Exploring Majors

There are so many different majors that OSU has within the College of Engineering and I wanted to let some of our members talk about why they chose their major. Thought it would be helpful for anyone applying to a major or are interested in switching majors!

First, here are the list of the majors:

• Aerospace Engineering
• Aviation Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Science Engineering
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Engineering Physics
• Engineering Technology
• Environmental Engineering
• Food, Agricultural, Biological, and Ecological Engineering
• Industrial and Systems Engineering
• Material Science Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Welding Engineering

The majors in bold are the ones we’ll hear from! For more information about the additional majors, here’s a link to the OSU Engineering Majors website!

Biomedical Engineering from Cecilia Groves (4th year):

• Why did you choose your major?

I have always been interested in the medical field, but knew going to medical school wasn’t for me. This major seemed like a great way to get involved in the medical field from a different angle!

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

BME is all about using engineering principles to advance human health. With an understanding of the body’s mechanics and internal transport mechanisms, this includes developing all types of medical devices, introducing novel drug delivery methods, and refining processes and operations in clinical spaces.

• Favorite class and/or professor?

My favorite classes have been BME 4110 (Bioimaging) and BME 4310 (Biomaterials). My favorite professors have been Dr. Rachel Childers and Dr. Tanya Nocera!

• Any advice for a student seeking to pursue the major?

The freshman year classes and application to major process were extremely overwhelming to me. If I could go back in time, I would tell myself not to be so hard on myself and that everything will turn out okay. After the first year, the BME curriculum gets much easier to manage!

Civil Engineering from Kiley Grilliot (4th year):

• Why did you choose your major?

Civil engineering is very involved in public improvement and working with municipalities. I love being able to make an impact in my community with the projects I am working on. I chose civil engineering over environmental because you can do really similar work but I hate chemistry.

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

There are a few main areas to civil engineering: transportation, water, structural, and surveying. I particularly focus on the water aspect of civil engineering so I work on things like water treatment plants and managing stormwater. With civil/environmental engineering you can work for a private consulting company doing design, work for a city/municipality, construction management, work for an environmental agency such as the EPA, or for energy companies just to name a few of the fields!

• Favorite class and/or professor?

Fall environmental engineering capstone (ENVENG 4090) with Dr. Ryan Winston.

• Any advice for a student seeking to pursue the major?

Civil engineering is very cool and chill and we have really awesome advisors!! Please follow @cegeadvising on Instagram; my advisor posts motivational Monday’s every week and it is truly the sweetest thing!

• What made you decide to switch majors? Was the change difficult?

I started as a pre-mechanical major. I was always interested in civil/environmental, but went with mechanical because everyone said how broad it was. I looked at the classes that mechanical engineering majors take and realized I wasn’t very interested in it, so I switched to civil and it was the best decision I ever made. Truly any engineering major is pretty broad and opens a lot of doors so definitely do what you are passionate about!

Chemical Engineering from Evie Price (3rd year):

• Why did you choose your major?

My dad was a chemical engineer and I grew up hearing him talk about his experiences and how he loved his job, and I wanted to have a fulfilling career like that. Also, I really enjoyed math and science, especially chemistry and biology, so I thought chemical engineering would be a good choice for me given the wide range of job opportunities.

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

Chemical engineering isn’t really what people think it is. You take a lot of chemistry classes, but chemical engineering itself really isn’t a lot of chemistry and is more problem solving. We learn about how to do chemistry at a large scale and different interactions that go on within processes.

• Favorite class and/or professor?

Separations with Dr. Clay

• Any advice for a student seeking to pursue the major?

Just know that you’re not alone. I’ve struggled a lot with anxiety and imposter syndrome just because I felt surrounded by people who were way smarter or better than me. Things will come naturally to some people and not so much to others, and that’s ok. I’m someone who had to work very hard to make things click and I know that for a lot of others things don’t come easily to them. I’d highly suggest going to office hours because that has been where a lot of my learning has been enhanced and I feel like I have more personal interactions with professors and/or TAs.

Computer Science Engineering

From Neha Charka (2nd year):

• Why did you choose your major?

I was always a believer in computer language and everything that goes behind the process of making it.

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

It’s a lot of coding for sure. But it gets interesting as you learn the language and know more about what goes on in the mind of a computer. It gets beautiful as you learn and know how to code as you would be literally be able to anything related to technology, as now we are the tech world!

• Favorite class and/or professor?

CSE 2221: SW1 w/ prof. Naomi Zweben

• Any advice for a student seeking to pursue the major?

You will do great, always talk with the TA with the silliest doubts you have. Don’t make yourself invisible in the class, if that’s the case always go to office hours and make yourself seen! Failures always lead to the biggest successes. Take an ‘L’ to get a ‘W’. You can control the tech world in your hands some day!

From Sammy Stenger (3rd year):

• Why did you choose your major?

I love solving puzzles & being creative! If you like coding, CSE can be a fun combination of both.

