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What to do?

So.

I've just passed the entrance exam to read Mechanical Engineering at ETH Zurich (supposedly the best university on the continent).
However I am currently enrolled to start studying Business Studies at Uni Mannheim (supposedly the best for the subject in Germany) on Monday.

It's not that I couldn't change fom Mannheim to Zurich, that shouldn't be a problem since the semester in Zurich hasn't started yet and it's quite easy to exmatricualte and immatriculate again.
What I'm afraid of is choosing the wrong subject or ending up with a job that wasn't worth the expense of studying (especially in Zurich, where going shopping in a supermarket will leave you horrified at the prices that are charged).

I was originally intent on studying Mechanical Engineering and only had enrolled in Mannheim in order to have a Plan B but reading more and more about the career prospects of an engineer I'm becoming more and more uncertain about whether or not I have made the right decision.
Firstly, as said above Zurich is horrendously expensive. I would be expect having to come up with something atleast 1000€ a month and still live in near poverty, so even for a Bachelor's degree I would be placing a burden of 36000€ on my parents since I don't qualify for government support.
My parents can afford this, but I still have a bad conscience about it.
The university claims that the workload for students is something around 60 hours a week for the first two years, so a job whilst studying seems to be out of question.
Secondly, reading what an engineer even from a good university can expect as starting salary I really don't know how long it would take to be earning sufficiently that I can start considering paying my parents back some of the money and/or starting to settle down.
Thirdly, atleast in Germany there appear to be rumours that despite of the fact that everybody is complaining about a lack of qualified engineers it turns out that this is in fact rather untrue and that this enables the industry to push down wages with quite some people landing in temporary employment with no job security.

Mannheim, on the other hand, due to its connections and links to all important business companies in Germany (and internationally) (e.g. Open days for Consulting and IB with poeple from Big4, McKinsey, GS, the entire lot of them...) seems to offer quite good career prospects, albeit in an industry that expects people to put in a huge amount of work especially in the first years.
Additionally Mannheim is much cheaper to live and study in, with 100€ fees per semester and living costs of maybe 700€ if you're generous.

Personally, i can imagine studying either subject though I am personally drawn more towards Engineering.

In terms of future jobs, there are positions in both fields that I either am interested in or would absolutely hate and I'm afraid of landing in one of them, though with Business studies I think there are a few more. But for example ending in a company that produces joints for water taps all over the globe (these do exist, you know), or something along those lines where you somehow feel your work can't be taken seriously would leave me quite depressed.

What would you do?
/Discuss if you would care to spend some time dwelling on the matter.
I am grateful for any advice.

Reply 1

PorQpine

Help !!

Growing increasingly unsure whether I can even handle an Engineering degree especially in the later stages.
So far I coud handle everythin fairly well, but I've never had to spend more than 8 lessons a week on maths/physics (German School system with 10 courses util leaving school) and I'm getting really scared of not being real Engineering material, since I anyway can't claim that I've dreamt of becoming an engineer and it simply came as a somehow logical conclusion.

Reply 2

HappyClouds

I personally think it's up to you which course you want to go for. Don't worry about the cost of Uni's because when you graduate, you will earn a lot more (allowing you to pay of Uni expenses). It really depends on whether you are 'willing' to put the effort in, If not then you'll be wasting your time and money. Do whatever interests you the most :smile:

Reply 3

PorQpine

Original post by HappyClouds

That again is something I'm not sure about.

Engineering starting salaries are something like 28k in Britain, if I'm not mistaken.
Depending on where you live and I have to admit - since my father is English and has raised me to "feel English" as well - I would like to consider moving to England, I can't imagine that you will earn much more than enough to live with a moderately decent standard of living.

Also I have to admit that so far I have never worked 60 hours a week and am really unsure about whether or not I am willing to do so.

I know I should be making this choice for myself but I honestly feel unable to.
Which is a bit of stupid situation to be in...

Reply 4

HappyClouds

I don't know anything about Business Studies so i can't really help you on that (sorry!). I going to start my Mechanical Engineering course end of September. It would mostly include Statics, Thermodynamics, Mechanics and some sort of Application. The salaries can range but I've heard, with some experience you could earn 40-50k per year (correct me if I'm wrong).
Another thing you could take in account is, how well have you done for your previous exams (especially maths and physics) and how much time have you spent on them. I'm not sure if it's 'actually 60 hours per week' (i'll soon find out) but that you easily depend on how easily you grip on the concept.
I'm sure deep down you know whats right for you. If not, you could always ask your dad for advice :smile: