<p>I originally wanted to do Aerospace however I have noticed mechanical engineers have more job offers as well as internship opportunities. It is very hard to find a summer internship as aerospace engineer compared to mechanical.</p>
<p>What should i do?</p>
<p>Have you done a search for that question? I’ve answered it three times on here in the last three weeks.</p>
<p>Please post a link to your posts. :)</p>
<p>From what Ive read so far. The prefered path is mechanical undergrad, then aerospace grad.</p>
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<p>“Preferred path” is a made up concept. As long as you have the skill set that companies are looking for, they could care less if you got it in a mechanical engineering degree or aerospace degree.</p>
<p>Mechanical undergrad to aerospace grad school is the path I took. However, as much as people say that is the “preferred path”, they fail to explain why. They usually say it is because you do a broad, mechanical engineering degree in undergrad and then specialize in graduate school. The thing is, they fail to recognize that the whole idea behind graduate school is to specialize. It kind of makes the whole thing a moot point. You would have a slightly different skill set than someone who just did aero the whole way, but I doubt any company/lab/university is going to care if they hire you to research aerodynamic stability that you also know how to design gear teeth and a 4-bar linkage.</p>
<p>It is a perfectly reasonable path that will get you where you want to go, but it doesn’t really offer an advantage over AeroE undergrad to AeroE grad school.</p>
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<p>Mechanical engineers have more job offers because there are more jobs for mechanical engineers. The thing is, there are a whole heck of a lot more mechanical engineers in general than there are aerospace engineers. It is a much broader field. If you look strictly at the aerospace field, there will be a roughly equal number of mechanical engineering jobs to aerospace engineering jobs, maybe a few more on the aerospace side, but not by much. In my experience, it isn’t any more difficult to find an Aero internship than it is to find a Mech internship.</p>
<p>Basically, aerospace gives you a more robust set of skills for certain aerospace concepts, particularly in fluids and aeroelasticity. These kinds of topics are directly related to those covered in mechanical engineering curricula, but emphasized for aerospace applications. It is very, very common to get aerospace jobs as a mechanical engineer, though an aerospace engineer would definitely have at least a little bit of an advantage in certain areas like aerodynamics. For the most part though, for the less specific jobs, the two degrees are essentially treated the same most of the time.</p>
<p>If you feel like you 100% sure want to work in aerospace and you want to potentially work in a more aerospace-specialized area like aerodynamics or aeroelasticity, then you should probably take the AeroE route.</p>
<p>If you feel like there are other industries you want to work in potentially or if you want to just generally work in the aerospace industry but want to just end up working on materials or something like that, then MechE offers you a bit more of a safety net in case your plans change without sacrificing job competency.</p>
<p>Other than that, it is kind of a wash.</p>
<p>"If you feel like you 100% sure want to work in aerospace and you want to potentially work in a more aerospace-specialized area like aerodynamics or aeroelasticity, then you should probably take the AeroE route.</p>
<p>If you feel like there are other industries you want to work in potentially or if you want to just generally work in the aerospace industry but want to just end up working on materials or something like that, then MechE offers you a bit more of a safety net in case your plans change without sacrificing job competency."</p>
<p>are you referring to an MS? I know the idea of BS ME to MS AE comes up often, what about if I didn’t get undergrad in ME or AE, but I want to get my MS in ME or AE? I want to work in fluids/thermal and would prefer to work in the aerospace/defense industry, but would consider other ones as a safety net</p>
<p>Bone- I agree with what you say if the OP is sure he is going to proceed to an advanced degree in Aero. MechE being “recommended” as the initial degree-path is beacuse the OP may not go on to an advanced degree, and if that’s the case, he/she will have more job options available with just a MechE degree. Virtually all of our Aero positions require advanced degrees, but that is not true of our MechE positions. MechE undergrad, with aero electives, is a very flexible undergrad major for either initial employment or grad school.</p>
<p>ME is definitely a more flexible major, but advanced degrees aside, there are reasons to do AE instead. Even at the undergrad level, if you are sure you want to work with planes and you want to do anything in the fluids area, it helps if you have an AE background instead of an ME background. I did my undergrad in ME at UIUC and took all the “aero electives” that would fit into my schedule that I knew about, and without taking extra classes beyond the hours required to graduate, there was no real way to get the aerospace perspective in the fluids area. In particular, ME’s are almost not exposed to potential flow theory at all, which is the most basic fluids course in an AE degree. It isn’t entirely useful in practice, but it sets up a lot of fundamental concepts that pertain to aerospace but not most ME positions, so the AE guys have a slight advantage in the fluids department even at the BS level. If you think you may want to do dynamics and controls or materials, then I would even argue that ME is a more powerful degree, but for aerodynamics in particular, if you want to get a BS level job, the AE degree will give you a slight edge. Whether that slight edge is worth the slight loss of flexibility is up to the individual.</p>
<p>as an ME undergrad you could take tech electives in Aero E, you could go to grad school for Aero E, you could get an internship in Aero E, etc. etc. etc. </p>
<p>while at the same time you can do a million other different things (this is the nice part)</p>
<p>Say if I wanted to specialize in Aerospace Propulsion/Combustion in grad school, which would be the preferred route for undergrad, ME or AE?</p>
<p>if i could get my dumb little question in real quick, i won’t be a bother…</p>
<p>i’m an aeroE undergrad and i’m thinking about doing a combined degree thing to get a mechE ms. this is the reverse of what i see talked about here… reflect on this please.</p>
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<p>Again, there is no such thing as “preferred route.” If you want to do aerospace propulsion/combustion, you could do either degree as long as you just take a class on combustion and a class on propulsion, which is something you could do within the confines of either degree plan. You may be able to stay somewhat broad by going the ME route but if grad school is your goal then that is not nearly as important.</p>
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<p>What is there to reflect on? It all depends on your own personal goals, which is something we can’t tell you.</p>