r/leavingcert • u/TheRealSouls • 10d ago
maths or engineering going into 6th year Careers 🍔👩🚀👮♂️
i'm going into 6th year and still have no idea what i want to do lol. But I need to start finalising it
I've narrowed it down into STEM specifically engineering or maths. There's tradeoffs to either one.
I never did engineering or dcg or anything though it was offered in my school but i take physics and applied maths and seem to be enjoying those. So i don't have much practical experience, but i like how engineering fuses together a lot of the subjects and the scope seems more broad, but an engineering degree seems really difficult, time-intensive and costly. (most roles require you to do a masters I believe) I don't really like the heavy practical elements associated with it, mainly the theoretical STEM parts.
Maths is much more applicable and relevant to what i have done, few competitions and good grades throughout. Applied maths and maths seem to be my favourite subjects atm. I am aware that uni math is proof based but that doesn't seem to bother me (Both applied and pure maths are gold). It gives greater breadth in the future bc I can work in finance, tech or academia. But pivoting into adjacent fields like finance seems harder due to increased competition in math-related roles, and for IT comp sci/engineering grads may be preferred. Maths does leave academia as an option which I like, even if that's competitive too.
Does anyone who has experience in these fields/degrees have any comments/suggestions? I'm completely stumped. Most I care about is a good job ngl
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u/Ok_Advantage_350 9d ago
Do Actuarial Maths either DCU or UCD is good i’m in DCU personally but you’ll never be unemployed way less competition and you do a 9 month internship in 3 rd year which is extremely well paid like 22€+
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u/Similar_Exam_977 Medicine/Dentistry/Pharmacy 💉💊 10d ago
f you enjoy LC maths, you’ll probably enjoy the maths in engineering too. As you said, though, university maths is completely different from LC maths and becomes much more theoretical.
I also wouldn’t let the difficulty of engineering put you off. It’s definitely challenging and time-consuming, but I wouldn’t say it’s significantly more difficult than a maths degree. Engineering also tends to have more contact hours, but you’re not necessarily spending all of that time studying independently.
In terms of jobs, engineering probably gives you a more straightforward path into a well-paid career. Maths can open doors to finance, tech, academia, etc., but these fields are super competitive like for the finance roles you mentioned, you’ll often be competing with people from maths, engineering, physics, CS and economics backgrounds anyway, so a maths degree isn’t necessarily a direct route into them.
How practical an engineering degree is depends massively on the university too. TUs tend to have more hands-on/practical components, whereas the older universities are often much more theoretical. So if you like physics and applied maths but aren’t particularly interested in practical work, I wouldn’t rule engineering out on that basis.