, then there are those weirdos that say things like "Its simple, all you need to do is <garbled mess of vector calculus". Note: we are all such weirdos to the right people. EDIT: Electromagnetics research can get into some very interesting very classified fields very quickly. See all those antenna nests on top of military stuff? Each antenna needs to not interfere with each other. Its a very interesting problem because <REDACTED>. Other cool stuff involves huge loving magnets that <REDACTED> and <REDACTED>. On the up side, US citizen only grants are awesome. God help you if your thesis project ends up classified though... hobbesmaster fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Oct 15, 2009 |
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Oct 15, 2009 20:29
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Dukkha posted:I never took the EIT and worry that I may never be able to having been out of school for as long as I have. I waited 8 years to take the FE/EIT exam and had to start over from scratch, which took a lot of effort, just for the sheer breadth of the test. If you prepare for it, though, you'll pass- it's those people going in cold with no prep just because everyone else is taking it that make for most of the dismal failure rates. grover fucked around with this message at 22:02 on Oct 15, 2009 |
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Oct 15, 2009 21:56
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KaLogain posted:Have you tried the oil and gas industry? Lots of the service companies are looking for design engineers. Try Rigzone.com, nov.com, halliburton.com, bakerhughes.com, schlumberger.com, smith.com, weatherford.com, etc. You'd likely have to move to Houston, but a job is a job, and there are always chances to move elswhere and internationally once you get on with a company. Schlumberger's Tech & Field program is awesome to get into. If you apply there and start talking to a recruiter, ask them about it. You do 18 months of grunt work on a rig, but after that you work in Houston developing tools and systems for them.
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Oct 16, 2009 04:42
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Thoguh posted:Yeah, but if you want to move into higher level management then something like finance or other business disciplines seem to be a better choice (based on the executives at a lot of engineering firms). Most engineers who who move into management don't advance beyond middle management, which doesn't pay any better than the higher experience levels of engineering. I wasn't trying to start an argument (I love engineering and don't intend to leave it), just pointing out that in most cases, becoming an engineer means you'll be solidly middle class your whole life, never moving above or below that level. This is a load of crap. If you're the type of person who is going to get into upper management and beyond you're going to get there no matter what your major was. Being an engineer will only help you because it'll diversify the types of positions you can hold at a company as you move up, giving you more experience. I think that the majority of people who go into engineering are content with a $100K salary and would rather spend time on other pursuits outside of work than go for the top.
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Oct 16, 2009 05:30
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I appreciate the suggestions. I have applied to Schlumberger and Shell in the past, but I never got further than the initial phone interview. This was right after I graduated however, so I will take another look and re-apply in the morning. Not to disrespect oil & gas or military contractors if that is your chosen field but my beliefs and morals (which are quickly being thrown out the window) tend to lean a bit left. I'm sure most the ME's in this thread work in the mil. industrial complex or oil & gas in some manner or another, since these industries seem to be where the smart money is lately, but I would rather not IF I had an alternative. Any suggestions for a liberal, environmentally conscious mechanical engineer? lol Or... beggars can't be choosers, stfu Dukkha, go put your degree to work building the next moab. *edit* I really hope I haven't offended anyone by stating my preferences, some of my best and most respected friends work or have worked for Halliburton, Lockheed and Northrop.
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Oct 16, 2009 05:56
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Mongolian Squid posted:I heard electromagnetics is the most challenging topic in EE, can you comment on this? What kind of research are you working on? Yes its hard. Not going to lie. Multiply any math you learned in undergrad by at least 50. Its actually way more then just vector calc. There is alot of complex analysis in there. I've had to take like 3 or 4 extra math classes just to get on the same page. Right now research is dealing with antennas. Namely conformal antennas. Can't go into details because its under a Air Force Research Lab grant. One colleague is working on meta-material antennas, another on Self-Sturcturing antenna that my professor pioneered. Plus side is because it is more difficult that money and job placement is a non issue pretty much. My one colleague started well over 100k when he was all done. After school is done, I'll will probably work with the government doing research on antennas and modeling. Anytime you deal with EM fields and such, it gets complicated because you are always working with a 3D field moving in space and time. And they interact with everything so modeling and solving the equations gets tricky very fast. However I think I've taken to it because I don't mind math, and you get use to the difficulty after about 2 years of looking at the stuff constantly. Its certainly not for everyone, but if you got the stomach and have a good graduate program its not as huge of a deal as it sounds.
