Anyone know what a mechanical engineer does?

[Marc936]

^^ i understand that, but i also dont want to go to college 4 years then at the end of it say "i wasted my time and money" and go on to something else, thats 4 years i cant get back, and ill be behind in the game considering people that start out will be younger than i am

[flarearrow]

Marc, don't make the same mistake I made. Loving cars (working and tinkering on) and mechanical engineering are 2 different things. If you like working with your hands (and from the sound of it you do), then ME is not for you.

I liked cars a lot, and was pretty good at math and physics in high school. So I gave ME a crack at it. Boy was I in for a reality check. I wound up getting low grades and dropping classes. (Eventually I switch majors to computer science. BUt that's a different story.)

Look at it this way.....
Eventhough the no college path and going into the workforce on little pay, you're already making money, banking it, getting interest, making investments etc.

The person going to college is SPENDING money for the next 4 years. And after coming out of college, they are in the hole, and have to work a few years to make that money back before they are ahead.

There will always be a demand for auto technicians. People will always drive. Cars will always break. I can't find the article, but you really don't need college to make 6 figures. Some auto technicians are making that much with no college (of course after many years in the business).

[Marc936]

^^ i know you dont have to go to college to get good money, but from what i heard the average starting pay is 15 dollars an hour to work in a dealership, which i dont think is enough, thats why i was mainly deciding to go into construction if i do choose another path, i can go through apprenticeship and make 32 bucks an hour after apprenticeship is over (4 years, 10 dollars to start then they give a good size raise after every 6 months), and a few years down the road start my own business in the trade

[wankski]

Originally Posted by Marc936

i think hs is pretty easy, i just dont do hw , i am currently a junior in hs might be early to some, but for me right now is the roads of choices of what i want to be when i grow up, since the fields i am interested in go in completely different paths, need different classes, and different colleges, and right now im seriously screwed, i have no clue which path i want to take more and knowing it will haunt me till i retire kinda scares me

lol, that reminds me of me.... see thats my point. being bright isn't enuff, u'll have to learn to study.. being a jnr now is PERFECT..

as for subbies no way... just do the maths and sciences and that'll get you into anything worthwhile... study now, believe me - u'll make it far easier in the end...

i never,. and i mean never picked up a book in HS, cruised thro and got to pick whatever i wanted to do... and eng it was for me... heh, as many ppl here said.. BIG reality check... first yr aint bad, but second kicked my ass.

IF you study now, put simply, you'll pick and choose what you want to do...

Originally Posted by Marc936

^^ i understand that, but i also dont want to go to college 4 years then at the end of it say "i wasted my time and money" and go on to something else, thats 4 years i cant get back, and ill be behind in the game considering people that start out will be younger than i am

hahaha !! i understand that... lol... put it this way... HS seemed like yesterday to me, yet somehow i've been at uni for the last 6 yrs, with at least 3 more to go. true, i had a headstart, since i finished HS at 16.

but uni education in elite fields.. mate there is NO way some one fresh outta hs can do it... money isn't everything either.

to make an analogy... without an education you are like milk... sure ppl want you when you're young and fresh, but get old and no one will go near ya..

with a top education in an elite field, mate you are wine.. not only do you get better with age, but its only until you're been at it for at least 20-30yrs in the professional field that you'll demand top money.

if i decide to take out an option to take out a ph.d (another 3 years) and even here in aus in teh field of fluid/thermo dynamics, thats 100k+car+super.

but like i said, money aint everything...

if you're looking for cash, just do economics.. its fairly easy money.

[wankski]

oh yeah, just forgot to add...mech eng is nothing like a mechanic... at all...

sitting behind a comp designing and modeling stuff mostly... (if you work in industry)

real research and development comes with postgrad courses, so you'll need honors and then a ph.d and then you'll work for labs developing new stuff (what i wanna do)

soo yeah... its not like you grad with a Bachelors and design stuff... heh.. far from it..

over here its like 4yrs B.E. then honors yr (1) then ph.d typically 3-4yrs on average..

so after 9yrs of study you'll begin pushing the envelope so to speak..

with a bach, you'll most likely sit behind a computer prostituting your ass for industry.

[sausage5000]

i don't know too much about engineering. my mother is an rn though. she hates it with a passion, and tells everyone that would want that type of gig to look into physical therapy instead. you could make way more than 19 an hour if in the right situation, but don't believe propaganda. its usually a suckass job, working for total assholes. garbage men start at 19 an hour also.

on another note, aren't you a heterosexual dude? what are your parents wanting for you anyway? no joke, i know several of my mom's co-workers. it's not usually the job choice of hetero males. i ain't hating on gays they are cool and all but...

[Adhesive]

A couple of things; Nurses in California start out at ~$30/h with amazing benefits and great vacation pay. There is a huge shortage in this state and they are literally flying nurses in from China and the Philippines in order to fill positions. You could obtain your nursing degree in a little over two years if you went that route.

Secondly, don’t worry if community college is your only option. Just make sure you get into a good one. I did my lower division course work at a community college, and I’m finishing up my upper-division classes at a university. The differences depend completely on the professor that’s instructing you. My biology course at community college was taught by a wonderful Stanford undergraduate, UCSF graduate, who was brilliant. The course work was incredibly tough, we started out with nearly 100 pre-med/pre-pharm students enrolled in the class and only 15 of us passed. Because my community college was in relatively close proximity to UC Berkeley, my school tried to follow their course work as closely as possible, in hopes of transferring its students there. Now I’m at a UC, and some classes only require that I study the night before the test. It just depends. The main difference is that the professors at universities have bigger egos and you have the chance of doing hands-on-research with them. We have four Nobel laureates at my university, so if you can land one as your mentor you are set.

