Which branch of engineering is best paid?

Control Engineering Question?

• Hello, I am fascinated by control systems. I love how electrical and mechanical systems can be used to control various things. I am really interested in automation and avionics. Right now, I am in Electrical Engineering, but I am strongly considering switching over to mechanical. My quetion is, if I want to design the control systems used on aircraft or work in automation, which branch of engineering education would I pursue for an undergrad. I definately know I want to master in control engineering or systems engineering at my university. I am more interested in avionics, but would not hesitate to work with automation. One thing that bugs me a little about EE is the abstract math, especially after the linear algebra course I took and almost failed. Why would I need to prove anything when I'm an engineer. I ace all of my calc and physics and chem classes so far and enjoy science and math, especially problem solving. It's just those stupid vector spaces and other things. Another thing that I HATE about EE is the programming. Programming seems easy, but it is very tedious and I find it very boring (no offense to those who love it, it's just not for me) I will stomach some programming but I never could stand more than two programming classes for a major. I really want to learn simple electric circuits, some micoprocessor stuff and about logic gates and other electronic devices, but I don't know if the whole thing of EE is for me. I LOVE learning how things work. My favorite things are electronics, heat transfer, pneumatics, any thing with properties of gases and fluid flow and mechanics. The more and more I think I Mechanical Engineering may be for me. But will I be able to find employment with avionics, aircraft control and aircraft design, flight and performance with ME. One of my cousins who is an electrical engineer told me to "go electrical, mechanical get paid less and are just mechanics that know a little bit of math." I believe this to be a biased statement, but still it is still discouraging. So with that story, is ME the path to what I want to be? By the way, I DO NOT in the slightest bit care about salary or pay. I would do this for no money at all because this stuff really fascinates me, so that should play no role in the decision. Thank you!

• Answer:

  By the way you refer to that 'abstract math' I'm assuming you are still in your sophomore or just started your junior year since you still don't understand the capabilities of all those mathematical operations. Anyways, electrical engineering is a really broad field and depending on what type of job you get, you might not even need to use that much math anymore (considering that computers will do most of the work). Nevertheless, it is your duty as an engineer to understand how things work and the only way to do it is by doing the math. The same occurs with mechanical engineers. The amount of math that you'll require really depends on what type of job you get. By the description that you just gave, you sound more like a mechanical engineering guy. Have you ever operated a CNC machine? As an ME you'll still learn about microcontrollers and other programmable devices and control systems. And yes, you might need some fancy math do that. One thing about engineering is that if you are good enough, you'll end up making more money. The thing is that usually you have to really like what you do to become good at it. By the way, don't listen to your cousin. While the median salary for EE's is slightly higher than ME's, they are both good. You have to balance out salary vs. satisfaction.