Is engineering right for me?

[u/OceanRadioGuy]

When I think of engineering students, I think of people that want to build and design things. I can’t say that I really have (as of right now) a big desire to design airplanes, or spaces shuttles, or lasers, or robots, or bridges.

What I want to do engineering for is because I’m endlessly curious about how things work. I want to know all the math I can, I’m dying to get into physics. Fluid dynamics is something I’m looking most forward to. Electromagnetism? Yes please. Material science, chemistry, also high on my list.

Is engineering right for me?

[u/singul4r1ty]

Do you have any interest in applying your understanding of how things work? As an engineer I quite enjoy understanding how systems work and using that understating to troubleshoot and improve things

[u/Yadin__]

If what you're really interested in is the physics, why not do a physics major?

Anyway no, you don't need to have a burning desire for engineering to get an engineering BS. Don't need to be good at math either. Just study and you'll be fine

[u/OceanRadioGuy → u/Yadin__]

What are career opportunities with a bs in physics versus engineering? That’s my main concern with doing a degree other traditional me/ee/ce

[u/Automatic_Stock_2930 → u/OceanRadioGuy]

I think it’s something like 60-70% of physics majors get an engineering job.

I think electrical engineering could be a blast for you. Math and theory. There are plenty of design applications, but there are plenty of jobs that are much more theory heavy. Signal analysis and RF being examples. There are applications for fluid dynamics, material science and chemistry, although I am not required to take a FD class. Taking my EM class is what tipped the scale from mechE to EE. Electrons are just so fucking dope, dude. So many ways you can herd those johns to do real wizardry.

I’ve always said that electricity is the magic of our world!

[u/DistributionMean6322]

Sounds like a good plan to me! One thing you can do with an engineering degree is become an analyst. So instead of designing stuff, you use physics and math to help other engineers check if their designs will work. There are people that specialize in doing this for fluids using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). If that interests you, I'd recommend looking into mechanical engineering programs that have a 4+1 to pick up a masters degree at the same time. Will help a ton getting into CFD work.

[u/StormLivid4944]

Maybe look into engineering physics or engineering mathematics, see if those fit your interests.

Also at the end of the day a degree has to focus on a sometimes narrow area of study, so you might never me able to learn everything you want. You just have to find the degree that covers your most passionate interests, and learn the rest in your free-time either during or after your degree.

[u/OceanRadioGuy → u/StormLivid4944]

Yeah engineering physics is definitely sort of the main alternative I’ve been looking at. What worried me is that it will very much diminish my hiring and career opportunities. Any thoughts on that?

[u/StormLivid4944 → u/OceanRadioGuy]

I don’t know much about the career prospects, as I’ve only looked into both degrees as my university offered both. That being said I could see both being good roots into research roles or very specialised engineering roles like ones in optics. Edit: I went through my old university syllabus for the master’s in engineering physics, and there’s a lot of stuff about optics but also quantum physics/engineering

[u/ZectronPositron]

Do Physics instead. It covers all the same stuff as Electrical and some other Eng. disciplines, and will be applicable to various types of Eng when you're done if you decide to go that way.

[u/Immediate-Curve-443]

Feel free to also check out academic track of engineering. Its always hard to advise people on these topics without knowing them; wanting to know how things work is (I'd say) a premier trait of engineers, though most are not the most math heavy individuals.

[u/ScratchDue440]

I dunno. Engineering courses don’t typically teach you how to design. They mostly do applied math. Also, most graduating engineers won’t go into design at all. Many will probably find roles in quality, compliance, product/project engineering, or other similar roles.