High-schooler from Northwest Indiana

[Hoosier4Liberty]

Hello everyone! I've only spent about a week here and I've already had a great time. People here are friendly and considerate, and there's always a fun debate to be had.

As for me, I'm an 11th grader who has spent my whole life living in Northwest Indiana. Seeing the corruption in Lake County government (it borders Chicago) from the Democratic Party, I've learned to see the perils of big government and higher taxes. I could best be described as a "libertarian Republican", as I support limited government in most respects but find 3rd parties to usually be fruitless.

I enjoy walking, biking, running, and swimming for recreation and am on the school's cross country team. I also participate in Academic Superbowl, JETS(engineering competition), Science Olympiad, and debate. As a student, I've always enjoyed math, science (moreso with math-related parts of it), and history classes, and have a strong affinity for numbers. For this reason I think that I would like to become either an actuary or an engineer, as both utilize those talents.

Thanks for being such a great group USMB!

 

[Sunni Man]

..............................................

 

[Wolfsister77]

Hi and welcome!!

 

[hjmick]

People here are friendly and considerate, and there's always a fun debate to be had.

Is he talking about USMB...?

 

[Hoosier4Liberty]

People here are friendly and considerate, and there's always a fun debate to be had.

Is he talking about USMB...?

Of course discussion can get heated here, but relative to other political forums like XXXXX and XXXXXX, people are pretty respectful of differing opinions.

 

[mamooth]

You're better off an as actuary. Engineers are now considered semi-disposable by employers, and as an engineer you'd be moving every 5 years to chase a new job.

 

[Hoosier4Liberty]

You're better off an as actuary. Engineers are now considered semi-disposable by employers, and as an engineer you'd be moving every 5 years to chase a new job.

Really? I was a little worried of the opposite, actually, at least right after graduation.
https://www.cco.purdue.edu/Common/PostGradSummaryMay12.pdf

Actuarial science has an 11:5 ratio of people employed versus unemployed (not counting those going to grad school, which since it's not required for becoming an actuary, likely indicates difficulty obtaining a job). Compare this to industrial engineering for instance, which has a lot of similar skills/overlap with actuarial science, and its ratio is 71:11, and other engineering disciplines have even better ratios.

This is why I was thinking that getting a degree in industrial engineering might be better, while taking some actuarial classes/exams on the side, since the actuarial degree by itself is causing problems for a good chunk of students at this point (it might be due to a small sample size and I really want to see next year's results, but it seems that major might not be good. I'm not ruling out the career though, but right now I'm leaning towards an engineering degree (probably industrial) as it seems to be a safer bet, especially since Purdue has an awesome engineering program (and it has in-state tuition, and with the scholarships for GPA/SAT[I have straight A's in all Honors/AP at Munster and practice tests show I'm at ~2300 on the SAT], I could probably go there for about $10,000-$15,000 per year. It just seems hard to pass up a top-10 engineering program for that price.

 

[rightwinger]

You're better off an as actuary. Engineers are now considered semi-disposable by employers, and as an engineer you'd be moving every 5 years to chase a new job.

Really? I was a little worried of the opposite, actually, at least right after graduation.
https://www.cco.purdue.edu/Common/PostGradSummaryMay12.pdf

Actuarial science has an 11:5 ratio of people employed versus unemployed (not counting those going to grad school, which since it's not required for becoming an actuary, likely indicates difficulty obtaining a job). Compare this to industrial engineering for instance, which has a lot of similar skills/overlap with actuarial science, and its ratio is 71:11, and other engineering disciplines have even better ratios.

This is why I was thinking that getting a degree in industrial engineering might be better, while taking some actuarial classes/exams on the side, since the actuarial degree by itself is causing problems for a good chunk of students at this point (it might be due to a small sample size and I really want to see next year's results, but it seems that major might not be good. I'm not ruling out the career though, but right now I'm leaning towards an engineering degree (probably industrial) as it seems to be a safer bet, especially since Purdue has an awesome engineering program (and it has in-state tuition, and with the scholarships for GPA/SAT[I have straight A's in all Honors/AP at Munster and practice tests show I'm at ~2300 on the SAT], I could probably go there for about $10,000-$15,000 per year. It just seems hard to pass up a top-10 engineering program for that price.

I graduated as an Industrial Engineer and it is a dead end. Nobody is investing in their facilities anymore and nobody cares about the human factors bullshit.
Go into one of the more classical engineering fields (Electronic, Mechanical, Chemical) and you will be more employable

 

[Alfalfa]

High schooler? With scholarly study you could be the most informed poster here in a couple of months...

