<p>Hi,
I'm interested in studying Aerospace Engineering, but i want to go to a program that is geared more towards Aircraft rather than Spacecraft. Could anybody tell me where the best programs for Aeronautical Engineering(aircraft) are, as my google searches haven't come up with anything so far.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance</p>
<p>There are a number of great Aerospace Engineering schools in the US, all of them coming in different sizes and flavors. </p>
<p>What other criteria do you have? Size? Undergraduate focus? Location? Any extra information would help.</p>
<p>@fractalmstr Well i’m just looking at schools that place an emphasis on aircraft over spacecraft. For example, Purdue is known as the “Cradle of Astronauts” and they have had a lot of Astronauts graduate there, so it’s obvious that they value Astronautics over Aeronautics. My query is to find schools where Aeronautics are valued over Astronautics, as that is where my interest lies. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You may think that is obvious, but it is not even true. Purdue is a very good aeronautics school.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that a lot of the curriculum is rather standardized at the undergraduate level due to ABET accreditation requirements. Your core classes will be essentially the same at any accredited aerospace engineering program. Where you will see the difference is in the types of electives offered and research performed by professors. If you want to know that, you will have to browse through the course catalogs and professor webpages at each school.</p>
<p>I’d suggest coming up with a list of other criteria to help narrow your list down since there are some 65 or so aerospace programs in the US plus a number more of “mechanical and aerospace” programs to choose from. Then look at the departmental emphasis. So what else are you looking for in a school?</p>
<p>@boneh3ad Ok, so other criteria… good job placement/companies that recruit @ college (Boeing, Airbus, RR,PW,GE,etc.), location would have to be east of the rocky mountains, preferably a school with little to no party attitude, size would have to be >5000, and also at least some sort of financial aid (I live in Texas, so instate would be UT Austin)</p>
<p>Quite honestly, at the undergraduate level, any aerospace engineering program will have good coverage of both aeronautical and astronautical engineering. It’s only at the graduate level that the differences will become more significant.</p>
<p>My own alma mater, Embry-Riddle Prescott, has a very strong aeronautical engineering program. </p>
<p>Other Aero-strong schools:
Missouri S&T (Rolla)
Texas A&M
UT Austin
Georgia Tech
University of Arizona
University of Washington
University of Maryland CP
UIUC
Cal Poly SLO
MIT
UMich
FIT
UF</p>
<p>One more question - Wichita State is located in the “Air Capital of the World”, yet their Aerospace program is not even ranked in any ranking I’ve seen. Is it because of their not so good stature as an university overall? Or is their program really that bad and isn’t up to par with some of these other programs?</p>
<p>Also, is RPI a good Aerospace program compared to some of these big public schools like Ga Tech and Purdue?</p>
<p>You won’t find many (if any) schools >5000 students that also have little to no party atmosphere. That’s just the nature of the beast with universities. People are leaving home for the first time to live on their own and they just tend to experiment things that they couldn’t do (or couldn’t do easily) while still living at home, especially alcohol. You just have to learn how not to get caught up in it all if you don’t want to be.</p>
<p>fractalmstr named a lot of good programs (though seemingly ignored the “east of the Rockies” request). I’d also throw in:
Purdue
Penn State
Minnesota
Ohio State
NC State
Cornell
Princeton</p>
<p>Based on the criteria you have given, pretty much all of those fit the bill.</p>
<p>Also, just a quick note, the financial aid situation is, I believe, better at Texas A&M than at UT Austin when talking about in-state options.</p>
<p>Is there any particular area of aeronautics you’re interested in? Propulsion, CFD, micro air vehicles, helicopters, etc? Is there an industry you’re leaning toward? military, commerical aviation, personal aircraft, etc?</p>
<p>@da6onet Commercial Aviation, preferably Aircraft Structures</p>
<p>While I can’t speak for the party atmosphere personally, I know it exists at UMD, but you may want to take a look at College Park since it is a heavily aeronautics focused program (3/4+ aero vs astro). UTC gives money to the school-Sikorsky heavily recruits, but P&W has been known to take a decent chunk of AE Grads. Boeing is the other big aeronautical recruiter at Maryland, especially with regard to students interested in structures. As well, I know 2 people in the department that participated in the engineering school’s study abroad program in France and one of them interned for Airbus (though not directly if I recall correctly) and the other ended up working for Bombardier post graduation (French-Canadian, but close enough right?)</p>
<p>As far as structures goes, I feel UMD has a very solid (no pun intended) setup with their required course offerings as well as upper level electives and the professors who teach them. Required sequence is statics-mechanics of materials-aerospace structures-vibration & aeroelasticity, with electives: computational structural mechanics (FEM), composite structures, and a structures related course-aircraft flight testing (e.g. safe life/fail safe) course. Also, within the honors program, one of the faculty advisers particularly likes to take on students doing research into structures. </p>
<p>I can’t believe I forgot to mention Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>No one mentioned University of Colorado-Boulder or Iowa State University either. The latter is a top twenty program with good financial aid for OOS students.</p>
<p>Both of those are also excellent. Does CU Boulder count as east of the Rockies or is it knocked out on the technicality that it is in the Rockies? I guess it is east of the continental divide.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Wichita state is a research powerhouse for aeronautical engineering. One of the tops in fact. Lot’s of research and testing going on there.</p>
<p>I’m not too familiar with their undergrad program, but I would imagine it’s fine. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You guys ninja’d your posts in before me :)</p>
<p>San Jose State University also has a strong aviation/aero department, with a pretty good AE program. </p>
<p>What about RPI? I know it is a private school, but is their program still as good as some of these publics?</p>
<p>RPI is a really good school but I’m not sure they have an aerospace program.</p>
<p>@boneh3ad <a href=“Aeronautical Engineering, Bachelor of Science | Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering”>http://mane.rpi.edu/aerospace</a></p>
<p>And also, should i take rankings with a grain of salt when looking through these colleges? As long as they are ABET accredited the curriculum should all be the same correct?</p>