I recently applied, and selected Civil Engineering as my first choice major. However, I've recently given some thought to Mechanical Engineering.

Could any engineers give some advice?

I make good grades in physics and calculus in high school, so course difficulty will *hopefully* not be too big of an issue.

And I know that I probably have a lot of time to decide. It probably wouldn't be too hard to switch to any engineering degree after freshman year?

Thanks.

You won't see any difference in classes between Civil, Mech, or Aero in the first year. Sophomore year you'll have classes that start to specialize, but will still transfer over. Second semester sophomore year is when you get to a point that you'll have to take extra classes if you change majors (for the most part).

quote:

---

I make good grades in physics and calculus in high school, so course difficulty will *hopefully* not be too big of an issue.

---

Thanks for the laugh!

Seriously, I'm a CVEN major graduating in December (whoop!). The first 1.5 years are pretty much the same for CVEN and MEEN. I actually switched from MEEN to CVEN. It was the specialties that convinced me. The CVEN specialties (water resources, structures, transportation, geotechnical, materials, etc.) sounded much more interesting to me than the MEEN specialties (hv/ac, fluids, etc.). I don't regret it. CVEN involves mostly infrastructure, while MEEN is more "moving parts."

You can't really go wrong with either one. They're very strong departments with good reputations and job placement (CVEN has had 100% for the past few years). Personally, I would wait until you actually start taking classes and get involved in the engineering societies. There's no need to rush into anything.

quote:

---

(water resources, structures, transportation, geotechnical, materials, etc.)

---

My aero 489 class is on design of a lunar base autonomous supply system. Sounds a lot more fun than water resources.

but not very applicable nor practical....

Thanks for the response, rc.

Glad I got a laugh...I guess.

You got a laugh, because no matter what you did in HS or how much of a hotshot you think you are, unless you are someone who might cure cancer in the future, the A&M college of engineering(minus CS and ID which arent real engineering majors of course) will humble you at some point.

After your first two years, all of the chaff (80%) will have been forced out, dropped out, or "decided that engineering wasnt for them" which really means to those of us that made it, that they quit and are trying to save face.

What I would do in your situation is understand this and do this.

1. Understand that the Civil job market has a lot to do with government projects and that you will have to be a licensed engineer to be worth anything to a firm. The good news is, that 95% of A&M civils pass the PE exam, but honestly as an ELEN I dont find civil that engrossing of a topic.

2. Civil has the most girls period! They also have some actual attractive girls, you cant understate this, because unless you get a foreign langauge or business minor, after your first two years when all the chaff is gone, you wont see any nice girls anymore in the nerd corner of campus, except for in civil. This is a huge drawback, and the harder engineering you are in, the worse it is. ChemE and ElecE have the fewest and worst looking girls, this is because they are the hardest. I promise, the easier a major is the more girls are in it and the better they look, dont ask me why, girls are smart as anyone, but it seems that pretty ones are not encouraged to be challenged academically.

3. Nothing really matters until after semester 3 in engineering anyways. ELEN/NUEN have to take Phys222 which can really blow if you get the wrong prof, if you get Adair or Church you are golden, but if you get the "rotating research prof of doom" you could be in for a rough time.

4. I cant tell you enough, MAKE FRIENDS! Find people who are smart in your classes and that you can respect that they arent lame slackers or idiots and group up with them. Do your homework with these people, study for tests with these people, sure its nerdy as hell and your jokes will start to be inside dork jokes, but this is the best way to survive. You will make solid bonds, like those who go through boot camp and share suffering. All of my good friends now are tight because we were punished the same way.

5. Go with your interests, I know you are totally going to be slammed as a freshman and not know how the hell you are going to get all of this work done. I was listening to Dr. James (EAPO) on the phone one day explaining to a mom that they intentionally give students too much work the first two years and then see who can do the most, without cracking.

However, with that said, if you are on the fence as to what in engineering you would like to do, Id say look at your HS hobbies and see what you are passionate about. In HS I liked building rockets, but I was really passionate about car and home audio. Sure enough here I am a master's student in power electronics learning about how I could build speakers and amplifiers (yes Im actually taking converter and motor courses, but they are the same deals) so you need to find what you are actually interested and tap into your inner nerd. If you cant find what is geeky that really interests you and you want to find out how it works and how you could build one, then I dont know if engineering is for you.