 

[Hoosier4Liberty]

You're better off an as actuary. Engineers are now considered semi-disposable by employers, and as an engineer you'd be moving every 5 years to chase a new job.

Really? I was a little worried of the opposite, actually, at least right after graduation.
https://www.cco.purdue.edu/Common/PostGradSummaryMay12.pdf

Actuarial science has an 11:5 ratio of people employed versus unemployed (not counting those going to grad school, which since it's not required for becoming an actuary, likely indicates difficulty obtaining a job). Compare this to industrial engineering for instance, which has a lot of similar skills/overlap with actuarial science, and its ratio is 71:11, and other engineering disciplines have even better ratios.

This is why I was thinking that getting a degree in industrial engineering might be better, while taking some actuarial classes/exams on the side, since the actuarial degree by itself is causing problems for a good chunk of students at this point (it might be due to a small sample size and I really want to see next year's results, but it seems that major might not be good. I'm not ruling out the career though, but right now I'm leaning towards an engineering degree (probably industrial) as it seems to be a safer bet, especially since Purdue has an awesome engineering program (and it has in-state tuition, and with the scholarships for GPA/SAT[I have straight A's in all Honors/AP at Munster and practice tests show I'm at ~2300 on the SAT], I could probably go there for about $10,000-$15,000 per year. It just seems hard to pass up a top-10 engineering program for that price.

I graduated as an Industrial Engineer and it is a dead end. Nobody is investing in their facilities anymore and nobody cares about the human factors bullshit.
Go into one of the more classical engineering fields (Electronic, Mechanical, Chemical) and you will be more employable

Out of curiosity, what job are you doing now then? Are you still an industrial engineer or did you change jobs? Also, if the field is truly dead, then how come most of the graduates from Industrial Engineering were employed (and from the salary info ( https://www.cco.purdue.edu/Common/SalaryMay12.pdf ) it seems that it's not faring too poorly compared to other engineering disciplines since the average salary is ~$60,000).

Is it that people get hired initially, but then they get fired 5 or so years down the road?

I don't want to burden you with questions, but I do have a few more, if you're willing to answer them. For someone who is good at math/science (I have an 800 in SAT Math, have a solid A in AP Calculus BC/AP Chemistry/AP Physics as a junior at a pretty solid suburban high school (6th in state)), how difficult is it to maintain a 3.0+ in engineering? Are the actual "engineering/design" classes extremely brutal? (not the prerequisite math/physics courses) Is there a significant variation of difficulty between engineering disciplines (ie is electrical a lot harder than mechanical or vice versa?)? I know this varies from school to school, but I'd like to hear what you think.

 

[Pennywise]

I've got a buddy from Logansport, IN. Hoosiers tend to be real salt of the earth types

 

[rightwinger]

Really? I was a little worried of the opposite, actually, at least right after graduation.
https://www.cco.purdue.edu/Common/PostGradSummaryMay12.pdf

Actuarial science has an 11:5 ratio of people employed versus unemployed (not counting those going to grad school, which since it's not required for becoming an actuary, likely indicates difficulty obtaining a job). Compare this to industrial engineering for instance, which has a lot of similar skills/overlap with actuarial science, and its ratio is 71:11, and other engineering disciplines have even better ratios.

This is why I was thinking that getting a degree in industrial engineering might be better, while taking some actuarial classes/exams on the side, since the actuarial degree by itself is causing problems for a good chunk of students at this point (it might be due to a small sample size and I really want to see next year's results, but it seems that major might not be good. I'm not ruling out the career though, but right now I'm leaning towards an engineering degree (probably industrial) as it seems to be a safer bet, especially since Purdue has an awesome engineering program (and it has in-state tuition, and with the scholarships for GPA/SAT[I have straight A's in all Honors/AP at Munster and practice tests show I'm at ~2300 on the SAT], I could probably go there for about $10,000-$15,000 per year. It just seems hard to pass up a top-10 engineering program for that price.

I graduated as an Industrial Engineer and it is a dead end. Nobody is investing in their facilities anymore and nobody cares about the human factors bullshit.
Go into one of the more classical engineering fields (Electronic, Mechanical, Chemical) and you will be more employable

Out of curiosity, what job are you doing now then? Are you still an industrial engineer or did you change jobs? Also, if the field is truly dead, then how come most of the graduates from Industrial Engineering were employed (and from the salary info ( https://www.cco.purdue.edu/Common/SalaryMay12.pdf ) it seems that it's not faring too poorly compared to other engineering disciplines since the average salary is ~$60,000).