Anyway, good luck with your decision, and just know that very few people end up doing what they decided to do as a junior in HS.

[Creature]

Originally Posted by Marc936

^^ i understand that, but i also dont want to go to college 4 years then at the end of it say "i wasted my time and money" and go on to something else, thats 4 years i cant get back, and ill be behind in the game considering people that start out will be younger than i am

Trust me, you won't say that. First of all, college will be the best 4 years of your life, socially if nothing else. I struggled like hell to get my EE degree but all the work paled in comparison to the fun I had there. And I never even got to use my degree because I went into IT instead, but my degree is what landed me that job, and it is what opens up a world of other professional jobs that I wouldn't be considered for without a degree. A college education represents a well-rounded set of skills, so just because you get a ME degree doesn't mean you can only be an ME for the rest of your life. On the other hand, like you said, it can get you into a job designing cars, aircraft components, satellite launch vehicles, and lots of other cool stuff. Plus, a cushy desk job is better than a labor/construction/mechanics job anyday IF you're the kind of person who doesn't mind sitting in a cube/office every day.

Originally Posted by flarearrow

The person going to college is SPENDING money for the next 4 years. And after coming out of college, they are in the hole, and have to work a few years to make that money back before they are ahead.

There will always be a demand for auto technicians. People will always drive. Cars will always break. I can't find the article, but you really don't need college to make 6 figures. Some auto technicians are making that much with no college (of course after many years in the business).

Yes, it's true that college is not cheap. I paid student loan payments for 7 years after I graduated. But the salary I was getting compensated for that initially, and grew much faster over the years than a labor job would have. After 10 years in the workforce (15 after graduating high school, if you look at it that way) I'm making 6 figures working 40 hour weeks. If you want to make 6 figures in a labor/construction/mechanics job, you better plan on working a lot more than that. During college I worked for a landscaper, and one of the guys I worked with always gave me shit about going to college, and he always liked to point out that his dad was making $39/hour when he retired from the landscaping business. Cool, that's good I guess, but now I can see that I'm making 25% more than him already and I'm only in my 30's.

[Marc936]

Originally Posted by sausage5000

i don't know too much about engineering. my mother is an rn though. she hates it with a passion, and tells everyone that would want that type of gig to look into physical therapy instead. you could make way more than 19 an hour if in the right situation, but don't believe propaganda. its usually a suckass job, working for total assholes. garbage men start at 19 an hour also.

on another note, aren't you a heterosexual dude? what are your parents wanting for you anyway? no joke, i know several of my mom's co-workers. it's not usually the job choice of hetero males. i ain't hating on gays they are cool and all but...

wtf is that supposed to mean? you are automaticly gay if your a male nurse? they're the ones most needed so they are given better pay if your a male

[Marc936]

Originally Posted by Creature

Yes, it's true that college is not cheap. I paid student loan payments for 7 years after I graduated. But the salary I was getting compensated for that initially, and grew much faster over the years than a labor job would have. After 10 years in the workforce (15 after graduating high school, if you look at it that way) I'm making 6 figures working 40 hour weeks. If you want to make 6 figures in a labor/construction/mechanics job, you better plan on working a lot more than that. During college I worked for a landscaper, and one of the guys I worked with always gave me shit about going to college, and he always liked to point out that his dad was making $39/hour when he retired from the landscaping business. Cool, that's good I guess, but now I can see that I'm making 25% more than him already and I'm only in my 30's.

thats landscaping though, excavation (sp), carpentry, even cabinet making makes a large ammount of pay, i plan on becoming a general contractor and start my own business if i take that route, my cousins husband is one and he became pretty successful, like i said if i plan to go into construction, i want to own my own business, not work for one

Anyway, good luck with your decision, and just know that very few people end up doing what they decided to do as a junior in HS

but if they dont end up doing what they plan to in college, wouldnt that just make the degree useless if they could have gotten a degree for the field they want to go afterwards?

[chiadog]

no, the degree is not useless. they still pay you for the education you've had

[Marc936]

yes but lets say you got a degree in biology, and later on you become a accountant, that degree in biology wont help you at all at your job being an accountant, you could have easily just gotten an accountant degree instead if you choose that path in the start

[Creature]

like I said before:

Originally Posted by Creature

I went into IT instead, but my degree is what landed me that job, and it is what opens up a world of other professional jobs that I wouldn't be considered for without a degree. A college education represents a well-rounded set of skills, so just because you get a ME degree doesn't mean you can only be an ME for the rest of your life.

I just had basically this same conversation (but unrelated, we were talking about her kids) with a director in my company today and she said the same thing -- a college education is only ever gonna help you, not hurt you (meaning having one vs. not having one). Granted, no, a biology degree is not a shoe-in for an accounting job, but if you have some accounting knowledge in addition to that degree, and demonstrate the motivation to succeed in a job, you'll have a better chance than the next guy who isn't 100% qualified and doesn't have a degree

[Marc936]

i dont mean it by that, i meant lets say, you were planning to go to biology, but down the road after you got the biology degree, you wanted to become an accountant, now you could have started in college and gotten an accountant degree and then you will not only have a degree, but the knowledge needed for your job

[Creature]

well that's nothing more than making up your mind before you go to college -- which I know is what you're trying to do -- but there is no secret in that. Figure out what would make you happiest and go for that, but yes, your feelings may change down the road. The best thing you can do to plan for that is to not get into a lifestyle where you're used to the money you bring in, so that if you do want to make a career change you can afford to more or less start over salary-wise.