Hopefully that helps, Id say the same thing to any aspiring engineering student. I doubt that the college would let me publish it, but I think that my advice could really help a lot of kids.

One clarification to #3.

I meant that everyone pretty much has the same courses until semester 3, thats why nothing matters. That is unless you AP out of a lot of stuff, I had a friend come into A&M with so many credits from dual credit HS courses and AP courses that he jumped right into semester 3 of the engineering cycle.

Id advise you to take the calc AP tests and do as well as possible. Much of the engineering meat grinder here during the first 3 semesters are crappy math classes. I would not advise anyone to take math of physics courses from A&M. If you look at the hardest classes at A&M thread in this subforum, you will see that the overall most named course is phys208. This is really not because it is hard, it is just because the staff that teach it cannot teach and are pretty much worthless, especially if you get Wayne Saslow.

Ok thats all now. AP out of as much as you can, be sneaky and take math and physics classes elsewhere if you can (talk to your advisor beforehand) and then take lovely liberal arts classes here for easy As to bolster your GPA, whereas if you transfer those math and science courses or AP them, they cant hurt your GPA.

You can always switch majors if you keep your grades up.

The best way to compare MEEN and CVEN is to look at the last two years to year and half and see which courses sound interesting.

The two majors are very close until the last year and half.

Don't worry about it until after your freshman year. You'll be clumped with CVEN, MEEN, and AERO's. I'm AERO and would not have it any other way, but find what you like after your fish year then go from there. Work your ass off too.

I really appreciate all the responses.

Pick mechanical engineering.

But for real... As I understand it, mechanical engineering is certainly harder than civil, but its not as hard a chemical or electrical. A lot depends on your strengths and weaknesses (which you should use your first year to discover). I did well in cal and phys in high school and I took all those AP tests and got credit for those math and phys classes-- however, I didnt claim the credit and I took them all over again. My reasoning was: I didn't want to bank on my high school calculus and physics classes to prepare me for A&M engineering. I figured that the courses the department required would be exactly what I needed. In retrospect, I'm not sure if I would make the same decision, but at the same time I dont necessarily regret it. I made As in the classes, it was just harder to get the A than I was expecting.

Anyway, enough rambling. The people who posted above are correct. Use you first year to figure out what your strengths/weaknesses are, and most importantly, what interests you. Then you will be able to make the best decision for yourself.

Good luck!

quote:

---

I make good grades in physics and calculus in high school, so course difficulty will *hopefully* not be too big of an issue.

---

Everyone at A&M made good grades in high school. Underestimate Calculus in college and you will find yourself taking it again.

Calculus and physics are F'in evil. I thought I was smart as all get out until I hit calc 151 and phys 218. It isn't even so much the difficulty of the material as the way the tests throw a dozen different curveballs that trip you up and confuse you and rip your heart out and grind it into the dirt while laughing cruelly.

Well, it isn't quite that bad, I am passing, but DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ANYTHING. Work your tail off, don't put things off, and don't assume you can skate by on sheer intelligence or what you remember from high school.

Everyone in engineering at A&M was an overachiever in high school, and only about 15% of engr freshmen actually get an engineering degree.

I am told it gets easier after they cull the weak from the herd though. Please please let it get easier....

quote:

---

Please please let it get easier....

---

I've been saying that for four years.

quote:

---

Please please let it get easier....

---

The only easy in engineering is the break between semesters. But if you picked a major that you like, the upper-level courses will be more interesting. The projects will be harder though. I can say that after taking all my CVEN classes, I'll never look at the world the same way. I'm pretty sure that's what A&M wanted.

Oh, if I could offer some more advice:
Don't be in a rush to graduate. You'll miss out on a lot if the only thing on your mind is the degree plan in the catalog. I came in with that mindset and nearly got burned out. A&M has a million opportunities available to its students that few schools can match. Take advantage of them (ie. co-op, study abroad, undergrad research, etc.)

It doesnt get any easier, sorry to disappoint.

The only thing that the first two years does it make you get used to the beatings.

