College Field

[Mr.Macdonald]

I am trying to decide which college field to pursue,

I like to program and I am very good (not to brag)
I like Physics (Relativity, Newtonian Mechanics, Electricity/Magnatism, Waves)
I like building things (robot parts, etc.)
I like Calculus (rare)
I want a challenge

I don't like Chemistry not Biology
I don't like to be a code monkey
I don't want to design transistors and media players all day


I was thinking either Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Applied Mathmatics

[hubie]

My interests were pretty much the same as yours when I was in college. When I was a teen in the early 80's, I decided that I wanted to be an engineer working at Bell Labs. I ended up going to a liberal arts school, which didn't have an engineering program. I took physics and fell in love with it and declared it as my major my freshman year. I ended up taking it all the way through to the Ph.D. and I've never regretted it.

If you get a physics degree, and like me end up working outside of academe, you end up with a title other than "physicist" because there are very few jobs advertised as such. The Society of Physics Students (http://www.spsnational.org/) calls these the "hidden physicists." (http://www.spsnational.org/cup/profiles/hidden.html)

For my two cents, obviously I view the world through the eyes of physics, but I would urge you to consider going in that direction. You sound like you would enjoy working in a lab as an experimentalist, and physics degrees appear to hold their value (http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200901/physicsdegrees.cfm).

Ultimately though, do as I did and follow your heart rather than try to chase employment projections. It may be rather a Pollyannic (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054195/) approach, but if you study and work in an area you like for its own sake, you'll naturally do well and things will work themselves out. It has worked for me, anyways.

[Ng Oon-Ee]

I'd recommend academia in some engineering-related field. I'm currently pursuing my PhD in Engineering Research, and I spend lots of time programming (algorithm development). Others here with me spend more time messing about building stuff, robots (my degree was in Mechatronics) and sensor arrays and such stuff.

Like hubie said, find something you like, don't chase the money. Money comes from being good at what you do, in general.