I have to choose a intended major for the school of mines, and I’m not sure if I should choose computer science or mechanical engineering. I like them both I’ve taken classes in each of them at my high school, and I like computer science a little better, the thing is my dream jobs are either a Disney ride engineer, or working for NASA (I know its far fetched but thats why its my dream jobs), and for both those jobs I think mechanical engineering is a better major to get me the job. I know I can always change my intended major but is it better to start out with computer science as it is becoming increasingly popular, and the class sizes are filling up, or should I choose mechanical engineering to start with, and switch to computer science if I don’t like it.
@SJ77115 I don’t know if Mines has class registration problems in CS, but I would go with your strong interest. As a freshman, you are taking core classes and it will not matter which major your declare until sophomore year. You will be taking physics and calculus and linear algebra for either major. Both programs are strong at Mines and both have ties to Colorado aerospace companies like Ball Aerospace in Broomfield, and Lockheed Martin down in Littleton CO. Mines does not have ties to Disney as far as I know, but you may be able to find an internship in Orlando on your own. There are government ties, so NASA may be possible. Look at the NASA website now, and get familiar
with their labs, and internship options and see if they want mechanical or software engineers. Use Indeed as well, to figure out what sort of summer position you may want. NASA is not located in Colorado but there are labs in Cleveland OH, Florida, Texas, Langley in Virginia and west coast locations.
Mines is more tied to the oil and gas industry in Texas, CO, CA
and Oklahoma , as well as the Colorado Aerospace firms in Broomfield, Littleton and Colorado Springs.
Your dream job is the one you get an offer for. Mechanical engineering tends to be a career that’s hard to get your foot in the door with a bachelors degree. Be prepared to go to graduate school. There’e a lot less demand for people building cars and theme park rides than web applications. CS, you can find a job relatively easily as long as you have some proficiency in a mainstream computer language like Java, C#, SQL, Python, etc.