Aerospace Engineering?

I’m currently an undergraduate student. I really want to go for something which includes a lot of math, physics and space-stuff(?). (I’m in love with Calculus.) I’ve lately been thinking a lot about aerospace engineering but I’m not exactly sure if it is right for me. I originally wanted to go for something to do with Astronomy and space science but that doesn’t look very promising. My other choice is nanotechnology.
Does a degree in Aerospace Engineering provide a promising career?
Please feel free to ask any question for more information from/of my studies.

(PS: I’m a girl, would that matter?)

Sure it provides a promising career. You can do space or air related things. There is some overlap with astronomy on the space side and a ton of overlap with mechanical engineering on all sides.

Well, I don’t want to give my opinion. But, I will share some valuable information from persons that have worked as Aerospace Engineer. I will paste their opinion in here from Quora as follows:

Person #1: The Aerospace engineering industry has the Highest ratio of Engineers to total employees of any industry. And most of those engineers are Not aerospace engineers. They are Mechanical, Materials, Electronics, Chemical, etc. Engineers.

There are a Lot of jobs in the aerospace industry. In the USA merely search the Boeing or Lockheed-Martin or Northrop-Grumman, etc web sites and there are Many jobs listed.

However, the aerospace industry is limited to certain regions within the USA. Therefore, you must be willing to live in those regions in order to work in the industry.

person #2: I disagree with the answer that said a good B student will easily get an aerospace job. I know several that would have liked to work in aerospace and ended up in other fields. Remember that aerospace is a highly cyclical industry (and even individual companies have pronounced cycles from project to project). That said, over the last decade plus it has been a good industry to be in.

Some things that effect these cycles:

  1. Large Commercial Product Launches - If Boeing and Airbus simultaneously launch new planes requiring extensive innovation (A380 /787) then the ripple effect through the industry is huge. One nice thing about this is that aircraft companies have to look 6-10 years out because of product cycle time and this often results in the industry being counter-cyclical versus the overall economy to some degree.

  2. Military/Space Spending - This is a large driver in the US, as some of the best paying and most advanced technological jobs come through this venue. Reagan’s heavily funded Star Wars program was apparently an employment gold mine in California. For better or worse those days have probably come and gone.

  3. General Economy - The general economy has a big effect on business aviation. Small business aviation was hit very hard during the Great Recession and is still recovering. Anecdotally, business jets are a tougher corporate sell than they used to be.

Hopefully this information is helpful for OP.

Here is another valuable information for anyone who has interests in aerospace engineering.

Aerospace/Aeronautical engineering, falls into the following realms.

Some people study the science of Propulsion. Airbus, Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers do not involve with engines. Engines are so complicated that they require a separate company and millions of dollars worth of R&D to develop. This is where GE, Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney comes in. One can be recruited as an Engineer with one of these companies.

The rest of the air plane will be developed by the manufacturers, who recruit people specialised in Structures, Aerodynamics, Avionics, etc. So you can be employed in one of these divisions. Again, people specialised in CFD, perform computational work while experimentalist are responsible for wind tunnel validation. Structures people analyse and try to choose an appropriate material, which is light and at same time, incredibly strong. They will also be responsible to minimise vibrations. Speaking of vibrations, there are people who study the Noise emitted by an aircraft and try to incorporate design modifications to minimise them. So, basically Airbus/Boeing recruit all type of engineers.

Consider an aircraft being sold to a company. For instance, consider that Boeing has sold some 787s to Air India. The aircraft is not destined to fly forever. It needs occasional minor maintainance and sometimes, a complete overhaul. These maintainance work will be the responsibility of Air India and not Boeing. So, Air India also recruits maintainance engineers (This might only be possible if one has pursued aircraft maintenance engineering or similar). So, engineers can be employed in hundreds of the airlines around the world.

MY OPINION:

If you don’t mind working in other country (s) then as aerospace engineer, you will have job even high paying job eventually after moving thru rank-and-file the corporate ladder. Good luck and may the Force be with you.

The above two posts are mostly good information. I’d like to point out, though, that the percentage of aerospace jobs being shipped overseas for maintenance purposes is very, very small. The engineering teams at all of the major airframers and propulsion companies are very heavily based in the US (or their respective countries of origin, e.g. the UK, France, etc.) with the exception of Rolls-Royce, which is split between the US and the UK.

Of course this has little to do with the space side of things.

@boneh3ad @Tulanefan101 If I get a degree from somewhere overseas (probably UK), would I be able to get a job in the US?

That is a good question while lots of kids from overseas wanting to come here to be able to get US diploma/degrees.

To answer your question, perhaps you need to answer the following questions or kind of taking personal inventory as follows:

  1. School financing: going to school in UK, are you self-pay? will you be able to secure any kinds of scholarships, etc? while if you study in your state college, you probably will get a bit of scholarship with the tuition and fee are a bit lower than private colleges. And you certainly, can work PT if necessary. But, while you are in UK, do you need another visa to get any PT job ?
  2. Pursuing education in UK, will you go to name brand school or otherwise? if it is unknown then maybe it will affect your entry level job upon graduation. Remember in our country USA, you have to go to engineering schools being approved by ABET. So, if you go to Podunk UK university and it does not even bear the ABET stamp then it is kind of hard to get jobs in our country.
  3. I don't know about UK education systems like A level or O level in high school let alone their university systems etc. Will you get your engineering degree in 4 years like ours or you have to take other meaningless but mandatory classes like UK culture and event, etc. Thus, will prolong your education? and the longer you stay there in UK, the more money you have to spend.
  4. The foreign exchange money US vs UK, I believe that UK is a bit more. So, you have to calculate the whole things. School is expensive and you have to budget for 4 yrs education with their UK money.
  5. As being a girl, will you be able to handle culture shocks? culture differences are good but some people can not handle those things as they miss home aka miss their favorite uncle buck or their friends like Joe Nobody, miss the home food, etc. You probably will get tired eating Fish and Chips UK style and wanting a good burger or home meal. And I think it rains a lot in UK so you have to carry umbrella? Anyhow, you have to have strong mind to handle and maneuver those things.
  6. After obtaining the degree from UK and if you want to work in the US in aerospace industry, you need to pass the Govt clearance for security purposes. So, I don't know how they will do the background check for you. I have no idea.

Lastly, like any foreign students that comes here, they have to work twice as hard to handle the school things and cultural differences. Therefore, you also will do the same although you don’t have language problems and yet you are still being considered as foreign students.

Only you can answer the questions. I am just trying to help.