Could I work as an Aeropace Engineer with a degree in Mechanical?

I feel like doing Aerospace as a major may be putting myself in a bit of corner but I would love to work in the field. If I major in Mechanical is it still possible to work in the field of Aerospace?

Yes…many who work in that field ARE MechE.

Make sure if you attempt Aerospace engineering that you are a US citizen, otherwise, you won’t be employable since Aerospace requires a US security clearance.

Aerospace engineering shouldn’t be a major.

This is not a true statement. Most aerospace jobs require no clearance (though aerospace does likely have the highest percentage of jobs that require a clearance).

What a strong statement. Care to back it up or do you just stop at outlandish statements for no reason?

Because MechE and areo should merge. There’s no need for aerospace

Several posters on this site agree that their non-citizen friends have not had success in procuring Aerospace jobs.

DH, as an EE, manages and hires engineers for his large “Aerospace” company; since a majority of the contracts are for the armed services or DOD, he can only hire US citizens who are eligible for clearance or who currently have a clearance. His company’s website is very clear about it. His peers and colleagues, at other large corporates-in other states, also are stringent about this.

DD’s software company, that subcontracts for aerospace, cannot hire without US security clearances.

That is not because of security clearances, though. That isn’t the only reason things would be tough for a foreign national. Even unclassified positions can have citizenship or permanent resident restrictions on them if they are in the defense sector. That said, while a lot of aerospace jobs are in defense, a lot of them are not. There is a legend commercial/civilian component to the aerospace industry, and these positions don’t generally have such restrictive job requirements.

As a counterexample, I’ve worked at a defense contractor in the aerospace sector that hired foreign nationals (though there were plenty of projects they couldn’t join) and I now work at a place where the majority of the technical staff have security clearances, yet half of my team are foreign nationals.

This has happened at a number of universities nationwide, and that’s fine. However, even those departments generally offere separate degrees. It makes sense to have them under the same roof since they are based on the same fundamental science and the professors in each discipline are typically equally competent in either discipline. That said, it still makes sense to keep it as two degrees since, while they are very similar, they are still different enough that it’s a different set of core courses, generally.

Most aerospace jobs require a clearance eventually. One Indian guy I used to work with didn’t get clearance because he was duel citizens and eventually left the company to work for a commercial one.

@NASA2014 You can do better than that! How about this…

“Aerospace is really just a concentration under MechE and making it a separate degree/program only adds administrative cost.”

See? That’s a better argument. Now we would have to respond with details about the degree of specialization in AE, research, the amount of target funding required to build a solid AE program, blah, blah, blah…

If you’re thinking of AE, compare the AE curriculum with ME’s. Which classes and subjects would you rather study? Both degree’s can get you into the aerospace industry…

No. They. Don’t.

I don’t know how many times or how clearly I have to say this. Many aerospace jobs require security clearance. Most do not. Word choice matters.

What is the difference between many and most, it’s mostly semantics. It depends on the job, but you are limiting yourself to these few jobs anyway. I only know of one Taiwanese guy that didn’t get a clearance but still had a job at one Aerospace company.
Most is 90% to me. What’s many to you @boneh3ad

The point is that the OP stands a better chance of finding employment, by being a U.S. citizen with clearances if he plans to target aerospace, either defense or civilian work. Immigration services are in turmoil this year given recent holds on visas. @b@r!m is extremely familiar with the visa system.

If a nonresident student is hoping to get into aerospace in the US, then the options for employability need to be spelled out.

SpaceX is one of the few commercial companies that hire a lot of Aerospace engineers, maybe some drone companies but the regular defense companies usually require them.

It is absolutely nowhere near 90%. I’d estimate maybe 30% or so of aerospace jobs require a clearance, which is a large number but still not even close to most of them. And yes, it is semantics here.

Of course, semantics is literally the meaning of words, and the meaning of words can be important, as it is here. “Many” and “most” do not mean the same thing. “Most” means a majority, which implies that if you take a random job in the aerospace sector, the odds are that it requires a clearance as a condition of employment. That is simply not true. “Many” implies that any random aerospace job does not most likely require a clearance, though a large number of them do.

Semantics is important here because “most” tells the OP that finding a job in the aerospace sector is practically hopeless if he/she is a foreign national. “Many” implies it is difficult but absolutely doable.

Of course, we don’t even know if the OP is a foreign national in the first place. The answer to @duffer00’s original question is, of course, that yes, it is absolutely possible (and common) to work in aerospace with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Engineering employment has been sort of cyclical … doubly so for a specialty closely tied to defense spending.

If a person can do aero engineering with an ME degree (maybe with an aero minor?), that seems wiser than rolling all the dice on pure aero. I actually kind of like the idea of an aero minor, FWIW.

If a friend was a foreign national and really really wanted to do aero engineering, sure, why not. But a backup plan would be prudent. I know more a couple (citizen) aero engineers that ended up working for automotive companies because the aero jobs were out of cycle with their needs. It feels like trouble to start something where 30 to maybe 60% of the hiring managers are going to smile and say “thanks, but no thanks” after just the first question.

I would think many falls I to the above 50% category. I’m surprised that 30% is considered many, but I’m sure more than 2 is also considered many. I would say some, if I was referring to 30%, certainly not many. Because many to me implied a majority, which should be more than 50%.

Most means majority. Many just means a large, indefinite number. Either way I’m done arguing the semantics. I’ll put it this way: the majority of aerospace jobs do not require a security clearance. There is an entire portion of the industry that is not defense related that has no reason to need one.

9 out of 10 - most
5-8 out of 10 - many
3 out of 10 - some
0- 2 out of 10 - few

It would be helpful if you can name the industry that is not defense related. I named SpaceX and some drone companies that Google acquired. What are the companies that you are referring to?
If you work for Northrop, Lockheed, Raytheon, then you do need clearance and they hire the majority of aerospace people.
The commercial part of Boeing don’t need clearance.
Some part of JPL dont need clearance.

SpaceX does not necessarily require a security clearance to my knowledge. At least, not the few people I know that work there. Boeing has its entire commercial airplanes division that is not defense. Cessna, Lear, Bombardier, commercial sections of Bell Helicopter, NASA… Seriously, there’s a ton.