Double Major?

Hello. I was recently admitted to Texas A&M and am considering a double major with Mechanical enginering in Nuclear engineering (7 extra classes) or petroleum engineering (9 extra classes) or a minor (5 classes for either minor). in my head, this sounds fine, but any advice? Is this more difficult then I think? How can I prepare for it?

My advice is do not double major. It will not generally advance your career and will only cost you more time and stress.

It’s typically challenging to complete a single engineering major in 4 years. What is your budget for paying for additional semesters if you pursue an additional major or a minor?

At A&M I’d be concentrating on simply getting the major you want. That’s challenging enough.

Double majors aren’t worth the time and effort. If you can take a few classes to fill out an area of interest for you without lengthening your college years (or stretching your pocketbook) then go for it. Time and money is better spend going after an MS in your chosen field.

Lots of people say No. But, talk to your college advisor or any of your engineering professors and see what they will say. My son graduated double major Physics and Mechanical Engineering (called dual degree in five years) and immediately after graduation with very high GPA, he has been offered a high paying job as an aerospace engineer in Cali. When he was in college, he got scholarship (inside and outside), REU research money, etc and upon finishing college with dual degrees, he did not owe money at all. In fact, he had spending money for traveling, etc. So, the extra one year will not kill your career at all. Also, FYI, I know some kids will finish only one engineering degree in five years because they want to maintain high GPA and taking the time instead of finishing in four years. Good luck and may the Force be with you.

@Tulanefan101, congrats to your son on his accomplishments. I’m not certain however that the job resulted from the dual. There are lots of engineers working in CA aerospace companies that graduated in four years with single degrees.

Thank you. My son finished dual degree 3+2 Tulane Physics and Vandy Mechanical Engineering both with cum laude May 2016. Yup that engineering degree has accommodated the aerospace engineering job. However, the extra one year has not been wasted either since physics is applicable and will support any engineering jobs. Anyhow, he is planning to get his MBA from stanford or Berkeley or UCLA after working two, three or four years paid by the company, just like the CEO of the company who has EE degree and the company paid for his MBA, he will do the same thing. So, not all 3+2 dual degree is wasted at all. Regarding the engineers who have graduated in 5 years instead of 4, I know them thru the friends of my son. They go to state U in our state. They are doing ok too and plan to go to MBA schools to advance their career. That is why they take time to get high GPA. Anyhow, high GPA in engineering is not that easy and some kids will do in 4 while others will do in 5 years. Nothing is wrong with that.

The job almost certainly had nothing to do with the fact that he had a dual degree, but instead due to the fact that he was clearly a highly-accomplished student.

I lurk these forums every now and then waiting for someone to finally ask a question pertaining to Nuclear Engineering. Finally, a question about nuclear engineering!

So I have a double degree in Nuclear Engineering and Physics from Texas A&M as of last May. I am currently in the PhD program for nuclear. So to start answering your question about a double major, let me be quite clear: It is not easy to do, and it won’t give you a huge edge as far as career goals. However, I think my experience was quite rough due to the physics degree.

Let me hit on a few things here:

a. If you want to graduate and go directly to industry, do not double major. You will simply be adding a ton of stress to your life for very little intellectual reward. For nuclear engineering jobs (at power plants and even with some of the primary industry vendors like Westinghouse), the mechanical engineering degree will be acceptable or even more desirable (unless you are really dead set on doing core neutronics design which in that case you would likely be out of luck with just a mechanical degree).

b. Double majoring is not easy. They tell you it is only x-amount more classes, but that is still a pretty large commitment. For instance, look at a couple of the semester schedules I dealt with:

  1. Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechancis, Nuclear Reactor Analysis, Materials Science (nuclear emphasis), Analytical/Numerical Methods for Neutron Transport (5 courses total)

This semester I had no school/life balance.

  1. Quantum Mechanics II, Statistical Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Nuclear Reactor Theory, Radiological Saftey

Slightly more manageable, but Quantum II felt like it could have been 2 courses in one.

Physics and Nuclear engineering double major had a lot of overlap where I didn’t necessarily have a ton of extra course requirements to finish in 5 years. Yet, you end up with semesters that are simply loaded with coursework that makes having any kind of school/life balance quite difficult to achieve. Not impossible, but difficult.

c. Do you want to go to graduate school? It is hard to answer this question when first entering college. Actually, it is likely impossible to answer this question with any certainty. Regardless, mechanical engineering provides more than adequate preparation for graduate studies in nuclear engineering. This is especially true if you are interested in thermal hydraulic design and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). If you go to graduate school for nuclear, you will get start from scratch on the theory of nuclear reactor physics so you will eventually be on a level playing field with other students who majored in nuclear during undergrad.

Bottom line: If you are set on wanting to pursue a job in the nuclear industry, then either mechanical or nuclear engineering will provide you a path to that career. There isn’t a need to double major at all as has already been conveyed by multiple posters here. The only thing I will say is if you are absolutely certain that you want to be the guy doing core neutronics design (working with codes like MCNP and SERPENT), then you are better off doing nuclear engineering rather than mechanical. In no case would I say the double major is worth your time.

