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Go with Physics or Stay in Engineering?

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Total Posts
11
piruchan
753 posts
Joined October 2013
Topic Starter
piruchan
The final decision is on me, I just want to hear what people have to say.

I always like physics, it's the only subject I fully enjoyed during high school.

But now here I am, majoring in engineering (students here choose their major before entering university). At first I thought I was going to be okay because I'm going to deal with physics more or less, but now I think that it is not for me. And I have to admit that my decision to major in engineering was mostly based on financial factors like scholarship (there's a possibility of getting full 4-year scholarship) and how engineering graduates are more likely to get a job.

It was several weeks ago when I realize that I'm more suited for physics major. And after some time looking up about physics major, I found out that a lot of physics major work on other fields. This encourages me to switch major even more because I think engineering is way too specific for my taste.

I want to know what do you guys think about this or about changing major in general. Maybe you can tell me a thing or two if you know someone who major in physics.
Hika
1,553 posts
Joined February 2010
Hika
Honestly, I only have one thing to say for this, and it was just something that has been passed on through the past few years of my life. I tell everyone who's conflicted with what major they want to select that in the end, the decision should only be because you actually like the subject and not because of the end rewards, such as if someone was feeling like they wanted to do an engineering major who favored some other subject like history and only decided to go for the former due to the financial rewards after going to school.

"Pick a major or field of study that you would enjoy for the rest of your life and make sure you look forward to doing it every morning."

Can't remember who told me, probably an uncle or another family member of mine, but I had always been conflicted on what to do in college. I only recently decided to pick up physics as another major, or at least hopefully am able to keep it as another major, because of my heightened interest of it. Just think of it like this, would you be willing to wake up every morning of your life loving physics or engineering more? Honestly, I'd think that it would be proper to choose what you're more interested in, and as I said, not focus on the end factors.

Personally, if you want to do both, at least try to minor in physics, it doesn't hurt to do it. As long as they go hand in hand, it really doesn't hurt to pursue both, unless you think it interferes with the time you'll graduate.

Interesting topic though /infinite bump
Athrun
1,049 posts
Joined December 2013
Athrun
Choose something you are more interested. :D
Oinari-sama
osu! Alumni
3,403 posts
Joined July 2010
Oinari-sama
Think about what you wanna do after graduate.

You're right in saying that Engineers need to understand Physics, but there's major difference between the two (from personal experience):

Physicists study. If your goal after graduation is to do research and learn what makes the universe tick, then stick with physics. If research isn't your thing then make sure you are good at programming/maths as employers generally look for those quality in a physics graduate (otherwise they would've picked CSE graduates instead). If you don't mind sales/maintenance you could go into instrumentation specialist route too.

Engineers apply physics to solve problems. Engineers don't care why gravity works in the way it works, they are more interested in how it'll affect the problem at hand (eg how much thrust/fuel is required for launching rockets into orbit). If you are more interested in what makes gravity behave this way (eg what's graviton) then you may find engineering disappointing somewhere down the track. Otherwise, engineering can give you a tangible feeling that you're making an immediate difference to the world (or immediate consequences if you screw up the calculations).

These are just opinions based on my personal experience, take it with a grain of salt and think about it ;)
[Bystander]
243 posts
Joined December 2013
[Bystander]
Sounds to me like you should go with Physics :)
Shiro
Global Moderator
4,984 posts
Joined May 2009
Shiro
Engineering is nothing about physics at all. Go with physics.

<- physics major here
piruchan
753 posts
Joined October 2013
Topic Starter
piruchan

Oinari-sama wrote:

Physicists study. If your goal after graduation is to do research and learn what makes the universe tick, then stick with physics. If research isn't your thing then make sure you are good at programming/maths as employers generally look for those quality in a physics graduate (otherwise they would've picked CSE graduates instead). If you don't mind sales/maintenance you could go into instrumentation specialist route too.
What about teaching high school?

Shiro wrote:

Engineering is nothing about physics at all. Go with physics.

<- physics major here
A physics major! Mind telling me how is it like being a physics major? I know it depends on the university, but how is the workload?
silmarilen
5,579 posts
Joined February 2010
silmarilen

piruchan wrote:

Oinari-sama wrote:

Physicists study. If your goal after graduation is to do research and learn what makes the universe tick, then stick with physics. If research isn't your thing then make sure you are good at programming/maths as employers generally look for those quality in a physics graduate (otherwise they would've picked CSE graduates instead). If you don't mind sales/maintenance you could go into instrumentation specialist route too.
What about teaching high school?
if your goal is teaching highschool then you honestly dont need a physics major, the things you learn(/teach) in highschool are completely different from the things you learn in university.

highschool is boring, incomplete, classical physics.
university is relativity, quantum physics, differential equations, linear algebra (puke)
and even the things like mechanics have differences.

if you are actually interested in physics then i highly suggest against aiming for anything related to teaching in highschool.

Shiro wrote:

<- physics major here

Hika wrote:

I only recently decided to pick up physics as another major, or at least hopefully am able to keep it as another major, because of my heightened interest of it.
hi5
Oinari-sama
osu! Alumni
3,403 posts
Joined July 2010
Oinari-sama

piruchan wrote:

What about teaching high school?
If your goal is teaching, then definitely follow your passion. It's very hard to teach something you're not passionate about.
Hika
1,553 posts
Joined February 2010
Hika

Oinari-sama wrote:

If your goal is teaching, then definitely follow your passion. It's very hard to teach something you're not passionate about.
^ I second that.
Also physics is pretty damn great if you ask me, as long as you love the material, it shouldn't be an issue.
Like right now, I currently am not able to pick up either of my physics classes, but I enjoy studying it, reading about it and doing any type of physics+mathematical hybrid problem. So again like I said, just pick physics if you're passionate about it.

+ Physics is just really, really good. I'm sure if you do have issues, you can bug some people around forums if it's going to be a difficult path for you :P
felicitousname
27 posts
Joined May 2014
felicitousname
It really depends, if you wanna work in industry, 99% of the time, an engineering degree will be better. If you wanna work as a researcher or in academia, a physics degree is better.

Overall, an engineering degree is *probably* better if you're unsure what you want to do. It's ok to do decently in engineering and graduate, but if you graduate only decently in physics, it's probably a lot harder to find a job.

Overall, if you have a huge passion for one, go for that one. Otherwise I'd say go with engineering.

Physics is probably going to be harder if you pick the courses that you should take as a physics major.

Btw, specificity of a degree shouldn't be a problem, as you'd likely have to specialize somewhere in physics as well.
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