Because there is such a hullaballoo around the engineering profession these days, parents, teachers, counselors, business people, and even the government are touting the profession for just about anybody. As a result, more and more students are declaring, "I want to be an engineer!" When I hear those words, I usually say something like, "That's great! Why do you think you want to do that?"
To that question, a few students immediately describe how they started building things -- model airplanes, Lego constructions, primitive robots and computers, etc. -- when they were as young as three years old. One boy announced that he wired his family home with a sound system when he was twelve. A Dakota farm girl told me how her big brother taught her to build a fort, including gathering sticks from a near-by orchard, then weaving them into walls and a roof, building a door and even a skylight. These students revealed an enthusiasm for becoming an engineer based on several first-hand engineer-like experiences from their youth.
On the other hand, most students don't really know why they want to be an engineer, let alone what type of engineer. They say things like, "My parents told me that I would earn a lot of money if I became an engineer, even with just a bachelor's degree" or "My physics teacher said I would never be out of a job during good or bad economic times" or "I like telling people that I want to be an engineer.