Aerospace vs Mechanical Engineering

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>Right now I'm stuck between choosing to major in Aero or Mech and need to decide because it would make my college search much easier if I knew which one I want to do. I am aware that they have many similarities and some schools combine the departments. I feel like I would be interested studying either. </p>

<p>My question is though, why does it seem that Aerospace Engineers get paid better than Mechanical Engineers in GENERAL. I have looked at many salaries and in general Aeros get paid about 100,000 while Mech get paid about 80,000. Is Aerospace Engineering alot harder, since its more specialized? Is it because the job market it smaller?</p>

<p>Right now I'm leaning towards Aero just because the salary due to the fact that they are very similar in terms of material learned. Do they just get paid better because the Aero industry has more money? So for example, if become a Mechanical Engineer but get a job for an Aero Industry would I be paid the same as the Aero Engineer?</p>

<p>Also, is it true that in the Aero Industry its very hard to keep a steady job? Will I be moving very often and losing jobs after projects are done often? Is is safer to just get a degree in ME due to the job opportunities.</p>

<p>Sorry for making this long, but one last question. If I can get into University of Illinois, which is top 3 Aero Eng schools in the country would it be worth 50k in debt after graduation compared to 20k in debt from SUNY Buffalo which is in state for me? Any answers are greatly appreciated.</p>

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<p>I won’t comment on your choice of majors (though my AE husband has always been employed, first in industry and now in academia, as are the friends he made through work back in the eighties). I just want to say that, as a rule of thumb, you should not take on student debt greater than your expected salary upon graduation. As an engineer, $50K would not be an unreasonable number. And, if you can get into Illinois your job prospects should be relatively good. (And that is not to take anything away from SUNY Buffalo.)</p>

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<p>Thank you any other advice anyone ??</p>

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<p>RIZKY-
My son is at Buffalo (since you mentioned that school). He’s a dual/double major: Aerospace AND Mechanical Engineering. He will graduate this May (on time with almost twice as many credits as you need to graduate due to AP credits accepted) with a BS in both majors!</p>

<p>The engineering dept at UB is fantastic. Son has had great experiences. Great advising. Son attended the Fall Job Fair and obtained summer internships between Soph and Junior years and between Jr and Sr years. (Different places each summer.) He also did paid research on campus with the graduate school! He already has 2 job offers upon graduation. (His girlfriend also had two summer engineering internships, and has a job offer as well.)</p>

<p>Son was accepted to 15 of 15 schools and after narrowing them down, he felt that UB was the smartest option for him (and this is from a kid who would not have to take out loans at any school!) He was amazed at what he saw in the labs and what was going on at UB. UB is so great for the sciences… and they have so many. New computer science/engineering building oped as well. </p>

<p>All I can say is we have been very happy with UB. No regrets on sons or our part. (this from educated professional parents with other son attending/graduating a private school). </p>

<p>Feel free to post specific questions if you have them. You can also post on the SUNY BUffalo thread on this site for more input from parents and students.</p>

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<p>You do not have to have a degree in Aerospace Engineering to get a job in the Aerospace field; in fact, sometimes you can get into the field easier if you have another degree, such as a Mechanical Engineering degree. Employers in this field want specialists; sometimes that means hiring a Mechanical Engineer for the landing gear, structures, etc. Or an Electrical Engineer for avionics, fire control systems, etc. Unless you go all the way to a PhD, chances are employers will consider you too much of a generalist as a Aerospace Engineering.</p>

<p>Don’t base your decision on money. Whatever the pay rates are now may not be accurate by the time you graduate.</p>

<p>If your passion is in the aerospace field, so be it–get a degree in Aerospace Engineering.</p>

<p>However, I think overall your career would be better if you went into another field.</p>

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<p>You honestly don’t have a clue what you are talking about, do you? It is not easier to get into the aerospace industry as a mechanical engineer than as an aerospace engineer. Yes, there are more mechanical engineers employed in the aerospace industry. , of course, there are a lot more mechanical engineers overall. In other words, yes there are more jobs for mechanical engineers, but there is also more competition. In other words, your chances of getting into the aerospace engineer as a mechanical engineer are not appreciably different than as an aerospace engineer.</p>

