How to Choose Your Engineering Specialisation: How and why I picked EngSci (My Process of Elimination & MART)

👋 Hi everyone! I’m Ashmit, and this is my very first post as a Part II Engineering Science blogger! A year ago, I was a first‑year student just like many of you, staring at a long list of specialisations and wondering which one would feel like home. I have always felt that the blogs I write should capture the journey of an EngSci student, and the very first step in that journey is, of course, how you would end up in EngSci in the first place. So here is a post about exactly that 🙂

How I Actually Chose My Specialisation

Back then, I didn’t have a neat system or spreadsheet. My approach was … well… a bit like a reverse shopping list. Instead of scoring everything, I started crossing out the things I knew weren’t me, and through that, I made the decision to choose Engsci.

Step 1: Eliminating what wasn’t for me

Mechanical, Civil, and Structural were the first to go because my ENGGEN 115 tower held a grand total of 0 kgs 💀. Honestly, the world is probably safer without me designing bridges! I also didn’t enjoy memorising content-heavy stuff, and had no background in chemistry and biology, so that led me to eliminate Chemmat and Biomedical engineering as my choices. However, I still wasn’t completely sure what specialisation I wanted to do next, though.

Step 2: Focusing on what I enjoyed

What helped me narrow things down were the courses I enjoyed: ENGSCI 111 (Mathematical Modelling 1) and ELECTENG 101 (analysing circuits). That gave me a clue for what to include in my top five specialisations by the end of Semester 2: something that involved circuits and problem‑solving, but not so much physical building. For a while, I even considered switching to ECSE (Electrical, Software, or CompSys) after the first round of allocations.

Step 3: A sign from Summer School

Then, by chance, I got into ENGGEN 299 over Summer School, and it felt like a sign. I loved the logic in Compsys and the excitement of circuit analysis in Electrical engineering, but my motor‑building disaster in 299 (panic‑stricken TA help plus my soldering “skills” equaled a motor that barely spun ⚡️😅) convinced me that hardware‑heavy fields were not for me.

Step 4: Why not Software?

So why not Software? Honestly, I wanted more maths than that (and also wanted to avoid stuff such as discrete maths). EngSci gave me both the coding I enjoyed and the math I loved. So, that is how I ended up here, and I couldn’t be happier to share this journey with you all 🚀✨.

A Better Way: Using MART

Looking back, my method worked for me, but there are definitely more structured ways for finding your fit of engineering specialisations.

One of my friends shared how he used something called the MART – Multi‑Attribute Rating Technique (taught in ENGGEN 115) to make his decision. It’s usually used to pick between design concepts, but you can also use it to compare specialisations. I think at the time of writing this blog, this is also probably being taught in ENGGEN 115.

Let me show you how it works and how EngSci still came out on top when I tried it later for fun. In my version of the MART, it has the specs that I had in my top 5 (Engsci, Electrical, Software, Compsys, and Mechatronics). I could have done it with all 10 specs, but that would take too much space, would be too much to read/look at, and ruin the aesthetics of this blog.

Step 1: Decide on Criteria

Here are the six criteria that I cared about the most:

Criterion	Why it matters
Industry demand	I wanted a future‑proof specialisation with lots of opportunities.
Career flexibility	I wanted a pathway that leads to many industries.
Math focus	I enjoy mathematical modelling and problem-solving.
Low building requirement	Less physical construction and hardware assembly.
Coding focus	I enjoy coding things up for fun.
Department vibe	I asked senior students which departments have lecturers who have a well‑liked and supportive vibe to them.

Step 2: Rank the Importance based on Weights

Weights show how important each criterion is to me.
Key: (5 = most important, 1 = least important)

Criterion	Weight
Industry demand	5
Career flexibility	4
Math focus	4
Low building requirement	3
Coding focus	2
Department vibe	1

Step 3: Score Each Specialisation

I scored my top five specialisations out of 5 for each criterion. These ratings are subjective to me, and I have shared what I rated each, in my opinion.

Key: (5 = meets perfectly) (1 = does not meet the criteria at all)

Spec	Industry Demand	Career Flexibility	Math Focus	Low Building	Coding Focus	Dept Vibe
EngSci	3	5	5	5	4	4
Software	2	3	3	5	5	4
Electrical	4	2	5	3	2	5
CompSys	3	3	4	3	4	5
Mechatronics	4	4	4	1	3	3

Step 4: Multiply Scores by their weights

Spec	Industry (×5)	Career Flex (×4)	Math (×4)	Low Build (×3)	Coding (×2)	Dept Vibe (×1)	Total
EngSci	3×5 = 15	5×4 = 20	5×4 = 20	5×3 = 15	4×2 = 8	4×1 = 4	82
Software	2×5 = 10	3×4 = 12	3×4 = 12	5×3 = 15	5×2 = 10	4×1 = 4	63
Electrical	4×5 = 20	2×4 = 8	5×4 = 20	3×3 = 9	2×2 = 4	5×1 = 5	66
CompSys	3×5 = 15	3×4 = 12	4×4 = 16	3×3 = 9	4×2 = 8	5×1 = 5	65
Mechatronics	4×5 = 20	4×4 = 16	4×4 = 16	1×3 = 3	3×2 = 6	3×1 = 3	64

Step 5: Ranking 🏆

Rank	Specialisation	Total Score
🥇	EngSci	82
🥈	Electrical	66
🥉	CompSys	65
4	Mechatronics	64
5	Software	63

What This MART Analysis Shows

Even though my original decision came from crossing out what I didn’t like, the MART method confirmed exactly why EngSci was the right fit for me. It’s strong in maths, gives me plenty of coding opportunities, avoids heavy building work, and opens up a wide range of careers. It’s also a great tool for capturing how you feel about each specialisation. I’d definitely recommend every Part I student try a MART analysis like I did above – just adjust the criteria and scores to match what matters most to you.

Cool EngSci Trivia

When it comes to deciding your specialisation, an important thing to note is that EngSci was Mechatronics before Mechatronics was even a thing. Thirty years ago, EngSci actually made you do compulsory Electrical and Control Systems courses. Nowadays, those have been replaced by electives, and most people lean towards areas such as Machine Learning, Data Science, and Software for these electives. But here is the beauty of EngSci: nothing is stopping you from picking electrical or mechanical electives if that is what you enjoy. That flexibility is what makes EngSci such a powerful spec. You can shape it to be whatever you want it to be, which in my (totally biased) opinion makes it even better than Mechatronics and equips you with versatile, in‑demand skills that can open doors to a wide range of careers in today’s uncertain j*b market.

(Below is an old document from 1993 showing the required papers an Engsci-er had to do back then, and the present degree can still be very similar to this)

Your Turn 🙂

Now that you have seen how I worked through my decision using both my process of elimination and the MART approach, why not give it a try yourself? Create your own table, choose the criteria that matter most to you, and see which specialisation comes out on top.

Choosing is not just about ticking boxes. It is about noticing what excites you and what feels like the right fit when you learn it. This stage is special because you are shaping the beginning of your own engineering story.

I look forward to sharing more from my EngSci journey in upcoming blogs. Until then, happy exploring and good luck with your own decision. See you soon! 📈 🖥️ 💜