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Hey there!
I'm a senior in high school who is about to graduate. I was accepted to Boston University's College of Engineering under Computer Engineering, and I'm having second thoughts about my declared major. I go to a slightly above average high school in Boston, and have had background in Physics I and II which deals with kinematics and electromagnetism for the most part with no calculus, where the hardest math uses trigonometry. I have taken Calculus, but nothing past integrating and deriving basic problems, nothing of the AP sort. I was just wondering if any engineers here at Head-Fi can describe their first year as an undergrad taking engineering. Will I do okay given the knowledge I have right now? Is it major even worth it with our current economy? Is it possible that American engineers will be outsourced by Indian and Chinese engineers? How was the workload?
I'm a bit late coming into this conversation, but I'll answer as best as I can (from my own experiences), though most of what I have to say has already been said.
You already say you have taken physics and some calculus so you are already at a pretty good point. Most college engineering programs are designed around having you start taking calculus and calculus-based physics right in your first semesters and are designed to get you through the program (if you follow it to the letter) in 4 years. My father is a professor of Petroleum engineering at University of Alaska Fairbanks and you would not believe how many e-mails he gets from students that try to ask him if they will be able to start an engineering program with no physics and Geometry or Level 2 Algebra as their highest math class. In my experience though, even though I finished my program in 4 years, it seems like the current trend has been to relax a little bit and complete the program in 5 years. Personally though, the first year wasn't that bad...at least at UAF it's mostly just an introduction to Engineering and a weed-out class to see who can be discouraged from engineering off the bat. The really nasty year (for me) was definitely 3rd year. That was the year that made me question my decision, but once I finished and got to 4th year, I was glad I stuck with it. So personally, with what you describe as your current knowledge level, you're gonna do just fine (IMO). Workload is heavy though. The program is heavy on lab hours no matter where you go, so between class hours, lab hours, HW and Post-Lab analysis, you aren't going to have a lot of time to yourself for 4 years. This is part of the reason so many people stretch the program out to 5-6 years these days.
With regards to engineering being worth it? As some people have stated, it's not going to make you rich. But the paycheck should keep you comfortably at middle to upper middle class, depending on what you end up working on and who your employer ends up being. As also stated by others, Engineering continues to be one of the few degrees where a Bachelors Degree still has clout in the work force. And I will also recommend: if you want to pursue a Masters/PhD, do yourself a favor and try to get a job first and work in the industry for a couple of years before going back to finish a post-graduate degree. In many cases, larger companies that employ engineers will even pay some or all of your expenses towards going back to school. I started working as a field engineer right after I graduated (Bachelors in Electrical Engineering, but working in Petroleum) and a year later, I got my company to pay for me to finish my Masters part time, (Masters in Engineering Management). Now, a year after that, I still have them on the hook to pay for me to finish a PhD which I'm working to finish while I continue to work for them.
With regards to outsourcing: already happening, and likely to continue happening. Speaking as an Indian born here in the United States, I worried about this same issue myself. Why would a company want to hire me at a certain cost to them, when they could hire an Indian or Chinese citizen Engineer for substantially less? However, there is a flip side to this that works in favor of American engineers. In previous years, you saw a lot of prospective engineers from India and China come to the US, get hired for engineering jobs and then stay in the US, thus edging out American engineers. This was especially a problem because they got paid much more as engineers here than back home and the standard of living was therefore, better here. However, with the economy in both of these regions (and many others in Asia) booming the way it is, I have spoken to many of my friends in India and many of my friends from India who came here to finish a Masters, and much of the talk these days is about going back home because the pay for engineers back home has improved substantially for them, and with what they make back home, they can afford a much higher standard of living than they could with the pay here in the US. On what I make, I still live at home with my parents (It isn't worth it for me to keep a house or apartment when I am out in the field), and I make enough to keep myself comfortable debt-free, make easy payments on the car I just bought and in general, not have to worry too much about money. A handful of my friends in India who are my age and went back after finishing their Masters already have their houses paid off, already have money placed aside to pay off their spouses education (if their spouse is still in school when they get married), and have 2 cars and the usually maid, gardener, driver, etc...With the standard of living improving elsewhere in the world, I think engineering in the USA remains a very viable option for prospective American Engineers wanting to stay home.