<p>The main difference is the jobs for which you might be hired. There is a fair bit of overlap, but an aerospace engineer will tend to get hired into a more specialized aerospace position than a mechanical engineer, though this is certainly not an unbreakable rule. Overall there will tend to be more mechanical engineers doing structural stuff and more aerospace engineers doing aerodynamics stuff, for example, though there are certainly plenty of mechanical engineers doing aerodynamics and plenty of aerospace engineers doing structures.</p>

<p>In fact, it is therefore quite the opposite of what our friend Michael here said. Generally, aerospace engineers are more specialized than mechanical engineers, not the other way around. The bottom line then is that if you are 100% certain you want to work in aerospace, go ahead and do aerospace engineering. If you have any doubts, do mechanical and just take electives that are relevant to aerospace and you will be in nearly the same boat as the aerospace engineering guys.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the replies but just one question still unanswered, the salaries. I am interested in the Aerospace field and I am pretty sure I want to work in this industry. I realize that I shouldn’t base my decision on money but there seems to be a big difference if I will be doing the same work and learning very similar things in school.</p>

<p>So if I become a Mechanical Engineer working in the Aerospace Industry will I earn around $100,000 a year or $80,000. This information is coming from many sites I’ve checked on average salaries for the occupations. Is the lower salary due to the fact that Mechanical Engineering is more general and wide-spread. There are Mechanical Engineers working in all different types of industries that just pay less. Or do all the Mechanical Engineers get paid the same.</p>

<p>Basically my question is, do Mechanical Engineers working in the Aerospace Industry earn the same amount as as the Aerospace Engineers? Or will the Mechanical Engineer still be paid the same as average salary for Mechanical Engineers in other industries?</p>

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<p>Salaries are industry-specific. Really they are company-specific. If you work at some airframer as a mechanical engineer doing the same job as an aerospace engineer at the same level of quality, you should be getting paid the same.</p>

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<p>AEs generally get paid more than MEs because the degree is more specialized (as boneh3ad already mentioned). The core classes between the two degrees are the same, and roughly half of the junior/senior level classes will be the same as well. The other half of the junior/senior year classes will have an aero/astro focus, as opposed to a robotics/HVAC/vibrations focus like you might see in ME.</p>

<p>You’ll find that when most companies post job openings, they will usually lump together many of the engineering degrees for the required education portion. For example, it’s not uncommon to see openings that require an ‘engineering, or science degree’. Few jobs specifically require an AE or ME degree unless you’re applying for high level, research oriented positions. Although, some positions might prefer (not require) one or the other.</p>

<p>Job stability depends on the company/organization you apply to. A good number of AE’s work as defense contractors and/or engineers at small companies, and these are some of the most volatile jobs out there. If you go down this path, you can pretty much expect you’ll be changing jobs (and possibly locations) atleast once every decade. On the plus side, defense contractors can make a lot of money, which is why many engineers choose to go down this path. Great if you’re planning to be single without kids for a long time! </p>

<p>On the other hand, if you decide to work as a government “blue badge” engineer, you can expect to have much better job security. In fact, it’s not uncommon to work your entire career for one organization. A much better option if you plan on having a family and/or being able to retire someday! The downside of working for the government is the bureaucracy, which generally makes it difficult to get work done and/or develop new products/technology.</p>

<p>In the middle of the job stability spectrum, theres the large commercial aircraft/spacecraft companies. Generally speaking, as long as you’re not a contractor, you are pretty safe. Also, the pay and benefits are pretty good. The downside, like the government, is bureaucracy.</p>

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<p>This is obviously anecdotal but I spent yesterday with an engineer who has a BS and MS in aero. He started at GE and is now at BP. He said he is hiring aero grads even in his industry because they are better at systems engineering than grads of other disciplines.</p>

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<p>Oh how I loathe systems engineering. It is certainly a useful discipline, but yuck!</p>

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<p>Well rizky1995, I have a few pointers for you. First, as you know, you should not base your career choice on money. From what I have been able to see, there are good jobs out there for all engineer majors and so there are good ME jobs and good AE jobs that make higher end wages. </p>

<p>Now, you should be choosing a field which you are interested, if not passionate, about. Engineering isn’t supposed to be the easiest degree to get and I have a few friends doing engineering who have struggled to stay motivated due to lack of interest and this leads to grades slipping, generally because they just don’t want to put in the time they need to into their schoolwork. You have to do some soul searching and get an idea what you may want to do down the road.</p>