Just a small overview of nuclear related topics:

  1. Materials: better off in mechanical engineering than nuclear for undergrad
  2. Thermal hydraulics: likely much better off doing mechanical than nuclear for undergrad.
  3. Radiation transport and computational methods: likely better off in nuclear, but there are many other
    avenues that could would work just as well.
  4. Core design (Neutronics): better off in nuclear engineering for undergrad.

Hello, sorry for the wait. I guess I should stick with MEEN for a while because I do want some kind of of social life . It was mainly because ive only researched mechanical annd civil engineering recently, but I’ve started to learn about nuclear physics and materials science and i just found them to be interesting. But I guess a BS in MEEN should help me enough.

Also, my school doesn’t offer physics C, should I self study for the AP exam?

I honestly wouldn’t advise testing out of physics either way. I’ve seen too many high school physics classes that do not adequately prepare students for college, regardless of those students’ scores on the AP exams.

As the others have said, the issue is really about “time”. As an engineering student, you’ll learn that time is an important resource to manage.

For example, not only do you want to put some time aside for a social life (college should be FUN), but also for other major/career related activities. Do you want to work on a design team? Get involved in research? Get a leadership position in your local ASME chapter? Need a part time job? They all take “time”.

There is no right or wrong answer, you’ll need to decide what’s best for you. We can only point out advantages and disadvantages that you should consider.

Good Luck!

@boneh3ad no I want to self study so I’m familiar with the information and material Before I take Physics Mech in college so I can make my first year easier.

I hope I have time becuase I’m coming in with all my Gen Eds ( except for Chem ) taken care of and their will be semesters I’ll be taking 9 hr a semester and I was just looking for things to keep me a full time student b/c I can’t graduate early due to the classes I can’t ( rather shouldn’t ) test out of .
Calculus 1 > Calculus 2> Calculus 3 > Diff Equation > Engr Analysis > Fluid Dynamics > Engineering design 1 > Engineering Design 2 so I need to do 8 semesters even if I can’t do it full time.

You can certainly self-study if you wish, though it’s probably not going to make or break your career. It’s always good to come in knowing what to expect, but the expectation on the part of the program is going to be that this is your first exposure to calculus-based physics. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get much self-studying in.

OP - Look for some of the other double-major threads. In many cases, there is not enough advantage to justify the extra time/work.

@Tulanefan101 - From this forum and others, it sounds like your son found a great path via 3-2. He seems like an excellent student, and he probably would done fine on a traditional plan 4 year plan too. I think you said that like REU/research was key for him. Our son did something similar before his sophomore year. It was great for him (and it’s one of the reasons he decided early that grad school would not be his cup of tea… a good thing to know).

Thanks for the vote of confidence. My son originally wanted to go Med School at tulane. he took a lot of pre-med classes in the beginning as freshman. His grades were stellar like 4.0 But, after tinkering in hospital as part of TIDES program at Tulane (doing mandatory voluntary work), he found out that he could not handle blood etc. He said too much of it. So, he talked to his advisor and wanted to do Mechanical Engineering. However, Tulane did not have that major only chem E, Bio Medical E, etc. But, they have dual degree programs (3+2) with Johns Hopkins U (JHU) and Vandy with the requirements to maintain GPA 3.5. He did research of those schools and found out that JHU was stingy, would not give him much money for schooling while Vandy would with their policy of giving scholarship (and grant) and No loans policy. (you can find this information on their website too).

Anyhow, regarding you son career, I believe in order to secure good employment (entry level job) after college, he needs to do research, REUs, internship, Co-Op every summer if possible. I know this is not easy since those things are like competition. They have to find it, do networking with the peers or any professors, etc.

I know for entry level jobs, if anyone has done those things internships, Co-Op, research (internal or external), REUs, etc. then they have better chance to secure any entry level jobs. Those things will be counted heavily like any job experiences. So, don’t just go to school and every summer to go to work at Food Industry, retails, etc. well unless their major in college is not engineering.

Good and best of luck with your son future and endeavors. Nothing is impossible.

Op: were you directly admitted to the major or do you have premajor status?
You need 12 credits a semester to keep full time status IE., your financial aid.
If one extra course per semester needs to be taken so that you keep your financial aid, make it an 'easy ’ class, especially the first two years. It’ll free more time for you to focus on your other classes.

Welcome aboard.

Honestly, if a prereq chain is the only thing that’s holding you back (and I’d double check some of the requirements for those classes to make sure), I would take summer classes and see if I could knock any of them out. At the very least, I’m sure you could get Calc 3 done the summer after your freshman year.

I never took mechanics at A&M, but I did Phys 208 and it was nearly identical to AP Physics C. Buy a Barron’s book and take a look at the old AP tests. The material will be really similar, and IME the difficulty will be too.