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

Understanding how to program, best practices of programming, why code works the way it does, and different applications of the field.

• Favorite class and/or professor?

Diego Zaccai!

From David Novikov (4th year):

• Why did you choose your major?

It was the only one that didn’t require a chemistry prerequisite and I didn’t want to take chemistry.

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

Software and Computer Science are really a way of thinking about problems and how you want to solve them. Every class you take teaches you how to solve certain problems and exposes you to tools for solving them.

• Favorite class and/or professor?

Computer Vision with Jim Davis. Absolute legend, class is tough but fair.

• Any advice for a student seeking to pursue the major?

To do well in computer science you need two things: math and passion. Learn new programming languages for fun! Write dumb code! Make little apps for yourself. Its much easier than it looks, and having a few extra hours here and there makes a world of difference. If you don’t watch to switch into CS but want the salary: self teach! There’s tons of tutorials and guides online for everything, probably millions of intro to cs classes and YouTube videos. Most important of all; google everything. There are probably 1000 programmers who have already had the same bug or question you did and they asked about it on stack overflow or somewhere and there is an answer for you.

• What made you decide to switch majors? Was the change difficult?

I was actually a physics major before I came to Ohio State. Just didn’t feel like sticking with it after I got here.

From Aastha Gupta (5th year):

• Why did you choose your major?

I did a summer program in high school called Girls Who Code, which made me realize I like coding and could make a career out of it!

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

Writing code (instructions for a computer) so that computers can do cool things like large calculations, generate webpages, and display playable games.

• Favorite class and/or professor?

Rob LaTour and Dr. Rajiv Ramnath have been my absolute favorite CSE professors! They’re so personable and engaging in their lectures.

• Any advice for a student seeking to pursue the major?

It takes a lot of perseverance and hard work to make it through the first couple CSE classes. Start projects as soon as they’re assigned so you can have time to work through bugs in your code and get help!

Electrical and Computer Engineering from Ellie Williams (3rd year):

• Why did you choose your major?

I chose to be an engineering major because I wanted to go into robotics for my full-time career. I picked ECE specifically because I really enjoyed the circuit lab from FE1; I researched electrical career paths and robotics career paths and knew that this was the right major for me!

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

Electrical engineering is very broad. I feel like you can pretty much go into any career path with an electrical engineering degree. You learn about computer hardware and software, power electronics, microelectronics, and more. This major prepares you to be a quick learner which allows you to go into pretty much anything you are passionate about. It’s a very versatile major!

• Any advice for a student seeking to pursue the major?

ECE is tough, don’t get me wrong, but it is very interesting and has so many different career paths to go into. Electrical work is needed in pretty much every field, and electronics are continuing to grow more popular. Don’t be discouraged that men are in the majority in this major, be the change you want to see in this area of engineering and break through barriers! Read up on career paths for electrical engineers to see if anything sparks your interest, If you can see yourself doing electrical engineering, I believe in you because you can do anything you put your mind to!

• What made you decide to switch majors? Was the change difficult?

I changed from MechE to ECE after my first semester at OSU. The change was super easy since a lot of the first-year coursework overlaps, and both majors are similar. I decided to change because I was more interested in the electrical side of machines rather than the mechanical side!

Environmental Engineering from Gabriella Gilmore (1st year):

• Why did you choose your major?

I worked at a zoo and fell in love with sustainability work.

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

In short, a ecological studies with a focus in sustainability.

• Any advice for a student seeking to pursue the major?

It’s a lot of big sciences (Chem, physics, biology, etc.) so get a good handle on those.

Food, Agricultural, Biological, and Ecological Engineering

From Logan Nethers (3rd year):

• Why did you choose your major?

To be honest, I felt like I did not belong in the College of Engineering. Classes are competitive, I have a drastically different upbringing and life experience than many of my peers, and overall, I did not feel welcomed or supported in the ways I needed. In looking at majors, I found FABE which is technically housed in the College of Agriculture and gets access to those resources. Not only did the academics align with my goals better than College of Engineering majors, but this college and the people in it felt much more like home to me! Of course, everyone has different life experiences, classroom preferences, and support needs, but this was my experience.

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

FABE as a whole prepares you directly for a career in the industry that you are interested in. For Biological Engineering specifically, I focus on fermentation, microbiology, and horticulture. These courses prepare me for a career in any industry that utilizes micro or macro organisms to complete their goals!

• Favorite class and/or professor?

Intro to Biological Engineering and Advanced Biological Engineering with Dr. Rowan!

• Any advice for a student seeking to pursue the major?

Talk to someone from the specializations you are interested in before you pick! There is a lot of great information online, but hearing the difference in coursework and internship opportunities between Bio or Food engineering from someone who spends everyday in the major is so much more beneficial than a paragraph on a website!

• What made you decide to switch majors? Was the change difficult?

