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Re: I need advice from all you old fogeys
Posted By: Don the Monkeyman, on host 24.79.11.42
Date: Sunday, March 24, 2002, at 06:28:12
In Reply To: I need advice from all you old fogeys posted by Wes on Saturday, March 23, 2002, at 22:30:34:

> What should I major in in college? I like math, and up until a few weeks ago I was certain I would at least start out majoring in that, but now I'm not sure. It doesn't seem like there are jobs for math majors, and the point of going to college is to be better fit to get a job. I could major in economics, or statistics... those are close to math, and might get me a better chance of finding a job, but I'm still not sure. It's possible that I could do a double major. My college of choice has a 5 year double major program, so if I get in there I might take advantage of that. I basically just want opinions on what you think the best idea would be.

I agree with what koalamom said -- if you have that liberty, do that. If you don't have that liberty, or if you think you might be interested in a field where you have to start taking courses in it from day one (like engineering at my alma mater), I might recommend engineering to you. It's hard work, unless you get lucky like me, but tends to pay very well, and requires a LOT of math. Depending on the type of engineering you go into, you may need a fair bit of skill at physics or chemistry, but even those will mainly require more math. Based on what I have seen of your aptitudes, you'd probably make a better engineer than I do. In terms of career viability, I think electrical/computer engineering is still a very viable field and will be when you graduate. Mechanical engineering also tends to be very flexible, and hence viable, and if you want to be able to have more choice of where you will end up working, civil engineering would be very good -- every city needs civil engineers, and if I had done civil instead of chem, I would most likely have been employed six or eight months sooner. Be careful, though -- civil engineering looks deathly boring, to me, and you probably wouldn't get to do as much math in your career, although it is a good thinking/logistics type of field.

Hope this helps a bit.

Don Monkey

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