Transfering into Engineering?

[cilosyb]

I've become dismayed with my current academic environment. My teachers don't put a lot of effort into their classes, my peers are either disinterested or functionally retarded, getting great grades is hardly challenging, and I have a more solid idea what I'm after career-wise. I've been pursuing an Econ/Finance degree, a subject which I enjoy academically, but am not overly interested in as a career, at least insofar as the opportunities available to me from my current school would realistically dictate.

Really, I just want to live out in the country, but don't want to live ALL hardscrabble like. The two good options I see are either working in hydro plants or in oil & natgas production (which pays well and offers abundant time off). Since I have the opportunity to go to school as long as I want, I've been thinking about pursuing an engineering degree, either in mechanical or petroleum engineering, to give me a path into some of the more desirable positions within these industries.

Friends working in both capacities have told me that this is likely overkill for the work I want. But in today's employment environment, its hard for me to see how you can get in where you want without an edge of some sort. Part of the reason I'm interested in going this direction is also the challenge of it. I really like school when its stimulating, I like to work hard, and want get something useful out of my education, which I don't feel like ATM.

My first concern is that I don't want to be in school forever. I don't have much background in the core engineering subjects (chem, physics, calc). It'd probably take at least 3 years if I started today. This would be a big setback, as I could finish what I'm doing now in about a year. On the other hand, I'm still young enough that this is probably the time to make up my mind. Plus, engineering seems like it leaves a lot of doors open if I ever wanted to do something else, as well.

I'm not looking for anyone to tell me what I should do, but I'm curious if anyone has done anything like this or has any insights for me.

 

[rant*N*rave]

Mechanical engineering is probably what you want. That being said, it is a very difficult major, and my best friend dropped out of it and switched to English (got her graduated the fastest), and I know lots of people that have dropped out of all of the engineering majors.

If you have no core classes, I would highly recommend that you take a good, honest look at your mathematical/chemistry abilities, because many people drop out of those kinds of majors at calc or dynamics or organic chemistry, etc. They are challenging classes, even at the earlier levels, so you really have to want to do well to do well. You say you like challenges, so this probably won't be a huge issue for you, even if you're a little behind, but you should definitely take that potential problem seriously - most schools require a reasonably high minimum GPA to graduate, so grades do count...

If you really don't want to do finance or anything related, I would STRONGLY advise you switch majors. It would suck ass to be graduating with a degree that couldn't possibly get me into the industry I'm interested in (and that's why I chose the biochem program at my school, because it is the most widely applicable science major). My friend left mech e because it wasn't really what she wanted to do, and it was stupid to take such hard classes for a degree she didn't need or want. If i were just going to give you an answer with no further thought, I would say switch.

 

[An Iz]

I like what R&R said about checking whether you have the abilities first. On top of that, I'd recommend checking out some of the fields before you take them up officially, to see if you're really interested in them. To that end, I'd recommend:

1) Looking at chapters which interest you in Feynman's freshman physics lectures. Skimming them can give you an overview of where particular subjects (chemistry, electronics) fit in relation to the rest of the physical world as we understand it. I think that is a good first step.

2) Then get a book on whatever subject from the library or isohunt.com, read the first chapters and work the problems.

If you can actually work through two chapters of chemistry on your own (100% doable) you can be 88% sure you're on a good track for yourself. If you don't want to check chemistry, download matlab and use it to play with a chapter or two from a liner algebra. You'll need linear algebra for any engineering, and you can draw fractals with matlab too.

It is possible to engage yourself in these subjects and get a big headstart if you're learning them for yourself, because you see how they inform your understanding of the world, which changes how you learn. (Much more efficient than doing something because a teacher told you to).

3) Understand that you're really going to change your social atmosphere by choosing to be an engineer.


If you know you can do it, and are willing to work, def change your major.

ed: This link points to a PDF of the lectures I was talking about. And here are some youtubes of the guy if you're curious. He worked on the atom bomb!

 

[cilosyb]

Thanks for the replies (and links), I really appreciate the insights. I think I will indeed test out the waters before I go balls out on this. It could really be a bad move to drop everything I've accomplished so far, transfer somewhere else, and then find that it was a lot different than anticipated or wasn't for me, especially with the time horizon it'll require to make headway in that direction.