What to choose: business or electrical/computer engineering?

Again about majoring in Chemical Engineering or Computer Science?

• Hey guy, would you like to help choose my major in college? I am now a second-semester freshman. I am choosing between computer science and chemical engineering. I have seen a lot of Q&As here on the same topic, but I have some specific questions that have not been answered. Also, considering the change in the economical situation, the job prospect has also changed, so I would like more updated answers. Thanks! Here are the questions: 1.I am a girl, and I do have a concern over the working condition. I am pretty sure jobs for cs have nice working conditions, But how about ChemE? Whenever I think of this major I am thinking about oil and gas, platforms, factories etc. 2.Even though I am looking at the salaries and job market, I will definitely choose the one that interests me more. But here is the problem. Because these two are in our engineering department, and the course requirement for engineering majors are so intense that we have to decide major by the end of our sophomore's year. By now I have only taken organic chemistry and one programming course. next semester each major has a lot of major courses that are prerequisites for more advanced courses so I can not do both. I really have to choose now. But I do not think the courses I have taken really helped me figure out my interest. 3. I do not want to work for the industry forever, so which major can better prepare me to switch into finance or business? I have seen people working as bosses, banker and consultants from both cs and chemE, but it seems that more people from cs are now doing finance? Does it mean it is easier for me to switch if I do cs now? 4. i feel cs is applicable everywhere! when you go to the career fair every company, including banks and bioreasearch institutes, want cs majors. But nearly no company wants chemE majors. does this mean that majoring chemE will limit my job choice? 5. Although gender is not a real issue, but I do have a concern. I actually start out as chemE and want to switch to cs. But I just do not know if i can do well in cs. Usually the notion is girls are not as good as boys in math/physics'electrical engineering/cs. Just generally. I see there are way more boys doing cs than girls and about equal number of the two genders doing chemE. From my own experience I am better at chemistry than math and physics. I know interest is the best motivation, but I think people's inborn talent really makes a difference, right? Since I can not try any more programming courses, I really do not dare go for cs. (But I feel I like it, just feel. you know. I can not even trust my "feel".) 6. I have already done a good research in oil recovery and I have networked with several professors from chemE department. I had no programming experience in high school but I was on the chemistry Olympiad team of my school. I have so much background in chemE and it really hurts to sacrifice them to try for a totally new major. I do not know if I will end up Bs in cs. But I am actually more confident with the chemE courses. (Again, the thing is I have not taken courses so I can not say which one I like better. If I knew, I would definitely go for it. if it turned out that I was passionate about cs, I did not mind just waste my background in chemE.) 7. The thing is, by just looking at the course descriptions, if I do not have to worry about my grades, There is a 90% chance for me to go for cs, since I feel the world is being changed by the IT industry. In my mind, IT is like a 18-year-old energetic young man but chemE seems really old and is dying out. I do know if this is true, but chemE is just like this to me. I am so sorry I wrote this much. Thank your guys for your time and response.

• Answer:

  1) I work in the yield department of a semiconductor manufacturer. There are a few women in my group, as well as several women in other groups associated with yield, as well as many women process engineers. The working conditions are good. Unless you are a technician, you don't actually have to scrub the machines or handle anything that requires heavy lifting, you just have to understand the machines. 2) It doesn't matter which one you pick. If you hate one after picking it, you can switch to the other. Either way, your experience in one will help you have perspective in the other. While this will increase the amount of time you spend in school (but not by much), it won't be bad. 3) Both CS and ChemE end up in business management, finance et al, but you see CS in it more because there are simply fewer ChemE's. 4) Majoring in ChemE won't limit your job choice as long as you can demonstrate programming proficiency on your resume. I'm an electrical engineer emphasizing physics, but I got a ton of hits on my resume from companies that typically hire CS because I listed that I'm proficient in C++ and Java. If you're proficient in CS related stuff then you're actually expanding your usefulness. 5) From my experience, women do just as well as men in both fields, but they tend to be respected more in engineering than in CS. I saw about 10-15 females in electrical engineering and none in CS when I explored my options. I don't know why this is, but it's not like you're discriminated against. 6) None of what you did was a waste of time. The job I am doing now is mostly statistics and requires very little if any knowledge of semiconductor physics, but my schooling taught me how to approach problems. 7) ChemE is not a dying field. Semiconductors, polymers, pharmaceuticals, etc. are all very alive and healthy and take a lot of people very skilled in chemical engineering, while IT can consist of mostly people whose only education is the "school of hard knocks," or rather "code monkeys."