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As a one-time engineering student, I can tell you that even if you have excellent math and science skills, studying engineering is very difficult. The scope of the profession goes way beyond knowing your math and physics.

The process of building better tools, bridges, buildings and things requires an uncanny, meticulous work ethic to go with uncanny math and science knowledge and skill. You also need to be able to collaborate with people in all stages of the project planning process to get the job done. Becoming an engineer takes a combination of technical skill, communicative ability and work ethic. If you like working with others to finish projects and solve problems, engineering may work for you. If you're great at math and science, engineering may work for you. And if you are a natural hard worker that can push him/herself each and every day to work at high levels and get the job done, engineering may work for you. But it only works for you if you possess all three qualities.

To become an engineer, you need to earn at least a four year Bachelor's of Science degree, though if you're ambitious and want to make the big money, you may need to go to graduate school and earn a Masters in Engineering.

This belies the challenge of just getting into an undergraduate engineering program in the first place. Never mind just knowing your math and science: colleges want to see strong SAT and ACT scores in math and science. They want to see plenty of advanced math and science classes, even AP classes, on your high school transcript. They want to see at least a 3.0 GPA, probably higher. You have to walk in the door at college having shown you can perform at a relatively high level.

From the start, you have to possess not just solid math and science skills, but a strong work ethic and problem solving ability from the moment you start studying engineering in college. The first courses most engineers take involve statics, mechanics and engineering physics. Beginning courses involve intensive calculation methods for obvious reasons: if a bridge's physics is just a hair imbalanced, it falls over or collapses. If a machine is built with one part slightly out of alignment, it will malfunction and may even fall apart. You have to make sure that every part in your structure is perfectly balanced.

The latticework of complex calculations you learn involve calculus and physics equations, plus analytical thinking and problem solving to determine which types of calculations to use when.

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