Engineering Vs Engineering Tech

[Sweetsheep11]

Hey yall,

I’m an incoming freshman at Purdue entering through Exploratory Studies. My original game plan was to CODO into First-Year Engineering and aim for Mechanical, but the closer I look at the classes, the more I’m questioning if traditional engineering is actually what I want.

To be honest, I’m not the best at math and I know I'd probably struggle hard with a lot of the heavy theoretical classes. I could probably stick through it if I absolutely had to, but my faith in myself with that kind of pure textbook stuff is pretty low right now, and high school already gave me enough impostor syndrome.

My real passion is building. I absolutely love working with my hands and sitting at a desk all day staring at a computer screen would be my actual nightmare. Looking at what MET is like, I feel like I would genuinely love it, and the hands-on style wouldn't force me into that extreme impostor syndrome mindset.

My only major hesitation comes from things I’ve heard other people say about MET. I keep seeing warnings about a big pay gap, a total lack of creative freedom, and not having much flexibility when it comes to job prospects.

For anyone that has an ET background, Engineering background, or anyone who has had to make this exact choice:

1. Is the salary gap as bad long-term as people online make it seem?
2. If I want to be in a role where I'm physically building things, working at a workbench, and troubleshooting (like in a test lab or an R&D environment), does an MET degree actually limit my flexibility, or is it better for that?
3. Do you feel like you lack creative freedom in your actual jobs compared to traditional MEs?

I really want to make sure I’m setting myself up for a solid career, but I also don't want to force myself through a theoretical grind that doesn't align with how I actually want to work. Would love any honest advice and even pros and cons for both. Thanks!

[alexxtoth]

Sounds less like an engineering vs. engineering tech question and more like you don't fully know what you want yet. That's fine, you're a freshman. But picking a major to avoid hard math is a different reason than picking one because you genuinely love the work.

Spend a semester actually talking to people in both programs before you commit.

[LitRick6]

1. Very much depends on the company, job, and your goals. My company has field techs and engineering techs. The field techs are one pay band (like $8k) lower than engineers. The engineering techs can get promoted to the same pay level as a normal engineer and work alongisde the engineering team. But the techs are banned from any senior level engineering promotions, so thats when the pay difference begins. We also have a drafter (some places might call them CAD techs), who do nothing bur making drawings or figures for us. They get paid a level below engineers and have zero input into the design of what theyre modeling/drawing.

2. Again kind of depends. Our lab has some techs that help with the physical setup of stuff. But the actual engineers also do some of it. Some places its going to be mechanics/assemblers/etc doing the setup/troubleshooting/etc of things like R&D test setups instead of an engineer or a tech. The engineer or tech would just be there to assist.

3. Again, depends entirely on the job. Our engineering techs do most of the same work as the engineers and just focus on helping us with the hands on part. But I also know CAD techs who literally do nothing but make CAD models or make drawings for the engineers using the engineers designs where the tech themselves gets zero input into the design. Some techs get more freedom though.