I have to declare my major in a couple terms, but I don't know which pigeon hole I'd like to select for myself. There's three I'm primarily interested in, but I'm open to suggestions.
>Chemistry
I've long been interested in synthesizing my own chemicals, and I do sterile lab-like work often and really it, and could see myself loving getting up every morning and going to work in a lab, plus, biochemitry is an extremely interesting post-grad option. The downside to this option is the terrible job market (negative growth, little room for advancement, etc)
>Computer Science
Despite it's meming on /sci/, I think it's a very viable major. I love the flexibility of it (being able to work from home, mainly, but also being able to do a broad array of different teh jobs). It's extremely employable, with interesting post-grad options like AI. Out of interest alone, this would be my second choice, just behind chemistry.
>Mechanical Engineering
This stands out to me because Mechanical Engineers go through very practical, real life education and I just feel like an engineers brain is well suited for a variety of things. It's like being educated on how to think well. Engineers aren't going anywhere anytime soon either, and the job market is ok.
>>16938150
If your interested in chemistry or computer science but insecure about the job then just do Chemical Engineering or Software Engineering.
Just take an entry level chemistry course, an entry level computer science course, a calculus course, and a physics course. Once you have experience with those things you'll be able to decide which of those classes you enjoy most, and so which major you'd be most interested in.
>>16938150
>I love the flexibility of it (being able to work from home, mainly, but also being able to do a broad array of different teh jobs). It's extremely employable, with interesting post-grad options like AI.
This is why CS is a meme now. I swear 90% of them are just doing it because they don't know what else to do and they heard it has good jobs. Mom and dad making them go to college / couldnt get jobs with their first bachelors / afraid of the math if they went for a real engineering degree. But when the actually hard stuff hits you in the spring of your junior year you're going to be hating life.
>>16940072
Your whole post describes me. I tried CS because I heared it has decent jobs everywhere. Then get slapped back to reality when I realized that I suck at programming. Don't do CS unless you really do love doing programming works OP.
>>16938150
I majored in Software Engineering and am in my last semester of my undergrad. I've seen the kinds of people who succeed in each of those programs, and the kind that fail, so I feel like I can help you out a little here.
>Mechanical Engineering
The kids who end up at the top of their class in mech are the ones who fucking LOVE trains. Or cars. Or planes--you get the point. That's not to say if you don't then you shouldn't do mech; just if you do fall into that category, then run with it 100%. Now, from what you've described, it sounds like you've fallen into the "engineers can do anything" trap. It's kinda right, to an extent, but don't expect to have your pick of any job you want after you get out of college. Sure, you'll get a good job, but 99.999% of your graduating class (yourself included, probably) will go on to work in the industry, and will be there for a number of years before you go on to something different. So you can see why it's important that you actually like trains or cars or whatever. I can count the number of engineers I know going to med school, business school, etc on one hand. All in all, if you like the work and could do it for a living, Mech Eng is a solid choice.
>Computer Science
Like what >>16940072 said, CS is definitely meme-tier if you don't put your heart and soul into it. Similarly with mech, an indicator for CS would be if you're inclined to code in your spare time. Nothing major, and it doesn't have to be right away. It took me two and a half years before I wrote something for my own personal use. On the math side of things, I feel that if you're choosing between chem, mech, and cs, you'll be fine. But there are way more math-based CS courses than you might think. I'm talking never touch a computer once type of courses. So be prepared. After a point, they'll stop teaching you how to code, and your classes will become all theory, and then your assignments/exams will all be "Implement this concept in C/Lisp/etc."
>>16940194
cont.
I find that there's a lot of learning on your own that you'll have to do in CS.
>Chemistry
I know jack shit about chemistry. But I have learned that it's deceptively difficult. It's not just the material that will get you, but it's a big time commitment, to have to go into the lab for hours on end for a single class.
>>16938150
all three are good, hard sciences is the way to go
>>16938150
>I've long been interested in synthesizing my own chemicals,
then why haven't you done it?
>It's extremely employable
spoken out your ass. do you even program?
>I just feel like an engineers brain is well suited for a variety of things. It's like being educated on how to think well. Engineers aren't going anywhere anytime soon either, and the job market is ok.
>real life
>It's like being educated on how to think well.
No offense but you sound like a moron who has rose tinted glasses on and is in for a world of hurt.
>>16940194
>The kids who end up at the top of their class in mech are the ones who fucking LOVE trains. Or cars. Or planes--you get the point.
What.
Mech-eng student at the top of his class here, no, this doesn't represent us at all. We're pretty much your standard nerds. In fact, if anything, this kind of attitude is extremely detrimental, because the reality is the work you end up doing will be incredibly random and overly specialized. You can go in all gung-ho about cars or trains or planes or whatever you want, but in the end once you get a job you will spend decades working with ball bearings. Or flanges. Or catalytic converters.
Another thing about mech-eng is that it is a field where it is so broad that they really can't teach you all that much in 4 years.Because of that getting a masters is becoming mandatory if you want to be anything more interesting than a CAD monkey. Because they have to cover so many broad concepts the uni just does not have time to go beyond surface level explanations for pretty much anything, and that doesn't leave you terribly suited for specialized work involved in making the best ball bearings in the world.
