Advice: How did you decide what you wanted to be when you grow up?

A little simplistic but sound: find what you enjoy, then find out of there is a way to get paid to do it. If the pay scale isn't suitable, go on to the next thing you enjoy.

The overwhelming number of people don't end up doing what they supposedly trained for in college as undergrads. Almost any degree won't hurt you, but you can do better by following your heart... with an alignment by your head!

 

I started engineering and felt the same way. My advice is get out immediately. Try to find what you like. Your only a freshman. In the unlikely event you change again, you can go back to engineering. Taking engineering courses is really horrible if you've lost interest.

In my own case I actually finished, but that had to do partly with the Vietnam war and that is a long story.

It is ok to change your mind and look for what interests you. Just because your good in math, doesn't mean you are interested in it.

Good luck.

 

My experience was like glynch's.

I entered engineering because I was strong at math also and did well enough on the SAT and JETS (do they still have those?) to gain a scholastic scholarship. That made me even less inclined to change my major, but I hated engineering.

I would still hate it.

After a year and a half of torture, I ended up in Finance and was quite surprised how math abilities can differentiate you. My earlier impressions of Finance were simplistic, but Financial Analysis is actually a complex game. Fun and challenging (for math folks). Economics was also fun, but is not as advanced a discipline as it should be, IMHO (they apply too many preconditions/caveats to get the equations to 'work').

Equity analysis (i.e. stocks analysis; both fundamental and technical) was intriguing to me, but I garduated with my MBA a few months after the crash of '87. So I went to Corporate Analysis.

Granted, you probably won't use calculus or diff-E in business, but I think analysis allows you to utilize the same brain cells.

I'm certain there are other disciplines where you can apply your math abilities also. I guess maybe I was lucky that I found what I enjoy on only my second attempt, but I'm glad I kept looking.

(FWIW, the analysis track led me into programming which I also enjoy)

 

The money issue does make it harder. Based on my experience you won't do very well in engineering if you've lost interest. It might even be very hard to maintain that scholarship as the courses get harder.

An additional problem that you might have is that just because you don't like engineering doesn't mean you know what you like. Such a dilemna is one of the reasons I limped to the finish line to complete my engineering degree. In my case I didn't realize that I really really didn't like it till half way in my junior year when I was taking virtually all engineering courses.

If you don't like it I'll think you'll feel a great sense of relief if you drop out. It is not a personal failure to do so.

Good Luck

 

I was semi-forced into my field.

I wanted to major in Journalism and be a sports writer for a major news publication. However my parents, knowing my acumen for computers, math, and science, pushed me towards computer sciene or engineering. Seeing as how I had been tinkering with computers since I was in elementary school and actually enjoyed it, that was the decision "I made."

I learned to enjoy it... but sometimes I wonder how much easier it would be for me to break into sports journalism if only I had the degree in my hand. I've applied for lots of jobs in the industry, some I've gotten (part-time from home gigs) and many I've been turned down from b/c of lack of credentials (i.e. degree in hand).

 

I went through the same thing. I knew that I didn't want to be an engineer, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. I got out of engineering, it was the first step. I started trying to figure out what I wanted to do and I really don't have it pinned down yet. All I know is that I'm happy that I'm not an engineer. It's the process of elimination form of life. Don't sweat it, look for something else(in my opinion). Some of the most interesting people you'll meet in life won't know what they want to do at 25 and won't know when they're 40. Just step back and figure out what you want out of life. It isn't that hard, just remember that you don't have to get an answer to you query.

 

I understand what you're going through. I went to an engineering school for undergrad and majored in chemistry because both of my parents were chemists. I honestly wasn't aware that I could have a career in something other than chemistry. Midway through my junior year I came to the conclusion that I hated chemistry and never wanted to see the inside of a chem lab again.

What I ended up doing was looking through my course catalog and circling all the courses that looked even vaguely interesting to me, and I found that most of those courses were in psychology. I changed my major and got a BS in psychology (with a minor in chemistry) and went to grad school in neuroscience, which combined everything I loved about chemistry with all the cool stuff from psychology.

IIRC, you mentioned that you were interested in medicine/health stuff, right? You could find all that in psychology (shameless plug). Cognitive neuroscience would let you use math and computer skills, as well as enter into a medical field, and there is a lot of work in health psychology and neuroscience looking into nutrition and metabolism.

IMO, the best thing you could possibly do is acquaint yourself with the options that are out there, and don't be afraid to change you mind and/or major as many times as necessary. You may lose some money by changing majors, but it will be worth it if you can find something that makes you happy.

 

My best advice is to expand your time frame in college. Opt for a five year plan. Instead of using two years to decide your major, extend that to three. Take as many intro type classes as interest you.

You might consider doing the dual major thing with aero space engineering and milk the scholarship money for all its worth at least as long as you can stand it

 

Sound advice from everyone so far.

I spend 6.5 years as undergrad, going through 7 different majors before finally settling on something I truly enjoyed: CompSci. I started school pretty young at 15, and thought ok, I'll major in whatever I liked best in HS --> English. Didn't like it much, so switched over to French, no future there, so jumped to History, same story.

So then I jumped to Econ/Finance, didn't like it much, and then dabbled in and out of Biology/Chemistry/Pre-Med before finally ending up in CS.

