Aerospace Undergraduate - UCLA, UCBerkeley, GeorgiaTech, UMich or Cornell

College Majors Engineering Majors
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I have been admitted to the undergraduate program in Aerospace Engineering at UMich Ann Arbor, Georgia Tech, and UCLA, along with Mechanical Engineering major (with intention of Aerospace minor) at UC Berkeley. I have a good chance of getting into Cornell Mechanical Engineering (intention of Aerospace minor again) as well.

I am having a hard time trying to make up my mind about which college to select. I have looked into all of them and all of them seem like they would be great. What I’m looking for the most in college is opportunities to do research/internships. I’m also more interested in the astronautical side of aerospace rather than just aeronautical, but not sure if that makes too much of a difference. I do intend to go onto Graduate School later on. Furthermore, at whatever college I go to, I’m hoping to minor in Computer Science, but maybe not at Berkeley/Cornell if I’m already doing an aerospace minor.

Could anyone provide some insight into which college may be better suited for my plans, and which college would set me on a better path for graduate school and a career in the Aerospace Industry later on? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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I am just here to say… “Congratulations”!!! That’s a nice grouping of colleges. Are any instate for you and can you afford them all?

Of course you can always go to the winner of the Michigan /UCLA (maybe) Men’s Basketball game on Tuesday… :basketball::wink:.

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Thanks!! It’s not looking like cost is currently something that I need to worry about, so all of them should be affordable for me.

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At this point it is down to which school has the best ice cream. Those are all great schools known for their engineering departments.

If you didn’t find anything to distinguish the programs FOR YOU, it comes down to things that can’t be changed at the school and which you like best - weather, dorms, fraternities, size, community where the school is located. And ice cream.

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Haha ok, noted. I’m coming from a place that doesn’t typically have extreme weather (no snow for sure), so I’m definitely hesitant about facing Michigan Winters. Georgia Tech’s size is also slightly more appealing to me with 15,000 undergraduates compared to 30,000.

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Sorry you might not have that choice. Michigan does indeed play UCLA on Monday. That should decide your life trajectory… :rofl:…

I had the pleasure to see a demo prototype for a NASA helmet that had Augmented Reality built in. I played with it before NASA did at Michigan. This was done by a very large grant given to Michigan from NASA. I am sure you might hear similar stories from other schools.

What else do you want out of your 4 years living on campus? Your getting jobs at all of these schools

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I’m looking more for hands-on experience on real-world products, whether that be in the Aerospace Industry or through college teams. From what I understand, all of these schools (especially Georgia Tech and Michigan) have many competition teams in which I’ll be able to do that. I’m also more open to smaller class sizes, especially engineering ones, and faculty/professors that are open/willing to help students out. I’m definitely not the type of person to go out to parties regularly either, but that being said, I’m hoping to not go somewhere where my entire life will be classes and studying.

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So most of us will push our biases so I guess I will start :wink:… Michigan is more collaboration then competitive in general. Most classes after first year become smaller and breakdown with a professor or TA to about 30 students. Professors are extremely approachable and willing to help. My son started a tech club as a freshman and professors approached him on how to help. In fact Alumni did also after it became public what they were doing. Applying for and getting around $15,000 grants to start this adventure that made its way to weekly lectures by companies and a yearly conference with the likes of Ford, Microsoft and tons of known companies in this sector. So my point is, just show a willingness to make something happen and Michigan will help you make it happen. Facility and Faculty are some of the best out there. I am sure you can say the same for GT. My understanding is GT and Berkeley are more competitive in nature,in comparison. Saying that Michigan is not an easy school at all even for someone getting into all these great schools. My son sums it up as “The easy classes are hard and we all struggle together”, probably similar at most top engineering schools. Main advantage at Michigan is you can move around pretty easy if aerospace or mechanical isn’t for you. Your not locked in to one or the other. It happens. They have an attitude that is more familial and they want what is best for you per se.

