Major Preferences

[silver236]

I am currently a sophomore at a junior college in Texas and about to transfer to a four-year university after this upcoming spring semester. I was considering about majoring in Business. My main goal is to become an aviator (in the Navy or Marines). The general notion is that the military prefers technical majors however, I refuse to withstand an extra year of schooling for such major as engineering. In fact, I want to have a "reliable degree" in which I am able to obtain a good paying job in case I don't get selected to become an officer through PLC or BDCP. In short, I have no clue for secondary plan if I don't make it to be a pilot in the military. Any thoughts or suggestions? I'm pretty sure some of you gyus have had the same thought.

 

[BACONATOR]

What do YOU want to major in? Do that.

 

[beaverslayer]

What do YOU want to major in? Do that.

+1. I'm majoring in Intercultural Studies. Confused about what that means? Because I still am, and the Navy was, and I still got in. Find something that you enjoy, and that you can do well in.

 

[SWO Bubba]

What do YOU want to major in? Do that.

+1. The debate over techincal versus non-technical majors has raged for decades and will continue. As in most debates, the reality is definitely in the middle. Inevitably, you will be introduced to a lot of techincal things in the Navy. However, that doesn't mean you need a technical degree to comprehend how to fly an airplane (or in my case drive a ship). You'll need to know how black boxes work together, but not necessarily what's in the black box. For posterity sake, you could consider taking some technical electives in the realm of physics or electronnics or electrical engineering. Similarly, for technical dudes, I would recommend taking electives in the humanities.

 

[BACONATOR]

+1. The debate over techincal versus non-technical majors has raged for decades and will continue. As in most debates, the reality is definitely in the middle. Inevitably, you will be introduced to a lot of techincal things in the Navy. However, that doesn't mean you need a technical degree to comprehend how to fly an airplane (or in my case drive a ship). You'll need to know how black boxes work together, but not necessarily what's in the black box. For posterity sake, you could consider taking some technical electives in the realm of physics or electronnics or electrical engineering. Similarly, for technical dudes, I would recommend taking electives in the humanities.

Any University worth its salt requires Engineers to take a handful of Communications (including public speaking), humanities, and English courses.

 

[SWO Bubba]

Any University worth its salt requires Engineers to take a handful of Communications (including public speaking), humanities, and English courses.

I should have been a bit more clear. I think technical guys should take more humanities than those required in their program. Most have English, Western Civ/History, political science and maybe a few others. Public speaking would great. I took creative writing as a free elective and it was a lot of fun and very worthwhile. Art and/or music would be other good options to help get the other side of the brain as big as the technical side.

 

[jtmedli]

I should have been a bit more clear. I think technical guys should take more humanities than those required in their program. Most have English, Western Civ/History, political science and maybe a few others. Public speaking would great. I took creative writing as a free elective and it was a lot of fun and very worthwhile. Art and/or music would be other good options to help get the other side of the brain as big as the technical side.

I graduated in May from Clemson and we took all sorts of crap on top of the basic history/poly sci/western civ stuff. We were required to take technical writing, public speaking, Science and Tech (a humanity course), and various others. We actually took so many that it took a lot of time away from the Engineering classes we probably should have been taking. We were also required to take various advanced math classes like advanced engineering math (basically Calc/Diff EQ #5 for us) and linear equations.

I actually complained in my Senior Review Meeting that we had so many that we didn't have enough time to take the programming classes and other Electrical/Physics classes we should taken. Mainly because the vast majority of them are a joke and just take up an hour every MWF.

 

[RussBow6]

i know i'm biased being an engineering major here but... really? engineering isn't a reliable degree? you'd be hard pressed to find a quality engineer that isn't making what a business yuppie is making even working in nyc pre-recession.

i respect you don't wanna go through an extra year of school cause it does suck but one year isn't that big in the long run. everything you learn (especially as a mechanical engineer) will be pertinent to flight as well. engineering is great cause it shows people can learn, you can work hard and those traits will carry over into any market scenerio. get yourself a mech e or chem e degree (dont waste your time with a ece or civil degree) and companies will be fighting for you over some kid with a dime a dozen marketing or finance degree

like otto said... any quality engineering program will have its kids take the communication and liberal arts classes too. a lot of them take business minors and stuff as well so they can get the prereqs out of the way towards an MBA or law degree. i mixed in a couple sociology too cause that stuff is interesting.

if i could of studied anything i wanted i would of been a history major... but wheres that gonna get ya? write a book or teach... no thanks.

 

[RussBow6]

watching a bunch of engineers present in a comm class is pretty painful too haha. i wish i had some videos of the presentations we had in there. you'd cringe and just feel bad. the poor teachers...

trying to take anymore classes wouldnt be possible. i think the max credits we could take a semester was 21 or maybe 24. and just with the base engineering curriculum we were pushing 18-19 credits a semester

 

[villanelle]

I graduated in May from Clemson and we took all sorts of crap on top of the basic history/poly sci/western civ stuff. We were required to take technical writing, public speaking, Science and Tech (a humanity course), and various others. We actually took so many that it took a lot of time away from the Engineering classes we probably should have been taking. We were also required to take various advanced math classes like advanced engineering math (basically Calc/Diff EQ #5 for us) and linear equations.

I actually complained in my Senior Review Meeting that we had so many that we didn't have enough time to take the programming classes and other Electrical/Physics classes we should taken. Mainly because the vast majority of them are a joke and just take up an hour every MWF.

If the quality of the classes offered was poor, then that is a vaild complaint, but as for general ed requirments taking away from the time you spent on enginnering, that's kind of the point of a Bachelor's degree.

If you want to learn one thing and one thing only, go to a technical school. And if you want more intense focus on an advanced skill, get a graduate degree. The point of an undergrad degree is to make you an educated person, not to train you for a career, and that means everyone gets humanities, hard and soft sciences, math, history, and literature classes, because those are all things of which an educated person will have some knowledge. Sure, you pick an area of concentration so your education has a focus, but you aren't there to learn a skill.

 

[Thisguy]

I should have been a bit more clear. I think technical guys should take more humanities than those required in their program.

That sounds like good advice, but the reality is, outside of gen ed requirements (6 cr Social Science/6 cr Humanity/6 Arts), there isn't a whole lot of room to take things for shits and giggles if you want to finish in 4 years. Most engineering programs don't have 10-15 credits of random electives in the curriculum, because most of your coursework is prescribed.

 

[USMCFLYR]

Any degree will be good in the military - from Physics to the infamous Underwater Basket Weaving - and you can go as far as your talent and desire will take you. However - if you have any inclination to get into a more technical field of the military (for instance the Test Pilot program), then you are going to have to have a background in a technical field and already having a degree in such a field with a good (to great) GPA will probably be a requirement.

USMCFLYR

 

[silver236]

Thanks for all these replies. I have one more semester to decide then I will done with basic.