Is it that people get hired initially, but then they get fired 5 or so years down the road?

I don't want to burden you with questions, but I do have a few more, if you're willing to answer them. For someone who is good at math/science (I have an 800 in SAT Math, have a solid A in AP Calculus BC/AP Chemistry/AP Physics as a junior at a pretty solid suburban high school (6th in state)), how difficult is it to maintain a 3.0+ in engineering? Are the actual "engineering/design" classes extremely brutal? (not the prerequisite math/physics courses) Is there a significant variation of difficulty between engineering disciplines (ie is electrical a lot harder than mechanical or vice versa?)? I know this varies from school to school, but I'd like to hear what you think.

After graduating as an IE (over 30 years ago) I went into Quality Assurance and then testing. I was mostly testing communications networks and reclassified as an Electronic Engineer

IE is in many ways more interesting than other engineering fields but is more dependent on a manufacturing environment. I wouldn't bank my career on US manufacturing in the future. Not saying their are no IE jobs, just that they are more dependent on investment in the industrial base

If you got an A in AP Calculus, Chem, Physics you should be able to write your own ticket. Engineering is the toughest major in college and you will be working while others are partying. But you seem to have your head on straight

 

[TemplarKormac]

Welcome! I am thoroughly impressed to see someone younger than I taking up the banner of conservatism! You are more than welcome here, Hoosier. Just a bit of advice, always back your stuff up, study, research and rebut. Arguments here can get nasty with certain people. Beat them with facts.

Free rep on me, my friend!

 

[Hoosier4Liberty]

I graduated as an Industrial Engineer and it is a dead end. Nobody is investing in their facilities anymore and nobody cares about the human factors bullshit.
Go into one of the more classical engineering fields (Electronic, Mechanical, Chemical) and you will be more employable

Out of curiosity, what job are you doing now then? Are you still an industrial engineer or did you change jobs? Also, if the field is truly dead, then how come most of the graduates from Industrial Engineering were employed (and from the salary info ( https://www.cco.purdue.edu/Common/SalaryMay12.pdf ) it seems that it's not faring too poorly compared to other engineering disciplines since the average salary is ~$60,000).

Is it that people get hired initially, but then they get fired 5 or so years down the road?

I don't want to burden you with questions, but I do have a few more, if you're willing to answer them. For someone who is good at math/science (I have an 800 in SAT Math, have a solid A in AP Calculus BC/AP Chemistry/AP Physics as a junior at a pretty solid suburban high school (6th in state)), how difficult is it to maintain a 3.0+ in engineering? Are the actual "engineering/design" classes extremely brutal? (not the prerequisite math/physics courses) Is there a significant variation of difficulty between engineering disciplines (ie is electrical a lot harder than mechanical or vice versa?)? I know this varies from school to school, but I'd like to hear what you think.

After graduating as an IE (over 30 years ago) I went into Quality Assurance and then testing. I was mostly testing communications networks and reclassified as an Electronic Engineer

IE is in many ways more interesting than other engineering fields but is more dependent on a manufacturing environment. I wouldn't bank my career on US manufacturing in the future. Not saying their are no IE jobs, just that they are more dependent on investment in the industrial base

If you got an A in AP Calculus, Chem, Physics you should be able to write your own ticket. Engineering is the toughest major in college and you will be working while others are partying. But you seem to have your head on straight

Thanks for the advice. Purdue puts all of their engineers in a "First Year Engineering" program and one picks their specialty in their 2nd year. I should be able to find the best field during that time, as they offer an interdisciplinary class that covers all types of engineering.

Did you have to go back to school to be re-classified as an electronic engineer, or did you pick up those skills on the job?

 

[rightwinger]

Out of curiosity, what job are you doing now then? Are you still an industrial engineer or did you change jobs? Also, if the field is truly dead, then how come most of the graduates from Industrial Engineering were employed (and from the salary info ( https://www.cco.purdue.edu/Common/SalaryMay12.pdf ) it seems that it's not faring too poorly compared to other engineering disciplines since the average salary is ~$60,000).

Is it that people get hired initially, but then they get fired 5 or so years down the road?

I don't want to burden you with questions, but I do have a few more, if you're willing to answer them. For someone who is good at math/science (I have an 800 in SAT Math, have a solid A in AP Calculus BC/AP Chemistry/AP Physics as a junior at a pretty solid suburban high school (6th in state)), how difficult is it to maintain a 3.0+ in engineering? Are the actual "engineering/design" classes extremely brutal? (not the prerequisite math/physics courses) Is there a significant variation of difficulty between engineering disciplines (ie is electrical a lot harder than mechanical or vice versa?)? I know this varies from school to school, but I'd like to hear what you think.