Sports. Well. Nothing like seeing a football game with around 112,000 fans. It’s fun even if it’s not your thing. Michigan is top 10 in 45 majors and areas. Constantly rated the top or one of the top campuses for a reason and Ann Arbor in general is usually rated one of the best places to live in America for a reason. The area is also very safe.
As far as parties etc its what you make of it. Don’t do or go if you want to. No one cares what you do. You never have to go to a sporting event but I would go at least to experience it all.

So my son worked about 10 - 15 hours freshman till senior year /week. Developed his club that had weekly speakers and events. Was very active in the university community had internships and landed a job early in this year’s process. So did his friends in different areas of engineering /business etc. Went to every football game but sometimes studied after since he worked all day Sunday… Some would go to parties and blow off the entire day. He also played flag football freshman year Sunday at 10:30 pm under the lights… Sophomore year it as during the day.

All of these schools are not just national brands but most likely international brands. But I tell you wear a Michigan t-shirt just about anywhere in the world and you will be stopped…

I can give you a great place as someone stated for ice cream if needed… Lol :shaved_ice:

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Great to hear, something that’s slightly pushing me towards Michigan is the ability to not be confined to just Aerospace Engineering. I’ve also heard a ton about how great the environment is and it sounds like you’re reinforcing the same ideas. Do you also have any opinions on dorms at Michigan? I’ve been getting a lot of mixed feedback on their quality, especially in terms of travel time from where I’d be staying to classes on North Campus, eating places, etc.

Thanks again for all your input; all of that’s definitely very helpful! I’ll also take the Ice Cream recommendation if you have one.

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Pizza Bob’s - hot fudge chocolate chip shakes. Seriously… Game over! :shaved_ice:

First year most of your classes are on central campus. You can be on central or north. North 15 min bus ride. Just not a big deal. Even when your into your major just get an apartment on central if you want. My son did central freshman year and North the next 3. He was about 10-15 walk to class’s regardless where he was. You don’t get to choose the dorms unless your in a living community or honors. His dorm was West Quad and really nice. Most are redone or in the process… They are dorms.

Its a great environment for learning and meeting new people. The time from here to there in my opinion is way overblown. My kids took a train to a bus to go to school living in Chicago. The bus is just not a big deal.

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I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on the size of the undergraduate population in general. I would pay more attention to how many engineering students there are. That will have the most impact on how “big” the school feels to you, because it’s what influences how many people will be in the classes you take. I don’t know the breakdown, but GT may be smaller, but still feel bigger.

Your opportunities will be based much more on what you do to distinguish yourself with your GPA, school projects like your senior project, and internships/coops, than they will by which of these schools you choose. Sure opportunities will be different, but you can’t say unequivocally one school’s will be better than another.

The salary you make will be driven far more by where your first job is than where you go to school.

So, those two things given, paying attention to cost actually IS important. Why? because you, your parents, or both, can do something with the differential. It’s called opportunity cost. Over a career it can amount to MILLIONS of dollars. Let’s say for example one school is $100K cheaper than the rest. If you were to invest that in the total stock market for 40 years and get the historical market return, you’d have over $4M! That’s before inflation, but that’s how much MORE money you’d have to make over an entire career to make up for that opportunity cost.

I’m in no way saying choose the cheapest school. I am saying that there is a financial cost to the decision. Given that these schools are generically the same, I wouldn’t discount the price.

As far as the minor in CS goes, minors in general aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. The usually make you take more classes at the expense of depth and breadth in the area you want to concentrate on. Employers don’t care. They care about the competencies you bring to the table. You’ll likely get plenty of plenty of programming to demonstrate that.

Lastly, don’t assume that you will go to graduate school. You don’t even really know yet what engineering is. No one does until they get pretty deep in the weeds in their curriculum. Your interests will evolve as your knowledge grows. Things change. You might get burned out. You might have all the skills and connections you need for your dream job with a BS only. Start with the assumption that you will NOT go to graduate school, but make yourself the best candidate that you can with strong coursework, good GPA and projects. Seek out the opportunity to do research and it will help inform your decision.

Congrats and good luck!