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Oct 16, 2009 06:23
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Oct 16, 2009 06:23
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Most of my colleagues there had or are still having good experiences. Good aspects of the job: You can more or less set your own schedule, meaning you can almost work any 80 hours per bi-week you want and come and go as you please. You are largely autonomous after your first 2 years so you rarely have anyone directly managing you. The DC area is awesome. (I really miss it  )Pay is pretty good, and raises are based on production and are non-competitive. (pretty sure the patent office is the only government office with no cap on the number of GS 13+ employees they can have) They actually encourage examiners to work from home as the office is constantly running out of office space. After your 2 year probationary period you basically have to rape someone or take a poo poo on your bosses desk to get fired. This is also a bad aspect of the job as there are a ton of really really lovely examiners that somehow made it past their probationary period which used to only last 1 year, and since they often can't be fired they are sometimes promoted out of their art units simply to get rid of them and make them someone else's problem. (This is how my supervisor got her position) There are a lot of other nice things, I just can't really think of them at the moment... Bad parts of the job: You don't get a say in what you examine. Production. You will be expected to be over 100% productive, which means that based on the subject matter you are assigned to examine you are given X hours to examine a case from start to finish. (the whole production formula is probably more complicated than you really care about right now, but I can explain it in more detail if you are really interested) suffice it to say examiners for the most part hate production because the number of hours they are given to examine a case was set a long time ago and rarely if ever changes and is generally a very poor indicator of the true difficulty of examining a particular subject matter. You can and some people do actually go insane. Imagine spending 80 hour bi-weeks without speaking to another human being in person. I've seen it twice and I was only there for about a year and a half. No one is very eager to disclose just how common this actually is. There is a 2 year probationary period during which time you can be "not retained" without cause. The DC area is very expensive. Production requirements are set so high that it is common place for junior examiners struggling to keep their jobs to work as many as 40-60 hours of unpaid overtime each bi-week, even though they can technically be "not retained" for doing it. Supervisory Patent Examiners (SPEs) this is definitely the single most important variable that will either make or break you and you are assigned one completely at random. SPEs have absolute control over junior examiners to an almost ludicrous extent. Your SPE can take away all of the good parts of the job I listed above, (flexible schedules, scheduled raises, office mates, even the 'counts' used to determine your production, your performance rating and your potential for advancement). If a SPE wants to keep you from getting a promotion they can simply force you to continuously reexamine the same application ad nauseam. There is virtually no protection or recourse for junior examiners and this is why the office has such an abysmally low retention rate. If you really want my obviously biased opinions I could talk about it a LOT more, but this probably isn't the thread for it. PM me if you have any other questions. To answer your question, I think I could have really liked the job, but I was extremely unlucky and was assigned to an art unit I didn't like under a SPE that didn't like me and it just ruined everything for me.
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Oct 16, 2009 07:42
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Dukkha posted:I appreciate the suggestions. I understand, just remember that not everyone is an ultra right wing.
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Oct 16, 2009 11:47
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I graduated last year with a bsc hons (4 years) in elecrical engineering. I've done coursework in all of these, so I'll rate them in hardness and funness. Hardness (from  to  )RF/Electromagnetism Control Nuclear engineering Power Networks (computer sciencey stuff) Digital Systems (fpgas wadda wadda wadda) Computer Science Funness (from  to  )Digital Systems Nuclear engineering Control Computer Science Networks RF/Electromagnetism Power Control Engineering helped me get a girlfriend. A non-geeky girlfriend. A real non-geeky girlfriend. No lies. edit: A left-wing engineer? That'll never do.
