<p>im currently trying to decide which of the two for my bachelors. im currently a transfer student at a community college and will be transferring in one year and a half. people say that both are sub branches of mechanical and civil engineering respectively; but how true is that for each? and what are the job outlooks for both careers especially in california.</p>
<p>aerospace isnot a subspeaclty of ME
what r u takin about?
i mean it deals w/ machines but aerospase has more to it. its related to ME but i wouldn't call a subspeaclty.</p>
<p>structural is a branch of civil eng. though.</p>
<hr>
<p>THIS INFO BELOW IS FROM THE U.S. DEPT OF LABOUR</p>
<p>Aerospace engineers design, develop, and test aircraft, spacecraft, and missiles and supervise the manufacture of these products. Those who work with aircraft are called aeronautical engineers, and those working specifically with spacecraft are astronautical engineers. Aerospace engineers develop new technologies for use in aviation, defense systems, and space exploration, often specializing in areas such as structural design, guidance, navigation and control, instrumentation and communication, or production methods. They also may specialize in a particular type of aerospace product, such as commercial aircraft, military fighter jets, helicopters, spacecraft, or missiles and rockets, and may become experts in aerodynamics, thermodynamics, celestial mechanics, propulsion, acoustics, or guidance and control systems</p>
<p>Aerospace engineers are expected to have slower-than-average growth in employment over the projection period. Although increases in the number and scope of military aerospace projects likely will generate new jobs, increased efficiency will limit the number of new jobs in the design and production of commercial aircraft. Even with slow growth, the employment outlook for aerospace engineers through 2014 appears favorable: the number of degrees granted in aerospace engineering declined for many years because of a perceived lack of opportunities in this field, and, although this trend is reversing, new graduates continue to be needed to replace aerospace engineers who retire or leave the occupation for other reasons.</p>
<hr>
<p>Civil engineers design and supervise the construction of roads, buildings, airports, tunnels, dams, bridges, and water supply and sewage systems. They must consider many factors in the design process, from the construction costs and expected lifetime of a project to government regulations and potential environmental hazards such as earthquakes. Civil engineering, considered one of the oldest engineering disciplines, encompasses many specialties. The major specialties are structural, water resources, construction, environmental, transportation, and geotechnical engineering. Many civil engineers hold supervisory or administrative positions, from supervisor of a construction site to city engineer. Others may work in design, construction, research, and teaching.</p>
<p>Civil engineers are expected to see average employment growth through 2014. Spurred by general population growth and an increased emphasis on infrastructure security, more civil engineers will be needed to design and construct safe and higher capacity transportation, water supply, and pollution control systems, as well as large buildings and building complexes. They also will be needed to repair or replace existing roads, bridges, and other public structures. Because construction and related industries—including those providing design services—employ many civil engineers, employment opportunities will vary by geographic area and may decrease during economic slowdowns, when construction often is curtailed.</p>
<hr>
<p>OFCOURSE THE ABOVE STATEMENTS IS TAKING FROM A NATIONAL POINT OF VIEW.</p>
<p>MIGHT WANNA GO HERE FOR MORE <a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm</a></p>
<p>SALARY</p>
<p>** The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated the average yearly earnings of aerospace engineers in 2005 as $85,450. </p>
<p>** The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the average yearly earnings of civil engineers in 2005 as $69,480.</p>
<p>Uh... Yes, aerospace is often a subset of mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineers build projectiles, civil engineers build targets, remember? ;)</p>
<p>I'm a structural engineer(ing associate... ~9 months 'til I take the PE) in Burbank, and we're swamped. Tons of design projects going on. Our stomping grounds are primarily north of town, but there's construction going on everywhere out here in SoCal. Plenty of jobs in the area. I know our firm's desperate for entry-level structural engineers right now, and other firms are in the same position. Anyhow... Structural is a subset of civil engineering. It's the subset that designs the skeletons of large structures, that deals with the distribution and diversion of forces from the points of application to the base of the structure, and down into the earth. Plenty of jobs to be had.</p>
<p>As for aerospace... Mechanical engineering is the engineering discipline that designs machines with moving parts. Aircraft are just flying machines with moving parts. Designing them deals with thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, finite element analysis, and all the other things that mechanical engineers deal with, plus a couple of other specialized sorts of things, like avionics and other things along those lines. I'm not in the field, but several of my friends are, and they've got jobs at JPL and Lockheed-Martin and the like... I'm just going by what they tell me and by the limited interaction I've had as a structural engineer with the aerospace industry. I'm not sure of job opportunities around here, but the LM Skunkworks are about 20m NE of my apartment and I see a lot of folks with Lockheed bumper stickers cruising around here, so I imagine that there are a good number of opportunities in SoCal for aerospace engineers, but that's just my hunch, from having lived around here.</p>
<p>(Holy COW... I just looked at that BLS avg yearly earnings for civil engineerings, and I don't know HOW they got that figure, but that's... <em>incredibly</em> high... CE Magazine's done salary surveys every couple of years, and the 90th percentile is at about 85K a year. Considering that the bulk of engineers center around 40-55K, I have no idea how they got the average yearly earnings that high... Aero folks, how does your average compare to the BLS number?)</p>
<p>what exactly r u saying...</p>
<p>r u saying civil get around 44 to 55k??</p>
<p>what about a civil w/ masters and experience?</p>
<p>Oh! Hey, thanks... I never would've looked it up again, but I'd lodged in my head the numbers for just the (low cost-of-living) state that I thought I was going to accept a job in, but I went back and looked at the nationwide numbers, and median's right at about 69K, so those BLS numbers are right after all!</p>
<p>Sweet... Now I need to revise my financial plan!</p>
<p>Almost makes up for the 52-7 loss...! Not quite, though.</p>
<p>Chem Eng. Is Pretty High I Think
Ee Too And M E</p>
<p>I think ME is one of the lowest</p>
<p>ChemE is pretty damned high though. As for the original question...ME is probably the broadest engineering major so there are a lot of subsets for that. I dont know about Civil though...havn't had much exp with that</p>
<p>ChemE is high for some reason...i have no idea.
