[Xinze]

High school senior planning to go into engineering here.
 
Can any of you veterans offer your views on what seems to be the best branch to go in? 
I strongly dislike math, but I'm pretty decent at it. All sciences besides biology are my strong point.
 
This seems like a strange place to ask, but seeing the high concentration of engineers here, someone please share their opinions?
 
I'm leaning towards Mechanical, Chemical, or Nuclear.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

High school senior planning to go into engineering here.
 
Can any of you veterans offer your views on what seems to be the best branch to go in? 
I strongly dislike math, but I'm pretty decent at it. All sciences besides biology are my strong point.
 
This seems like a strange place to ask, but seeing the high concentration of engineers here, someone please share their opinions?
 
I'm leaning towards Mechanical, Chemical, or Nuclear.

If you strongly dislike math, then I'd strongly recommend you find yourself another career. 

 

[aqsw]

I'm an accountant(almost retired) and I hate Math. My son has a statistics degree and loves Math. Everybody to their own.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

I'm an accountant and I hate Math. My son has a statistics degree and loves Math. Everybody to their own.

 
Agreed. But math and engineering are so integral one needs to love both. Otherwise, not the best career choice. I love math, science and tech, so engineering for me was a no brainer.

 

[Xinze]

Quote:

 
Agreed. But math and engineering are so integral one needs to love both. Otherwise, not the best career choice. I love math, science and tech, so engineering for me was a no brainer.

But I am pretty good at it, 98th percentile by American standardized testing system. I'm just treating it as something I'll eventually get to know and love.
 
Honestly, I only hate it because it was one of the few classes in high school that gave homework in daily, something I really didn't like doing. It's been changing for the past year though.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Just saying that being good at something isn't a good reason for a career choice. Find your passion and follow that.

 

[Xinze]

Quote:

Just saying that being good at something isn't a good reason for a career choice. Find your passion and follow that.

There really isn't anything else that I'd be interested in and also have a good future outlook.
 
Medicine is interesting and mostly science/memorization based, but I'm nowhere near hard working or studious enough for it.
How about a branch of Engineering that's relatively math light (compared to the others?)

 

[MorbidToaster]

I work a ****ty dead end retail job. I've worked full time since I turned 15. Oh, but I do a little bit of freelance IT on the side.
 
I basically just work hard and I'm really stingy...I only make 25k a year (often less). I've pretty much got a year's salary invested in my system.
 
My philosophy was always this...I'm not going to go to school for something like a liberal arts degree (which is what I really want) because I'd pile up debt and end up in the same crappy job I have now...and I wasn't going to go to school to get a degree in something I hate to get a better job, to pay off all the debt from school.
 
I really wanted to get a music theory degree...maybe even a Ph D so I could be a professor.
 
EDIT: To chime in on the Math discussion. I got a perfect score on my math SAT and I loathe it.

 

[R-Audiohead]

Student Physical Therapist here,
 
About 2.5 more years away from finally being able to practice!
 

 

[Chris_Himself]

I hate math, it feels like work. I still graduated with a 3.2GPA from San Jose State University.

But working is what makes me feel fufilled, so then theres that.

If I had it my way and I wanted to have fun for a living and do what I love, I wanted to be a marine biologist but it's not as stable financially and I don't think you can settle down as easily if you did what I thought about doing. Yes I kinda sold out, but sometimes you gotta do what you hate to fund doing the things you want to do for fun. I figure I can have both that way.

 

[gopanthersgo1]

I work a ****ty dead end retail job. I've worked full time since I turned 15. Oh, but I do a little bit of freelance IT on the side.

I basically just work hard and I'm really stingy...I only make 25k a year (often less). I've pretty much got a year's salary invested in my system.

My philosophy was always this...I'm not going to go to school for something like a liberal arts degree (which is what I really want) because I'd pile up debt and end up in the same crappy job I have now...and I wasn't going to go to school to get a degree in something I hate to get a better job, to pay off all the debt from school.

I really wanted to get a music theory degree...maybe even a Ph D so I could be a professor.

EDIT: To chime in on the Math discussion. I got a perfect score on my math SAT and I loathe it.