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Ok, so transportation doesn’t sound like it’ll be an issue. Michigan’s definitely starting to look a lot more appealing now. One last question I had about Michigan is research opportunities. From what I’m hearing here, it’s more of if you have the motivation to do it, you’ll be able to get some sort of research done through Undergrad. Overall, though, is it easy for say first-years to be involved with labs at Michigan, or is that something that people typically have to wait a few years for (if the chance even comes around at all)?

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Thank you so much for the response! All of that’s amazing to hear. One thing I’ve been concerned about what choosing one of the colleges but not getting as many opportunities to work in the field as I would have liked, but it’s good to hear that it’s more of what I do with the experience rather than the experience itself.

One question about the CS minor part; would taking specific CS courses at the university be a good replacement for an actual minor (and mean the same thing coming out of my undergrad), since I definitely want to have some in-depth CS knowledge after my four years?

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The definition of a “minor” is quite variable across colleges, more so than the definition of a “major”. What one college defines as a minor may require substantially more course work than what another college defines as a minor in the same subject.

Taking the frosh/soph level CS courses for CS majors should give you a good base for future self-education in CS. Taking some upper level CS courses can help even more. However, at many colleges, CS courses are packed full with CS majors, so getting into them as a non-CS major with lower enrollment priority may be difficult.

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It doesn’t make a lot of sense to take a bunch of random languages until you know what you’ll need to use. I’d do a self study Python course if you don’t already know it and then wait to see what’s going to be useful.

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So if you want research join Urop or just contact a professor. My son’s CS friends that wanted research were doing it some freshman and some Sophomore year. It’s up to you. One freshman year won some award it was a space augmented reality project… Kinda cool actually
My son did research through a leadership program he was part of freshman year. It’s really up to you. Talk to engineering at Michigan and call the CS department. Also my friends CS friends had internships that summer between freshman and sophomore year… Like at Microsoft etc. But these kids were all leaders in various groups like my sons and SWE etc. So getting involved and making a name for yourself to me is key. Yes, don’t focus on size. With 35,000 undergrads my son met 1 Ross Business kid through Facebook and it changed his entire 4 year trajectory since they started his group. I can send you the link to his conference in April… If your into augmented /mixed reality. This started as a freshman and the only Midwestern conference like it.

Also I disagree slightly with my friend @eyemgh about minors. At Michigan it’s encouraged but maybe it’s major dependant. My son’s 1 sustainability and entrepreneurship minors spoke to both his internships, study abroad and international internship in Israel. His job offer, they told him besides his activity on campus was they wanted someone with international experience and his minors speak directly to this companies mission. But he’s in Industrial Engineering so maybe it makes more sense but… I think you should do what you enjoy and have an interest in. Even in Industrial they are stepping up learning programming since that is what the world wants. My son knows like 5 languages and had C++/python instead of Matlab as a freshman. His senior design project is building some type of database with some languages for a “real” large company… He showed it to me and looks cool. In his entrepreneurship classes they are taught by CEO of known companies… Kinda cool.

So yes, at Michigan you can do what you want to. Call and ask. They are nice people… Lol…

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I think what is beneficial for an IE is pretty different than what would help an AE though. IEs simply don’t typically do the calculations that Matlab is used for. AEs and MEs sure do though. In general, IE is very much an outlier in the engineering fields, as its emphasis is on high level operational decisions and optimization. Broadening of experiences are very helpful whereas in the more technical fields that are more down in the weeds, deepening is often an advantage. YMMV. JMHO.

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Totally agree and I don’t know a lot about AE. I just see my son’s friends in mechanical, CS, some in AE etc that kinda all do what their interested in on campus. Some with minors and some without but doing like side projects and research. The team that made the NASA helmets with Augmented Reality built in, was a mixed team of all.

In reality the OP has only great choices and job offers will be there at any of these schools. To me it’s always what the student does on campus not really the school that sets them apart. The companies come to these schools and typically know what their getting. Each school has their own credibility. All my sons friends that were active in clubs /orgs/research /etc on campus all got early job offers. That to me was the greatest thing to appreciate. Any school can say their the best in this and that but in reality it comes down to getting jobs…

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I completely concur.

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Thanks again for all of this!

That project sounds really cool. I’d love it if you could send me that link for me to look at.