i 've seen the 96 BLS data and its around the same that year.</p>
<p>Average civil engineer salary is 40k? No way! Traffic engineers at my company start out around 43-44k, and traffic is on the lower end of the pay scale for civil engineers. Are you thinking about starting salaries? Or salaries for all civil engineers? If it's the former, then it's reasonable. </p>
<p>BLS has the 90th percentile for civil at 94k, and the 10th percentile at 42k.</p>
<p>so civils don't get paid that good</p>
<p>No, no... See post #5. I recanted. It's okay! =)</p>
<p>my uncle who used to be a civil switched to pharm.d.</p>
<p>ok so ME seems to be a much broader field than civil. </p>
<p>im going to be very materialistic with this question( if thats the word)</p>
<p>we all want to earn good money in our careers and i personally want to exceed 100k and if i ever reach 200k, my life wouldnt get better than that. im not saying that i dont care what job i get as long as i make money, no its not that. i do want to be an engineer and heres my possible career path</p>
<ol>
<li>BS in aerospace engineering MS in structural engineering(aerospace structures)</li>
<li>BS in strutural engineering MS in aerospace engineering</li>
<li>BS in aero or struct. then MBA</li>
<li>BS in mechanical engineering or BS civil engineering</li>
</ol>
<p>which of the above would get me closer of reaching my ambitious goal?</p>
<p>You have a lot of dreams for getting money, the chances seem slim w/ civil to get near 200k</p>
<p>Aero/AstroE make alot more money than CivilE I think.,</p>
<p>i must agree with tom725. it will be very difficult to make 200K/yr by being an engineer. for ur dream, option 3) looks most promising.</p>
<p>Btw, i dont know about a stand-alone structural engineering degree. Is structure a part of aero degree? I mean i always thought structure is an overlapping disciplin of ME or AE or CivilE.</p>
<p>aeros get paid much more than civils...</p>
<p>but its possible to get near 200k by being a engineerning manager</p>
<p>I've never heard of a stand-alone structural engineering degree. The concepts in pure structural engineering require too much undergraduate knowledge to be able to make it into an undergraduate degree... Gotta get through all the mechanics and basic design courses that are in a civil engineering BS degree in order to understand the sorts of finite element-y and structural mechanic-y sorts of courses that you need to take in grad school in order to be a good, solid structural engineer.</p>
<p>And good luck getting 200K as an engineer... Even as a manager...</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s what I thought. I don’t think there is such a thing called "Structural Engineering Dept." in college of engineering. You learn structural analysis (strengths of material, stress & strain) as a part of AE, ME, CE undergrad education. If you go to graduate school, you can do “structural concentration” in AE/ME/CE. </p>
<p>In Graduate school, for a structure guy is aero dept, you will most likely concentrate on lightweight aero structural analysis (such as shells, airframe, web, stringers, longerons, and whatnot) using light weighted materials such as aluminum, titanium, and fibrous composites</p>
<p>In ME, you will most likely work on both light & heavy weight structure analysis and you material database will be quite extensive.</p>
<p>In CivilE, my guess is that you will mostly like work on building, dam, bridge, bunkers highway-type structural analysis using concrete, cement, hardened steels combo types of materials.</p>
<p>Since structure is one of core disciplines in AE/ME/CivilE, the fundamental “continuum mechanics” is very important (constitutive relationships regarding stress & strain), along with the concept of material strengths (elastic, plastic, visco-plastic, ductility…). These days, computer based analysis, CAD/CAM & FEA tool is a must.</p>
<p>For engineers interested in structural analysis (in layman’s term, design, analysis, of a structure that carries loads and protects what’s inside), the following schools are usually recommended:</p>
<p>Undergrad: MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Berkeley
Grad (Up to PhD): MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, GT, Michigan, UIUC, Purdue</p>
<p>Re: good structural analysis programs</p>
<p>Also, for grad (and undergrad, to a certain extent), consider Northwestern (Bazant's a cool guy), Columbia, A&M, UT, and Cornell, and for undergrad, <em>definitely</em> consider Mudd. I really like what they're doing with continuum mechanics in their engineering program.</p>