<p>One thing to note is UIUC is a great engineering school all around, so if you got in, you could try changing to a different engineering major if you don’t like the one you are currently in. One thing I should say is, from what I have been told, that transferring into ME or AE is tough, but there are still plenty of other good options. </p>

<p>I am actually a current UIUC Aerospace Engineering student in my third year, so if you have any specific questions, feel free to message me about it.</p>

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<p>I’m a freshman right now at UIUC, and I came from NY like you. I know it’s late to be posting on this thread, but you probably haven’t decided on what school you want to go to yet, so I’m still going to give you a few pointers.</p>

<p>First: You’ve probably heard that at most schools, the aero and mech curriculum are almost identical. Unfortunately this isn’t the case at UIUC. The classes start becoming very different after sophomore year, even earlier if you’ve taken AP Physics C, Chem, or Calculus. Do your research now while you’re a second semester senior, then make a decision sooner rather than later.</p>

<p>Second: For some reason, it’s much harder to transfer into mech than into aero here. I guess a lot more students try to transfer into mech than into aero. The result of this is that you “only” need a 3.25 to transfer into aero, whereas you need around a 3.8 just to be considered for mech. This is not meant to discourage you - if you work hard, a 4.0 for your first semester is not as hard as it seems. If you’ve already applied to aero and decide to come to UIUC, transfer early after your first semester before classes get harder and your GPA starts to drop.</p>

<p>Third: UBuff vs UIUC. I know how you feel. I passed up a full ride to Stony Brook and CUNY City to come here. UIUC is a top-notch engineering school, which means the chances that you’ll find a (high paying) job after graduating from here are much higher than at Buffalo. Not only does a degree from Illinois look better than a degree from Buffalo (you’ll hear tons of debate about the importance of this), but so many more companies come to Illinois to recruit students, making it more likely that you’ll at least land an interview. If you don’t want to go to grad school, and you’re trying to get hired right after getting your bachelor’s, Illinois is definitely the way to go.
UIUC is also pretty lenient when handing out money. I got my scholarship letter in late March I think (the day before all the Ivies released their decisions, lol), so wait until you get money before you make a decision. It may be more than you think; I got 12k a year, and most of my friends got similar amounts. 50k of debt is a pretty big number, but chances are that’ll be reduced. In my opinion, the internship and job opportunities make that debt more reasonable. Again, your chances of getting those are higher at Illinois, and those internships give you experience which employers like, making them more willing to give you a bigger paycheck. But that’s only my opinion, I don’t know how much your family makes, how much you’re willing to pay etc. Wait to see if you get a scholarship, determine how much you can afford to pay and how much you’ll be making when you graduate. AE and ME majors who graduated from Illinois in 2012 got average starting salaries of about 65k a year. That number will change by the time you graduate, and will depend on your GPA, work experience, etc. It’s a big decision to make, so spend a good amount of time and really think about it. Talk to parents, friends, relatives, graduates, everyone, and see what they say. You shouldn’t base your decision off what I said, I’m only one person. Get as much information and as many stories as you can, and do your research.</p>

<p>Feel free to message me if you have any more questions. Hope this helps.</p>

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<p>I’m going to latch onto this thread, but when I look up rankings (I know they aren’t the deciding factor or anywhere near it) but all I find is the rankings of the graduate programs. What I’m interested is in the specialty of the undergraduate programs for aeronautic engineering. Is there importance in the field of where you for your undergrad?</p>

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<p>[Undergraduate</a> Aero (undergraduate focus)](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-aerospace-aeronautical-astronautical]Undergraduate”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-aerospace-aeronautical-astronautical)</p>

<p>[Undergraduate</a> Aero (graduate/research focus)](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-aerospace-aeronautical-astronautical]Undergraduate”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-aerospace-aeronautical-astronautical)</p>

<p>Do keep in mind that these rankings should only be used as a rough guideline in your decision process (i.e. distinguishing between the stronger schools and the weaker schools). They should not be used to nitpick over, say, a #3 school vs. #7 school…</p>

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<p>There are certainly perks of going to a school that offers a strong program in your field of interest… for example, networking opportunities can be much stronger, and the variety of classes offered can be much greater, allowing you to better tailor your electives around your interests. That being said, I feel it’s vital that you pick a school which best fits you, rather than stressing over things like school prestige.</p>