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Oct 16, 2009 12:28
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There are all sorts of things you can do that have a neutral or positive impact on the environment. Hell, even if you're on a project that's an overall negative impact you can, personally, have a positive impact by designing with environmental factors in mind. The way you solve problems and detail things can have a huge effect on environmental factors. You can also work to convince people that these elements are a positive selling point they should be willing to pay a premium for. It often isn't that hard. Even in oil and gas and other apparently environmentally awful fields you can get jobs that don't make you completely cry yourself to sleep every night. A non-insignificant percentage of infrastructure projects in the Alberta oil sands, for instance, are due to government mandated environmental improvements.
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Oct 16, 2009 18:56
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Just sell out to the man and get over it, sheez. It's not like engineers go to work and club baby seals all day. Unless you're designing some sort of seal clubbing machine, which would be rather difficult because of various factors involving stealth and harsh environments. Seriously, engineering offices are full of all kinds of people. At worst you might have to have a civil conversation about politics. edit: I actually did get the opportunity to apply for one of the munitions factories here in the US and decided not to make bombs, so there's always a choice to say no.
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Oct 16, 2009 19:14
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Thoguh posted:EDIT: Page 13 of the 2008 study that Enzo posted gets to the heart of what I was referring to. 11% of Fortune 500 CEO have worked Engineering at some point in their career path. 31% have worked finance, and 24% have worked Marketing. It definatly possible to move up through the engineering ranks, but it's by far not the most common path. 22%, a plurality, of Fortune 500 CEOs have a degree in Engineering and a plurality (42%) worked in operations before rising to CEO. The statistic you reported comes from "job functions worked" and one person can be counted in many categories. Someone with an engineering degree that was hired as a sales engineer goes into sales and engineering for example. What I would conclude from this would be to say do whatever you drat well please after getting an engineering degree, your odds of becoming a fortune 500 CEO are the same as anyone else (slim). You should try and move into operations, graduate from UC Berkley, Princeton, or Duke and get an MBA at Harvard. Perhaps you should just start your own company though. A local company, Exstream Software was sold to HP for something like $800mil. It was owned by the guy that founded it and a few of the people that started in the beginning. His degree was in civil engineering and he claimed that he hadn't used anything from his degree in the business (software company). hobbesmaster fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Oct 16, 2009 |
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Oct 16, 2009 19:16
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I have a BEng (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Currently working as a design/project/commissioning engineer for a small company that makes human driven and automatic process robots for foundry and forge applications. So far it has been good, there's a fair bit of travel involved and the work is always interesting. Programming robots in an automated forge system was pretty scary after only working for the company for a few weeks, but it was rewarding. Engineering at its simplest is just problem solving, and there are always new problems to solve. I like working for a smaller company (bigger cog etc), and always getting to work with different people when travelling to different jobs (98% of the machinery we make is exported, to all continents). I was offered work in the defence-related industries (QinetiQ and Selex) but am still confident in my career decision at the moment.
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Oct 16, 2009 21:33
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I got a bachelors and masters in nuclear engineering, and now I work at a national lab. The pay is acceptable, my boss/coworkers are good people and its rock solid job security but I am not really happy with it. Stuff like the picture on my avatar - never see it. Getting dressed up in PPE ("radiation suit") and going into hot area - nope. Almost anything remotely hands on is done by technicians in a different building. The following three pictures are the sort of thing that was sold to me by my academic cheerleaders:    This picture below is my reality. Just picture this scene every single day, only throw in some empty redbull cans. Its just me and microsoft word, excel and some other text based software such as MCNP.  I don't mean to sound too negative, but I am totally and completely unexcited about something I used to love, staring at a computer all day eats my soul. If I did not have so much student loan debt Id go back to school to do something else.
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Oct 19, 2009 02:17
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frr posted:I got a bachelors and masters in nuclear engineering, and now I work at a national lab. The pay is acceptable, my boss/coworkers are good people and its rock solid job security but I am not really happy with it. drat, dude. Can't you apply for the cool jobs?
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Oct 19, 2009 02:39
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Yeah, I'm on the lookout for something that may be a better fit since I spend 1/3 of my life working...
