Which Engineering Major Should You Choose in College?

[Ryuk1990]

So I'm going to be a college freshman soon and I was originally planning on majoring in Computer Science. However, I'm not so sure about that anymore. I've been hearing many things that people in the CS field have to continuously learn new material since the field is always changing rapidly. I've also met a few CS majors who can't even find a job. I've also read that many companies are hiring foreigners for low wages. There is also a lot of competition since there is a lot of talent coming from India and other foreign countries.

I've also been concerned with whether software programming is for me or not. I've taken two computer programming classes during my final year in high school. I noticed that I wasn't good at programming like some of the other people in my class. Of course, I was brand new to computer programming and some of those kids had been doing it for years so I thought maybe I'd get better over time. However, over the summer I've been working on a tic-tac-toe game and I've been having trouble debugging my AI. Maybe I'm just not cut out to be a programmer. I mean, I'm having trouble completing a simple game in Visual Basic which is by far one of the easiest languages.

I've kind of been thinking that maybe I should switch to something like Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or even Electrical Engineering. All of those majors, including CS, are part of the School of Engineering at my college. The 1st semester classes are the same for all of the majors so I still have time on deciding. Civil Engineering is apparently the easiest of them. It also provides the most job security and has good pay. However, in truth, I don't really know too much about any of those majors. Does anyone know some good sites that really go in-depth into those fields? During my first semester, I'll be taking a class called Orientation to Engineering so maybe that will show me which of the engineering majors is right for me.

 

[turbo]

Generally, if you get into an engineering track, you will not be required to choose a specialty for at least a year or two, and by the time you have been in the curriculum for that period, you might have a feel for where you want to go. It would be a good idea to get together with your guidance counselors very early on, to see if you can get some co-op work in the summers to see how you fit with local industries.

If you are concerned about job security and foreign out-sourcing, it's probably not a great idea to continue in CS, but instead to consider jobs like Civil Engineering, in which your projects might be quite dependent on your location, climate, etc, and should be more geared to the skills and experience of a professional who has a track-record in similar projects. It's pretty hard to out-source the engineering of an existing bridge in a tough climate, so CE doesn't look bad, in that respect.

Good luck.