“Getting a Good Job in America” Part 7 – Becoming an Engineer

I am not saying that this path is for everyone, and I am not saying that this path is easy, but…

If you are in high school right now and you are planning to go to college, consider an engineering degree as your course of study. The advantage of engineering degrees right now is that:

There is strong demand
The jobs pay well right out of college ($70,000 per year right after graduation is not uncommon)
While some engineering degrees require a lot of math, not all of them do.
There is a lot of variety in engineering

Variety in engineering

North Carolina State University (NCSU) is a well-known engineering school. For in-state residents, an engineering degree at NCSU is relatively inexpensive (and we will see a way to lower the cost even more below). The College of Engineering at NCSU has all of these different departments:

Aerospace Engineering (AE)
Biological Engineering (BE)
Biomedical Engineering (BME)
Chemical Engineering (CHE)
Civil Engineering (CE)
Computer Engineering (CPE)
Computer Science (CSC)
Construction Engineering (CON)
Electrical Engineering (EE)
Environmental Engineering (ENE)
Industrial Engineering (IE)
Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)
Mechanical Engineering (ME)
Mechanical Engineering Systems (MES) (Site-Based,* Craven Community College, Havelock)
Mechatronics Engineering (JEM) (Site-Based,* University of North Carolina at Asheville)
Nuclear Engineering (NE)
Paper Science and Engineering (PSE)
Textile Engineering (TE)

With all of this variety, there may be some engineering specialty that you find interesting.

Several of these specialties have particularly high demand at the moment.

Lowering the cost of an engineering degree

Four years at an engineering school can get expensive. One way to lower the cost of a place like NCSU is to do part of your time at a community college. In many cases, the first 2 years of an engineering degree can be done at a community college, with most or all of the credit hours transferring over. With NCSU, a student can work at the local community college called Wake Tech, and the cost of the first 2 years drops considerably. Many other engineering schools have similar programs.