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Oct 19, 2009 02:45
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SubCrid TC posted:I'm a structural engineer. I generally work industrial stuff, and at the moment it's mostly oil and gas. Sooo, I'm the second structural on here. I'm more in the skyscraper/stadium/hospital business, with most of my stuff being with high-rise hospitals, though. My cubicle's cooler than frr's cubicle, though. We have to look all hotsy for the architecture-types. Currently am trying to figure out how to fortify UTMB's Galveston medical school/hospital campus against five feet of standing water and hurricane-force winds. It's tricky. I have 'til next Monday to figure it out and write the report.
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Oct 19, 2009 03:04
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frr posted:Yeah, I'm on the lookout for something that may be a better fit since I spend 1/3 of my life working... Can you at least put up some pictures or something? That looks depressing
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Oct 19, 2009 04:01
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frr posted:Yeah, I'm on the lookout for something that may be a better fit since I spend 1/3 of my life working... Take a pay cut and be a technician. I'd guess you'd have a major advantage over the other applicants.
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Oct 19, 2009 07:45
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frr posted:
This is what engineers do, though; a lot of time is spent at a desk doing "engineering." And writing. Emails, reports, requesting information, etc. Lots and lots and lots of writing. grover fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Oct 19, 2009 |
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Oct 19, 2009 12:01
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frr posted:I don't mean to sound too negative, but I am totally and completely unexcited about something I used to love, staring at a computer all day eats my soul. If I did not have so much student loan debt Id go back to school to do something else. MCNP is the most soul-sucking program I've dealt with in nuclear engineering.
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Oct 19, 2009 16:44
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I have a couple questions about the Engineering field and I could use advice from you guys who are currently in an Engineering program at a University or who have already graduated. I recently graduated from a University with a bachelors in philosophy. I am very happy I went through with this degree, however, I am discovering that my career plan (software development) is not really the path I want to pursue. I have attained the position and after working for a couple years I want something more, also something that pays better and is more interesting. I love the problem solving part of it but I don't like the 40-50 hrs/week of computer screen staring involved. After some consideration and some excitement drummed up by this thread I am considering going back for another Bachelors, but this time in Engineering. I am leaning towards Electrical Engineering as it involves a lot of problem solving but also involves some non-'screen staring' work as well. I guess my questions for you guys are: -Is taking an accelerated Bachelors (3 years) to get an engineering degree insane? -What are some of the defining characteristics of your work compared to other types of engineering. Contrast Mechanical, Environment, Electrical, etc. -Can any Engineers tell me the types of careers involved with Environmental Engineering and what kind of things does this major focus on. -What should I expect when going back to school... Can I hold a 30hr/week job and finish this program in 3 years? -Is the school that I attend all that important for the degree?
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Oct 19, 2009 19:05
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Dangbe posted:I guess my questions for you guys are: Possible if you take classes over summer and intersession, but you might have issues with scheduling, as some courses must be taken in a particular order but aren't offered every semester. Since a lot of your philosophy credits should count towards your engineering degree, it might not even be as bad as this. -What are some of the defining characteristics of your work compared to other types of engineering. Contrast Mechanical, Environment, Electrical, etc. I went for a multidisciplinary degree that combined them all. It was tough, but I'm a very well rounded engineer because of it, and can speak authoritatively in a large number of areas. Each have their specialties and specialized mathematics. Subdisciplines get even more specialized. Hard to really compare. Rest assure, there will be a lot of math in school. -What should I expect when going back to school... Can I hold a 30hr/week job and finish this program in 3 years? If you sacrifice all else, yes. But you'll probably hate life. Most people do internships in between semesters instead. If you can swing a lab job where you can pretty much sit and study while waiting for experiments to finish, might work out pretty well. -Is the school that I attend all that important for the degree? Somewhat. MIT looks a lot better on a resume than Regent University, but most schools fall in the middle where it really doesn't matter much. grover fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Oct 19, 2009 |
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Oct 19, 2009 19:39
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Dangbe posted:I guess my questions for you guys are: I know several people who got their Bachelor's in engineering (chemical, that is) in three years. It's definitely doable if you put your nose to the grindstone. I would be very skeptical of anyone's ability to hold down a 30 hr/week job and pursue an engineering degree full-time (or more than full-time in the case of a 3 year degree), in part because of the sheer amount of time needed, but also due to scheduling. I don't know of any engineering programs that offer night-time classes or a substantial amount of summer classes, and certainly not enough to be full-time.
