Alternatives to engineering major?

[Anonymous]

math in Economics if kids want to take higher level Econ courses. Since the major is often housed under social sciences, people forget that. Take statistics. Understand it to do well.

[Anonymous]

Applied math

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid committed to a D3 with no engineering major. Plans to major in physics and then grad school in engineering.

Depending on what he wants to get his MS in, he's going to have to do a lot of catching up with that plan.

[Anonymous]

My son loves math, wasn't interested in engineering. At VT he majored in "Computational Modeling & Data Analytics", essentially a blend of CS, Applied Math, Statistics. Had multiple data science job offers at graduation.

When applying to other colleges he indicated that he'd major in statistics or applied math.

[Anonymous]

Physics majors are very employable in the current environment. Wall Street, defense, aerospace, the intelligence community, Silicon Valley… the list goes on. Physics majors tend to have the deepest quantitative skills of any major. The kind of math and computer science used in physics lends itself to the more intellectually complex algorithms in machine learning. A BS in physics can typically lead to multiple job offers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student answers “engineering” whenever asked his preferred major, but I think it’s his default understanding of what one does if they’re good at math / physics. Can anyone suggest other majors such a student should consider?

If not yet a senior, student should be looking now for a summer internship with a local tech firm, a local givernment lab that includes engineering (e.g., NIST, ARL, NSWC), or a local tech-oriented contractor (e.g., Lockheed, Northrup Grumman).

How does one find these internships?

[Anonymous]

Building construction major.

The three civil and structural engineers that I know got their general contracting license as there is no money in civil and structural and a lot higher income if you are a general contractor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student answers “engineering” whenever asked his preferred major, but I think it’s his default understanding of what one does if they’re good at math / physics. Can anyone suggest other majors such a student should consider?

Radiologist
Tech consulting
General tech industry (physics major)
Innovation technology: start a company
Medical research (MDphD for the top)
Stem research and development (phD if you want to run the research)
Scientist in industry, midlevel(MS needed)
Professor
Quantitive finance

How in the world do you get radiologist from this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Physics majors are very employable in the current environment. Wall Street, defense, aerospace, the intelligence community, Silicon Valley… the list goes on. Physics majors tend to have the deepest quantitative skills of any major. The kind of math and computer science used in physics lends itself to the more intellectually complex algorithms in machine learning. A BS in physics can typically lead to multiple job offers.

This sounds completely made up. The engineers at my undergrad took more math classes, progressing further, than the physics majors.

Physics majors will also be paid less than a student with an engineering degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Physics majors are very employable in the current environment. Wall Street, defense, aerospace, the intelligence community, Silicon Valley… the list goes on. Physics majors tend to have the deepest quantitative skills of any major. The kind of math and computer science used in physics lends itself to the more intellectually complex algorithms in machine learning. A BS in physics can typically lead to multiple job offers.

This sounds completely made up. The engineers at my undergrad took more math classes, progressing further, than the physics majors.

Physics majors will also be paid less than a student with an engineering degree.

It's common for physics majors to delve into math subjects like real analysis and Lie algebra. Did your engineering friends take these?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student answers “engineering” whenever asked his preferred major, but I think it’s his default understanding of what one does if they’re good at math / physics. Can anyone suggest other majors such a student should consider?

If not yet a senior, student should be looking now for a summer internship with a local tech firm, a local givernment lab that includes engineering (e.g., NIST, ARL, NSWC), or a local tech-oriented contractor (e.g., Lockheed, Northrup Grumman).

How does one find these internships?

Put together a 1 page resume now. At the very bottom, clearly state either US Citizen, US Permanent Resident, or whichever visa makes the student eligible for employment in the US.


Keep watching various company websites for summer internship openings to be advertised and then apply.

In a normal year, the government lab internships will get posted at USAjobs.gov for a week or two in the fall. Different labs will have different dates. Often a given lab only will accept applications for about a week. This might not be a normal year, so also maybe try to improvise.

Also look at:
"https://www.navalsteminterns.us/seap/"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Physics majors are very employable in the current environment. Wall Street, defense, aerospace, the intelligence community, Silicon Valley… the list goes on. Physics majors tend to have the deepest quantitative skills of any major. The kind of math and computer science used in physics lends itself to the more intellectually complex algorithms in machine learning. A BS in physics can typically lead to multiple job offers.

This sounds completely made up. The engineers at my undergrad took more math classes, progressing further, than the physics majors.

Physics majors will also be paid less than a student with an engineering degree.

It's common for physics majors to delve into math subjects like real analysis and Lie algebra. Did your engineering friends take these?

My undergrad had an advanced math class that came after the standard math series that was a catch all of different advanced math topics that are helpful for engineering. Unfortunately the title is something like "advanced math for engineering" and it doesn't have a syllabus online. Not super helpful as a message board example. But Case Western has clearly posted their degree requirements, so I'll use it as an example.

CWRU's physics major stops at Diff Eq: https://share.google/3agXTvKBMkG0SaoS5

CWRU's Electrical Engineering degree also only requires Diff Eq but additional math classes, including Linear Algebra, are recommended as technical electives: https://share.google/PBTrbplJ4qZFjk005