Is Industrial Engineering the Right Path for a Biology Major?

[maryelsol]

I'm currently majoring in biological sciences. Throughout high school I was not interested in engineering because of a misconception. Now that I looked into industrial engineering I feel that it strongly describes my interests and passions. Although I planned to go to med school, but now I'm not too sure. Engineering might be for me, but I also like my current major.

 

[ank_gl]

Industrial Engineering?? It sucks.

things till now-manufacturing machines, manufacturing processes, production system management, science of engineering manufacturing I & II

things still to come next semester-production planning, inventory control, work study, plant layout, quality control

Dammit, I am a mechanical engineering student, & still stupid subject is injected in our course.

 

[Topher925]

Industrial Engineering?? It sucks.

I can agree with that. I've taken an industrial related engineering course and it was not fun. Very dry and boring with little physics or science involved. If your more of the management and not of the science type of engineering then it might be for you.

 

[jsgruszynski]

A good friend of mine was an industrial engineer. She ended up going back to school 10 years later to an EE degree so she would be "more in the thick" of things. She did have interesting stories relating to her IE work (strictly she was an "ISE" Industrial Systems Engineer - that's what the school called the IE degree - same same).

Ironically I was an EE and rose high enough to need much of that stuff that IEs learn. I was designing marketing, sales and support processes for an engineering company, did project analysis and approval decision making, and eventually used the same information and knowledge an IE gets/has to analyze how our customers used our products in their manufacturing and this directed R&D product development priorities and directions.

I didn't go back and get an IE degree but instead got an MBA with emphasis on finance, organizational behavior, manufacturing and entrepreneurship (I probably overdid that part but I had a plan for it and it's worked out as planned).

I'd say everything that IEs do is very useful but it's useful for any specialty of engineering. It might be dicey to make it a stand-alone career choice unless you really get off on the kind of things it focuses on. That's pretty much true for any major.

 

[zaurus]

I am a mechanical engineer and took a graduate level IE course recently... I don't think I really learned anything worthwhile. Being taught how to estimate assembly times and design for xxxx is necessary, but pretty boring. Not to mention everything I learned was based purely on estimation...it takes 1 second to reach for this part, 3 seconds to do this, use this constant for this, etc. As far as cirriculum, I would say IE is pretty easy but if you want to be in the thick of things, either go ME, EE, or ChE

 

[Mech_Engineer]

You're worried about the course load and social time for an industrial engineering major, but you were planning on going to med school?