There was a study done showing that people who choose careers that they love end up far more successful than those who choose their careers based on what they THINK the financial gains will be ... so find something you can imagine yourself doing for the next 40 years.

 

This is some very good advice. Not everyone knows what they wan't to do in life from an early age, and for many of us, it is a long journey of self-discovery and a "process of elimination" as Le One said. I strongly suggest not doing anything you really dislike, because life is too short for that. Many people make comprimises, though, and have jobs that aren't necessarily enjoyable or interesting, but pay the bills effectively. I strongly recommend that you research various career fields to find out more, and get some counseling from your campus career center, if you haven't already. Oh, and have a lot of fun while you're still in college.

I was a psychology major as well and wouldn't recommend majoring in it if you are not fairly certain that you want to go to grad school, or at least major or minor in something business-oriented.
I was taking prerequisite courses recently in preparation for pharmacy school, but I couldn't get into the Organic Chemistry, I'm burned out on school, and I don't want to spend the next 4 years studying all the time.

 

I majored in Applied Sociology for two reasons. One, I was interested in the classwork. The main reason was that my last semester was a required internship, which many times led to jobs. People did all kinds of things from working in financial institutions like AIM Funds to counseling to advertising to working in politics or with sports teams. I worked with a local hockey team and was offered a job right out of college. While I didn't take it, the vast majority of my classmates did accept offers from their intern sites.

I'm not sure if UF has anything like this, but it allowed me to study something interesting for 3-4 years, then set myself up for a good chance to get a decent job in a field I chose after college.

 

Old Man: "Son, what would you like to be when you grow up?"
Young Boy: "Older."

 

After taking a bajillion different courses in college and STILL not having a major, I went to my advisor and asked, "What is the one thing, out of all the classes I've taken, that I'm closest to getting a degree in?" The answer was a BS in Public Relations and Advertising with a Minor in Fine Art (sculpture). I loved my art classes but figured I probably would have a hard time making a living in that field. I hated my PR/Adv classes, but I HAD to get out of school. Now I'm an insurance adjuster getting yelled at all the time because everyone hates the insurance companies. I hope to all hell that I'm not doing this for the rest of my life. The military was the only thing I ever wanted to do, and the Army sent me home because I have a bad back. I'm now 27 and I still have no clue wtf I want to be when I grow up.

 

"Do what you love and the $$$ will follow"...

This is the credo I live by, but so is "Things happen for a reason"...

Your parents may not agree with this decision, but you've got to live your life and do what makes you happy...

I love $$$ and after watching Wall Street "Greed is Good", I knew I had to do something with $$$...

In my careers, I've always been apart of managing the projects companies investment in..more corporate, but it all works out in the end...

Good Luck...

 

Broken Record Speaking,
I think most people in college have no clue what they're going to be when they finally get out. It's going to take me 5 and a half years to graduate because I've changed majors so much.

Here's my path to choosing a major...

Engineering - Good at Math, lots of cash, parents wanted me to do it for a while, but then I realized I wouldn't like that field.

Music - I was good at it, but realized I wouldn't make any money at it, so I didn't bother with it in HS, although I still feel I have a natural talent for music in general.

Accounting - Very good at math, but this major bored the hell out of me.

Pharmacy - Money, then I realized I sucked at science...

Hotel and Restaurant Management - I only fell into this major because I was a business student that went to UH. UH is a top 3 HRM school, so I figured a degree from there would mean more than one from the business school. After spending a year and a half here, I absolutely love this field and don't give a **** about how much money I'm going to make. I figure if you're good at something, you'll eventually be financially comfortable after some years of work.

Anyway, the moral of this story is that you just have to take a lot of classes that tap into different fields and find what interests you.

I love tropical locations, and I also love the idea of being in management. I feel that I'm actually a good leader when put in groups and I work extremely hard to perfect whatever it is I'm doing for the group. I took this to the HRM school, and now my goal is to run a resort in a tropical location...sipping on drinks with umbrellas while chilling out on the beach.

Take some general classes, you'll eventually find something that really interests you...

 

It was fate.

I got a BS in Advertising from UT-Austin in 1983, and set out to get a job at an ad agency somewhere in Texas.

Unfortunately, this was while the big oil bust was happening.

After months of looking, I got a job at a privately-held investment company.

They had an old Commodore 64 computer sitting in a corner of their office, doing nothing. Nobody in the office knew how to use it.

The rest, my friends, is history.

 

I grew up in the '50's and '60's with a stay-at-home Mom and a Dad who absolutely loved his work. He worked 60, 70, 80 hours a week because he loved it. He was a department chair at a major university (begins with an H ). There are 2 down-sides to being the kids of someone like that... the first is that you wouldn't see that much of him/her, the second is that you grow up thinking you should love your work. If you don't, your never satisfied. In my case, and my sibling's, you just kept looking.

I'm still looking.

As for "do what you love and the $$$ will follow", well, I can't argue with that. My Dad was highly successful and ended up consulting all over the world, when he could get away from the University.

 

Transfer to Mechanical Engineer while you still have a chance. You don't want to be pigeonholed as an Aerospace guy when you graduate. You'll have alot more opportunities, and plenty more recruiters will consider a guy with a broad ME background.