After graduating as an IE (over 30 years ago) I went into Quality Assurance and then testing. I was mostly testing communications networks and reclassified as an Electronic Engineer

IE is in many ways more interesting than other engineering fields but is more dependent on a manufacturing environment. I wouldn't bank my career on US manufacturing in the future. Not saying their are no IE jobs, just that they are more dependent on investment in the industrial base

If you got an A in AP Calculus, Chem, Physics you should be able to write your own ticket. Engineering is the toughest major in college and you will be working while others are partying. But you seem to have your head on straight

Thanks for the advice. Purdue puts all of their engineers in a "First Year Engineering" program and one picks their specialty in their 2nd year. I should be able to find the best field during that time, as they offer an interdisciplinary class that covers all types of engineering.

Did you have to go back to school to be re-classified as an electronic engineer, or did you pick up those skills on the job?

Some words of advice

1. NEVER take advice from assholes on the Internet
2. Make your own decisions based on advice from your parents and people you trust
3. Remember the job market when you leave college will not be the same as when you entered.

 

[freedombecki]

Hello everyone! I've only spent about a week here and I've already had a great time. People here are friendly and considerate, and there's always a fun debate to be had.

As for me, I'm an 11th grader who has spent my whole life living in Northwest Indiana. Seeing the corruption in Lake County government (it borders Chicago) from the Democratic Party, I've learned to see the perils of big government and higher taxes. I could best be described as a "libertarian Republican", as I support limited government in most respects but find 3rd parties to usually be fruitless.

I enjoy walking, biking, running, and swimming for recreation and am on the school's cross country team. I also participate in Academic Superbowl, JETS(engineering competition), Science Olympiad, and debate. As a student, I've always enjoyed math, science (moreso with math-related parts of it), and history classes, and have a strong affinity for numbers. For this reason I think that I would like to become either an actuary or an engineer, as both utilize those talents.

Thanks for being such a great group USMB!

Welcome to USMB, Hoosier4Liberty. Hope you enjoy the boards.

 

[NLT]

You're better off an as actuary. Engineers are now considered semi-disposable by employers, and as an engineer you'd be moving every 5 years to chase a new job.[/QUOTE]

If you suck at your job.

 

[NLT]

You're better off an as actuary. Engineers are now considered semi-disposable by employers, and as an engineer you'd be moving every 5 years to chase a new job.

Really? I was a little worried of the opposite, actually, at least right after graduation.
https://www.cco.purdue.edu/Common/PostGradSummaryMay12.pdf

Actuarial science has an 11:5 ratio of people employed versus unemployed (not counting those going to grad school, which since it's not required for becoming an actuary, likely indicates difficulty obtaining a job). Compare this to industrial engineering for instance, which has a lot of similar skills/overlap with actuarial science, and its ratio is 71:11, and other engineering disciplines have even better ratios.

This is why I was thinking that getting a degree in industrial engineering might be better, while taking some actuarial classes/exams on the side, since the actuarial degree by itself is causing problems for a good chunk of students at this point (it might be due to a small sample size and I really want to see next year's results, but it seems that major might not be good. I'm not ruling out the career though, but right now I'm leaning towards an engineering degree (probably industrial) as it seems to be a safer bet, especially since Purdue has an awesome engineering program (and it has in-state tuition, and with the scholarships for GPA/SAT[I have straight A's in all Honors/AP at Munster and practice tests show I'm at ~2300 on the SAT], I could probably go there for about $10,000-$15,000 per year. It just seems hard to pass up a top-10 engineering program for that price.

I graduated as an Industrial Engineer and it is a dead end. Nobody is investing in their facilities anymore and nobody cares about the human factors bullshit.
Go into one of the more classical engineering fields (Electronic, Mechanical, Chemical) and you will be more employable

Bummer for you, I have a degree in industrial engineering and have been steadly employed since I retired from the Navy. Maybe you need to seek out different industries. I work in power generation (Nuke, Coal and Natural Gas) also I live in Texas, if you cant get a great paying job in Texas, you just dont want to work.

 

[TemplarKormac]

And a word of wisdom:

In order to maintain a longstanding membership here, please take a chance to read the Rules and Guidelines.

http://www.usmessageboard.com/annou...8-usmb-guidelines-of-conduct.html#post6790048

 

[BDBoop]

Yeah, that's the first email I got from CK upon joining. "Welcome aboard, here are the rules."