Switch major from engineering

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC says he wants to major in engineering. His math is great, science interest….a little tepid. Good writer/pretty even (high) on standardized testing.

My wonder is - if he gets a year in and wants to change (many do, right?) what are some natural things to switch to? I’m not sure but if it matters I think he’s not a finance bro/more interested in interesting work than making money.

Any thoughts on what a natural next thing to try could be?

Is he starting college soon or still in high school? If still in high school encourage something else or only schools with easy transfer out. Engineering is a lot of physics for almost all engineering types, and usually chemistry as well. If he did not like high school science not sure Engineering will fit.

[Anonymous]

My kid switched to theater, so you just never know. I know another kid who switched from biomed to screen writing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not math?

Are you referring to Pure Math or Applied Math? Besides teaching, what are the career prospects for math majors with just a bachelor's degree.

[Anonymous]

Engineering is hard! My kid just graduated from an Ivy and we were shocked to see most kids who had come in wanting to be Engineering majors (ABET accredited) had switched to “Engineering Sciences” which is not ABEt accredited. Was kind of crazy to read!

I think OP is wise to help sin think ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC says he wants to major in engineering. His math is great, science interest….a little tepid. Good writer/pretty even (high) on standardized testing.

My wonder is - if he gets a year in and wants to change (many do, right?) what are some natural things to switch to? I’m not sure but if it matters I think he’s not a finance bro/more interested in interesting work than making money.

Any thoughts on what a natural next thing to try could be?

Humanities and then a career where he spends the rest of his adult life wondering why he didn't stick with Engineering.

Why so negative? DD started aerospace engineering at UVA and switched to politics I. Sophomore year. Now at Yale Law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Switching to Physics or to Engineering Physics (at some colleges that is an actual degree). would be an obvious option within STEM.

DC has the math skills and ought to do fine in engineering or Physics.

My engineering program made the Physics Dept cram 4 semesters of in-major Physics classes - at the same depth - into just 3 semesters. Physics faculty really griped about this.

If ain’t cuttin engineering he ain’t cuttin physics…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not math?

Are you referring to Pure Math or Applied Math? Besides teaching, what are the career prospects for math majors with just a bachelor's degree.

quantitative finance and consulting(specifically tech consulting) are what they do with math degrees after kid's ivy, if not going to phd, med, law.

[Anonymous]

I switched to Econ because the business school was a whole separate process. Be aware that Engineering can be hard and at least back in the day, the average gpa was a 2.7 at my top 10 engineering school. This didn't matter if you stayed in Engineering. You could still get hired. Employers understood the school. But if you wanted to transfer to another college in the University, you needed to have a minimum gpa. I think it was 3.3 or something. A lot of my classes fulfilled the econ requirements though.

[Anonymous]

I know a lot of engineering majors who switched to something business-y.

I know a lot of pre-meds who switched to pre-law or psychology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I switched to Econ because the business school was a whole separate process. Be aware that Engineering can be hard and at least back in the day, the average gpa was a 2.7 at my top 10 engineering school. This didn't matter if you stayed in Engineering. You could still get hired. Employers understood the school. But if you wanted to transfer to another college in the University, you needed to have a minimum gpa. I think it was 3.3 or something. A lot of my classes fulfilled the econ requirements though.

I went to an engineering school and the whole school curved to a 2.7 so you couldn't even use non-major courses to try to bring up your GPA.

[Anonymous]

In selecting colleges, it would be beneficial to know if weeding-out students was just because the college doesn't have the teachers and resources to allow more students to continue in the major. Are grades distributions established in order to eliminate 50% of the class regardless of competency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I switched to Econ because the business school was a whole separate process. Be aware that Engineering can be hard and at least back in the day, the average gpa was a 2.7 at my top 10 engineering school. This didn't matter if you stayed in Engineering. You could still get hired. Employers understood the school. But if you wanted to transfer to another college in the University, you needed to have a minimum gpa. I think it was 3.3 or something. A lot of my classes fulfilled the econ requirements though.

I went to an engineering school and the whole school curved to a 2.7 so you couldn't even use non-major courses to try to bring up your GPA.

did you go to Michigan?

[Anonymous]

Actuarial studies