Aerospace Engineering vs Computer Science

College Majors
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As a junior in high school, I’m having trouble deciding what I should major in. I’ve been planning on majoring in aerospace engineering/mechanical engineering with my intent being to eventually work at an aerospace company such as NASA, but I’m now unsure if engineering is something I’ll enjoy.

While I haven’t had an opportunity to fully experience engineering I’ve really been excited about programming for the past few years and I’ve had a lot of fun learning more about this through my school and FRC robotics team. When joining the robotics team I intended to learn more about mechanical engineering, but ended up gravitating towards the electrical and programming side. I didn’t enjoy working with the larger machinery such as the cnc machine or bandsaws.

I’m still interested in a career regarding space and being on the frontline of discovery and exploration, but I’m also starting to look at internships at Google and other programming companies and I can envision myself working there.

I’ve been told it’s easier to switch out of engineering than into it, so I’m considering staying in engineering to try it out, but I’m honestly not sure any more. Is there any intersection between these two fields? Which one should I choose?

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You can work at a tech company with an engineering degree! I work at a tech company and we have lots of folks here who have engineering degrees, in many disciplines. Tech companies hire a LOT more roles besides just software developers (and not all software developers have CS degrees, although that’s the most direct route).

You can also work at NASA with a computer science degree :slight_smile: I’m positive that NASA has special software that was built by in-house developers.

Instead of thinking about where you would like to work, I’d think about the kind of work you’d like to do and the type of subjects you’d like to study. It is easier to transfer out of engineering than it is to go in - but you can also take the engineering prerequisites along with some computer science courses to help you figure out what you want to do. You also have an entire year of high school left - can you take an introductory computer science course, perhaps online, to see how you like it?

And yes, there is a LOT of overlap between computer science and engineering. I work in video games. We have mechanical and electrical engineers who design our hardware, for example. There’s a whole field called computer engineering (and electrical engineering is relatively close).

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