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Oct 19, 2009 20:05
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Dangbe posted:I guess my questions for you guys are: How many courses do you need to take? And how good are your connections? Will you be going to job fairs, or will you be interviewing with people who know and like you?
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Oct 19, 2009 21:54
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falcon2424 posted:How many courses do you need to take? I do not know anyone in the field so I would be going the Internship / Co-op / Job fair route. My Dad was an Engineer/Inventor of sorts, but he was in the Medical Device field, but I don't think that would help with the direction I want to go with my engineering degree (see below). As for the number of classes it looks like it will be 26ish, quite a few of them 4 credit courses. So at 4/5 classes a semester it would take 3 years if I stick to the Spring/Fall semesters (I would probably take summer courses if it ended up being the economic choice). More Info: I am specifically interested in alternate energy creation. So after doing a lot of reading today I was thinking Power/Mechanical Engineering, but I don't know if that's a viable major. Some sources point to mechatronics as being the major that deals both with Electrical and Mechanical but I am not sure if I will be able to focus enough on Power Engineering in this major. Maybe do Power Engineering for Bachelors and go for more schooling in Mechatronics afterward? edit: Does this sound more like something Environmental Engineering would cover? I guess a lot of this depends on my drive as a student to actually go for this degree, I am just looking for why this might be a mistake as I will definitely rack up a very large amount of student loans. Also if you know of any engineering scholarships stupid enough to fund a second-time undergrad that would be very helpful! Any other tips on how to make this cheaper for myself is welcome, though this isn't really the thread for this. I should start a thread "Help me get an Engineering degree! (Should I even get one?)" haha. Thanks for the responses by the way. Dangbe fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Oct 19, 2009 |
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Oct 19, 2009 22:19
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Dangbe posted:-Can any Engineers tell me the types of careers involved with Environmental Engineering Hahahaha Your choices are unemployment or soul-crushing EPA/state EPA paperwork. I seriously don't know a happy environmental engineer.
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Oct 19, 2009 23:07
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Dangbe posted:I do not know anyone in the field so I would be going the Internship / Co-op / Job fair route. My Dad was an Engineer/Inventor of sorts, but he was in the Medical Device field, but I don't think that would help with the direction I want to go with my engineering degree (see below). My experience (BSc Engineering-Physics) was that 3 engineering/math courses a semester was a ton of time on engineering. Doing 4-5 engineering/math courses in a semester would have driven me crazy. (And I averaged ~18 credit hours/semester) The other problem is that, while an engineering degree is nice, I suspect you'll also want something that makes you stand out as a candidate. If you had great contacts, then you'd be able to check this box. Otherwise, you're going to want a great GPA and/or research experience. But, it sounds like you're really leaning towards the 3 years. So, start of doing that. If it's not too horrible, great. If it makes you go sleepless and crazy, drop a couple classes and take a 4th year. Dangbe posted:More Info: You can program, you're motivated, older, and have specific goals in mind. These are all great things that will make you more interesting to professors. So, I'd give the college a call, explain your specific interest, and then ask if there are any professors doing alternative energy at the university. Go talk to them and ask these questions. This'll help you get the questions answered. More importantly, it will put you on the radar of people who can invite you to help out with cool alternative energy research. Graduating with a degree + research experience + good letters would be really awesome.
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Oct 19, 2009 23:53
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I royally hosed myself hard the last two semesters and dropped my GPA to ~2.25 at the end of my sophomore year. Because of this I've no hope of getting any kind of intern/coop because every one I see requesting Nuclear Engineering has minimum GPA requirements that I don't meet. Should I just switch majors now, or try to claw my way back up and hope that by the end of the next 2/3 years I'll be an attractive candidate for a job? I just really don't want to work my rear end off in this awesome major if at the end I'll have to look outside the field for any kind of employment. Does anyone have any advice for this stupid kid?
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Oct 20, 2009 00:55
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