A lot of people go into engineering not knowing what it actually entails. I am a physics grad student who used to ta a lot of engineering students for physics 1 and 2. I had a lot of students say they dont like doing math or physics in general. Which is the entirety of engineering.
Unfortunately a lot of people choose majors based on hearing about the income and not what work they actually want to do.
I am the exact opposite for chemistry. I learn a lot of the math part of chemistry in physics so i can do that. But chemistry would be bad for me because I dont have the memory for it. Physics is just remembering behaviors and laws. Chemistry has too many specific reactions, conventions, and exceptions for me to remember.
Oh some of my students right now are premed so I have a glancing preview. Anatomy is beyond my ability to remember well (partly because my organs are mirrored so when I learn anatomy, I relate it to me and then forget what side an organ is supposed to be on and which side mine is on).
Anatomy is easy if you learn Latin (a classic smart doc hack) because the names are just literal description in Latin. But then you got all the mnemonics and acronyms and safety protocols … and then, when you finally graduate, everyone is always asking you to look at their crack.
I’ve had three students decide to go chem engineer; one got a career at BASF making car paint, another went home to work at his $billion family farm, another got a job a Lily.
Sucks because now engineering incomes aren't considered that great anymore. Which further discourages people to study in topics they would be strong in/interested in versus chasing income.
Ya, im glad I never chose based on income. I just like math and science a lot so initially did engineering then swapped when I realized I wanted to know how something works rather than how to make something (sorta reductive but accurate for depth).
Certainly not choosing for income. My aim is to be a professor.
Looking at some of the rates for the types of engineering out there can be so disheartening. I got into structural engineering for the love of the game, and it feels like important work. It’s also far riskier than some of the other disciplines. It’s a running “joke” in my office that if a roadway engineer makes a mistake, they create a pothole. If an environmental engineer makes a mistake, they create a pothole. If a structural engineer makes a mistake, they create an obituary.
But damn, does our pay suck. A 10-year engineer in roadway will make about 30% more than a 10-year engineer in structural, and for the last two years, all the roadway work has pretty much been just widening highways, which I’m firmly against.
Sometimes I think about how easy it would be to just switch disciplines and make more money for less risk, and all I would have to do is compromise my morals to contribute to one of the biggest problems in public infrastructure in this country.
Not to say it isn’t one of the easiest courses in engineering, it’s pretty fundamental, but it’s reductive to say it’s an inherently easy class.
There’s a learning curve to it, and I can see how some non-visual learners would struggle to pick up the foundation fast enough to keep pace with the course. I chewed up and spat out any kind of statics or structural analysis courses, but a lot of my friends struggled with it. Similarly I was helpless with any kind of biology or chemistry. Some things come easy to some people, other things don’t.
I think you misunderstood my comment. I literally start by saying statics is one of the easiest and most fundamental courses in engineering. That doesn’t make it an “easy” course for everyone.
Oh boy. How do I explain the concept of subjectivity to you?
How about this: An Ollie is one of the simplest tricks to pull off in skateboarding. That doesn’t make it an “easy” thing to do for just anyone.
Or a V3 is considered a beginner difficulty in bouldering. Most people are going to struggle to do a V3 route if it’s they’ve only been climbing for a few weeks.
Is it a hard class comparatively to other engineering classes? Of course not. Is it going to come easy to everyone who takes it? Also no. And saying that it is, is exactly why it’s reductive to call it “easy”. Biology 1 is an “easy” course. I fucking sucked at it, and I’m sure you sucked at an “easy” class, too.
I think statics is just hard because it's a fairly new way of thinking. Once you get over that hurdle it's easy. I never studied in it and only did like half the homework, but was over the class average on every test. I think it was just easier for me to adapt to the methods because the thinking in statics is how I already worked out most physical problems.
I don't think it needs to be a competition. I feel like systems engineering is really different than structural engineering and some people may have an aptitude for one and some people may have an aptitude for the other.
Also, I'm asking if this person took statics. A lot of people in this thread read statistics and I'm trying to ensure we're talking about the same class.
I'll admit that I do not like when things move. Earthquakes have ruined THAT for me, though (what I'm saying here, in case not clear, is that civil engineers do deal with dynamic loads).
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u/ShutYourDumbUglyFace 1d ago
Have you taken statics?