On your headphone system, you seem to have priorities... LOL!

 

[MorbidToaster]

Yup. I mean, you can probably tell by the degree I'd want to get (if debt were no issue) that music is absolutely the most important part of my life...So I stay debt free and just appreciate it.
 
I'd honestly really like to play the violin, too. Nothing special...just the ability to make pretty music every now and then. 
 
The dream would be a professor teaching Music Theory at a college and having my students walk in during office hours while I played my violin.
 
Quote:

On your headphone system, you seem to have priorities... LOL!

 

[gopanthersgo1]

Yup. I mean, you can probably tell by the degree I'd want to get (if debt were no issue) that music is absolutely the most important part of my life...So I stay debt free and just appreciate it.

I'd honestly really like to play the violin, too. Nothing special...just the ability to make pretty music every now and then. 

The dream would be a professor teaching Music Theory at a college and having my students walk in during office hours while I played my violin.

Seems like a fun job, where you do what you enjoy all the time, and get paid for it! We'll have to chat at the Austin meet.

 

[Xinze]

Quote:

I work a ****ty dead end retail job. I've worked full time since I turned 15. Oh, but I do a little bit of freelance IT on the side.
 
I basically just work hard and I'm really stingy...I only make 25k a year (often less). I've pretty much got a year's salary invested in my system.
 
My philosophy was always this...I'm not going to go to school for something like a liberal arts degree (which is what I really want) because I'd pile up debt and end up in the same crappy job I have now...and I wasn't going to go to school to get a degree in something I hate to get a better job, to pay off all the debt from school.
 
I really wanted to get a music theory degree...maybe even a Ph D so I could be a professor.
 
EDIT: To chime in on the Math discussion. I got a perfect score on my math SAT and I loathe it.

Wow, amazing on the math score I "only" got a 770 (darn that 1 wrong easy question!). You definitely would have gotten good scholarships to a state school though? Working part time would still have been a viable option.
 
I'm lucky enough to have my parents pay the bulk of a private tuition, with me paying back ~30k-45k loans after I graduate. But I'm pretty much stuck with a STEM major, and being Asian doesn't help convince my parents to let me change. Maybe Business, Finance, or Economics would be worth it if I made a top 15 school, but that wasn't really an option so here comes another Asian engineering among the thousands of others. 
 
I never really understand it when some people (especially obviously very capable people, like you, Morbid) choose to skip out on college. It's not mandatory by any standards, but public schools are very do-able with part time jobs and a chunk off tuition from scholarships. There has to be something there that has a decent career path that you don't despise...
 
Anyways, strange thing, two giants on head-fi, you and ljokerl, work retail. Strange coincidence.. 

 

[MorbidToaster]

I had quite a few things that prevented me from going to college. Not just my extreme fear of debt (which ties in to some of my other reasons). 
 
My parents filed for bankruptcy twice when I was growing up. They now both live with their parents (both are well into their 50s). My mother is (once again) buried in credit card debt due to a shopping (from home) addiction that developed due to depression after they divorced. My father basically stole my college fund during the divorce nonsense as well. 
 
I started working at 15 and never stopped. I had to help buy groceries while mom built up credit card debt. I moved out as soon as possible and basically had nothing for the first few years I lived on my own. 
 
While school is doable I didn't have a proper transcript either due to being home schooled the last 2 years of high school. Social anxiety has also stifled my pursuit of college somewhat. 
 
It's been rough but life is kind of starting to stabilize a little bit and I should be cutting back to part time work soon in order to do things I actually want to do instead of working a job I hate all the time. Things are looking up.
 
tl;dr - My parents are broker than broke so I'm very wary of building debt of any kind (no matter how small). 
 
Quote:

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I never really understand it when some people (especially obviously very capable people, like you, Morbid) choose to skip out on college. It's not mandatory by any standards, but public schools are very do-able with part time jobs and a chunk off tuition from scholarships. There has to be something there that has a decent career path that you don't despise...
 
Anyways, strange thing, two giants on head-fi, you and ljokerl, work retail. Strange coincidence..