By the time you graduate, you should be used to achieving the impossible in very little amounts of time, having limited amounts of available data. Im pretty sure thats what they want you to be good at.

Regardless, the beatings dont change, infact, the beatings may increase in intensity, you just get used to them and by the end you are numb to how life is supposed to be and you are used to tossing all your life away sitting in Zachry, or in my case now, Wiesenbaker ;/

As the one guy said, there are a lot of things to get involved in on campus.

1. Dont try to do the course catalog like they say, you will fail and or die, unless you came in with bukoo credits.

2. Join organizations that have nothing to do with engineering, they have multiple benefits, they help you keep your sanity, help you remain "normal" and you can meet girls there, which is useful since your courses will have none of these, at least not the kind that you might want.

Ahem, that's girl, not guy.

Sorry about that, you must understand that the guesstimate of being a guy was playing the odds, being that the board (especially not the gyn board) is 95/5 male to female.

Realize that learning in at a large university is different than HS. You will be in a classes, in the first few years, with hundreds of people taught be a prof who is there to do research and not teach. Learning in that enviroment is like taking a drink form a firehose. The material will be overwhelming and unrelenting.

The way to survive is to get a group of people to study with and work problem over and over and over again.

Also, be on the lookout for old exams, old homework, and solution manuals. They float around and using them to study can be the difference between an A and a C.

industrial distribution (more fun)

nevermind

[This message has been edited by hammer_07 (edited 12/11/2006 8:14p).]

Pick Nuclear. You'll thank me in five years.

I don't see a whole bunch of difference what discipline your degree is in. You can pretty much interchange once you get your PE.

I agree that the classes don't get easier, but they do come more naturally. You'll do better if you make the cut just because you were able to make the cut. Concur also on befriending smart folks. That helped me a bunch the semester I had 5, yes, 5 labs (taking 22 hours!)

bqce says "I don't see a whole bunch of difference what discipline your degree is in. You can pretty much interchange once you get your PE."

Strongly disagree here. Short of going back to school and starting over, don't plan on being able to jump between disciplines, as there is a big difference between civil engineering and mechanical engineering.

Pick whichever form of engineering you enjoy most, as you'll be stuck doing it for a long time. During school, mechanical will be ever so slightly harder than civil (though civil is still much harder than almost all other degrees at A&M).

More likely to get sued as a civil engineer.

Plenty of hot chem e girls. If you want a challenging, fulfilling, techincal major, be a ME (like me) or an EE. Civs and ChemEs don't hold a candle to us. Unless you want to draw pipes or design sewers.

MEs and EEs don't hold a candle to us Civs and ChemEs. Unless you want to draw air conditioning ducts or design residential house circuits.

EDIT: For the people who got their panties in a wad, read the post above this one. I'm obviously making another generalization about other majors.

[This message has been edited by Wrighty (edited 1/4/2007 8:41p).]

Design residential house circuits?? How about design completely from scratch one of the most advanced military radio communication systems in the world. Last time I checked I was an EE and that's the project my company had me working on...

It's good to see that some of you are 100% convinced that whatever you chose was the perfect fit for yourself. I've been working for 2 years after getting a BS and ME in CE (structural route) and if I had to do it all over again, I would have majored in economics with a plan of getting a MBA after working about 10 years.

Mechanical Engineers build weapons, Civil Engineers build targets!

quote:

---

t's good to see that some of you are 100% convinced that whatever you chose was the perfect fit for yourself. I've been working for 2 years after getting a BS and ME in CE (structural route)

---

ouch....

MEs and EEs get to build all the really cool stuff. Buildings, bridges, chemical plants, and refineries are a dime a dozen.

(By the way, I have never once heard of a "residential house circuit" or had to even think about designing AC ducts.)

Show me the CE/ChemE equivalent of a guidance system for a UAV or a freaking space shuttle or robots.

Oh God, here we go again. My weewee is sooooo big because I design thermo nuclear defribulators that require precisely 1.21 gigawatts of power.

The above poster is right on.

Engineering is quite broad and diverse. I think every discipline offers a variety of interesting applications. The MOST important aspect of any career is finding something that interests YOU. Whether that's designing a sky scraper, an airplane, a nuclear reactor etc...well, who cares?