I came in to OSU as biomedical engineering. I knew I wanted a combination of microbiology and engineering, but that I wanted to apply it to plants, food, and the environment rather than people. Once I got here and learned about FABE, I switched. A lot of the basic, non-med classes are the same so it was a super easy transition in my first year.

From Maddie Chandler (4th year):

• Why did you choose your major?

I knew I wanted to work in the food industry, but still wanted an engineering degree — this major offered me the best of both worlds!

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

Think about all your favorite snacks/foods…how would you like to learn more about the chemistry behind them and the equipment that produces them? Then food engineering could be a great fit! I love getting to learn about the microbiology of food and the technical aspects that go into food processing and production.

• Favorite class and/or professor?

FDSCTE 2400 — Intro to Food Processing with Dr. Polschneider

FABENG 3120 — Thermodynamics with Dr. Christy

• Any advice for a student seeking to pursue the major?

If you have any interest in working as an engineer in the food industry, this is definitely the major for you! Always feel free to reach out to me with any questions and I’d be happy to help :)

• What made you decide to switch majors? Was the change difficult?

I switched from mechanical engineering to food engineering during my freshman year. I knew that I could still work as an engineer in the food industry with a mechanical engineering degree, but switching to food engineering allowed me to receive a more specialized curriculum and build connections with professors who have fantastic backgrounds in the food industry. Changing majors caused me to be behind a few classes, but the switch was totally worth it in my mind because I absolutely love what I am learning about!

Industrial and Systems Engineering from Tomasina DeLong (3rd year):

• Why did you choose your major?

I chose my major because it felt like a perfect match of the way that my brain thinks, with the variety of areas that I can go into. I am an indecisive person and this gives me flexibility of industry and role which is exciting and leaves my future wide open with lot of choices depending on what I am interested in at any given time.

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) is a branch of engineering that deals with the optimization of complex systems, processes, and organizations. ISE focuses on designing, analyzing, and improving systems and processes to make them more efficient and effective.

ISE majors learn about a wide range of topics, including mathematics, physics, statistics, computer programming, and data analysis. They also study industrial and systems engineering principles, such as optimization, decision-making, and systems thinking.

In addition to technical skills, ISE majors also develop communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills. These are essential for working in a team, managing projects, and interacting with stakeholders.

ISE graduates work in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, transportation, consulting, and finance. They are often employed as operations managers, process engineers, supply chain analysts, data analysts, and project managers.

Overall, the ISE major is a highly interdisciplinary field that requires a combination of technical and soft skills to be successful. It is an excellent choice for students who are interested in solving complex problems and improving processes and systems.

• Favorite class and/or professor?

My favorite class so far has probably been ISE 2400 or ISE 3400.

• Any advice for a student seeking to pursue the major?

Join IISE! It is a great resource and a way to meet people in your major. This major is somewhat small so making friends in your classes is essential because you will be with your cohort basically all the time!

• What made you decide to switch majors? Was the change difficult?

I started as BME and during my freshman year, I discovered ISE and felt like a light bulb went off in my head. ISE is just so closely aligned with the way my brain naturally thinks and it felt like a perfect fit. The change wasn’t too hard because I changed during December of my freshman year, but I know other people who have had a harder time when they have changed majors later in their college career.

Material Science Engineering from Nicola Glanvill (2nd year):

• Why did you choose your major?

The key subjects you learn about (chemistry, physics, math) always interested me the most in high school, so it felt like a natural choice. It’s also a small major so there’s community and a chance to get to know your professors.

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

Materials science is exactly what it sounds like. Studying the characteristics and structures of different materials to determine the best material for a project or to improve a material.

• Favorite class and/or professor?

Hard to say… I like them all pretty much. Professor Grassman, Professor Beach, and Professor Chowdhury stand out so far.

• Any advice for a student seeking to pursue the major?

Make friends with other people in the major! Don’t be afraid to get to know your professors.

• What made you decide to switch majors? Was the change difficult?

I was a pre-environmental major but ended up applying to MSE. The major information session really helped me in my decision to change majors. Look at the classes you would take and the potential job opportunities!

Mechanical Engineering from Shikha Garg (2nd year):

• Why did you choose your major?

I want to help advance the technology that will save the environment: like clean energy, electric cars, carbon capture technology etc!

• How would you describe your major to those who don’t know much about it?

I’m only into my 2nd year of the major, but so far we mainly look at how things move and react to forces!

• Favorite class and/or professor?

Dr Skinner — physics 1251

• Any advice for a student seeking to pursue the major?

Mechanical is the broadest engineering that I’ve heard of so job opportunities and avenues are plentiful! The major will give u a good foundation out of college!

• What made you decide to switch majors? Was the change difficult?

I originally was environmental engineering, but switched to mechanical because I wanted to be working in the design/hands-on part of environmentally friendly technology! It was not a difficult change for me since I switched while still in my 1st year. (So I hadn’t taken any major-specific courses yet)

Signing off for now,

Valencia ❤