My son is interested in aerospace and is curious about intersnship opportunities if he was to attend UA. Anyone know how much opportunity there is and how competitive it is?
Are you looking for internships with NASA or Boeing or where?
NASA and Boeing are both located in Alabama…in Cummings Research Park, the 2nd largest research park in the nation.
all internships, no matter where you are, will be competitive.
I was inquiring about internships in general, especially relating to aerospace. He is also considering UCF, which has a lot of the big name companies not far from the campus. During his UCF tour, it was said there are plenty of opportunities. We are not familiar with the UA area yet and wasn’t sure how difficult it would be. We have scheduled our tour for next month.
Thankfully, with the 2nd largest research park in the nation in the state, there are many opportunities for high tech internships.
Did you contact Eng’g or the Honors College to set up meetings with E profs and honors college faculty?
I actually was just researching that today. I plan on emailing the honors college to set up a tour as well. Hopefully we can schedule both tours on the same day.
When you email them, tell them your campus tour time and date…and the days/time that you’ll be in Tuscaloosa.
Also include any mention of anything else that might interest you…dorms, Million Dollar Band, etc.
Will do! Thanks! 
Hopefully Aeromom replies. Her son is an aerospace major and has done very well with internships and scholarships (although he is very intelligent and a go-getter). If she doesn’t reply on this thread, pm her. She is very helpful.
employers want “go getters”. They want interns that will likely turn into full time employees upon graduation.
I remember a mom whose son really made no effort. When she finally got him to attend a job fair for internships, he was turned away because he hadn’t shown up in interview clothes ( a requirement that is stated on the announcements). He showed up in shorts and tennis shoes. In the end, he pulled his act together, but for awhile, it did appear that he really didn’t want a summer internship…seriously.
I have to be honest, I’m in the beginning of researching how the summer internships even work. It seems they are not necessarily close to the campus, and students need to put in good effort to find these opportunities. Do these companies pay them, provide a place for them to stay? Just trying to understand if this is a added expense.
STEM internships almost always are paid. I don’t know of any eng’g internships that aren’t paid. My kids were always paid well. Some companies provide housing as well. When housing is not provided, interns sometimes find housing at another college’s dorms or the interns will do a summer sublet.
Internships are sometimes close to a college’s campus, and sometimes they’re not. It depends on where the student applies and is accepted.
My kids also did summer REUs (Research Experience for Undergraduates) which are funded by the NSF. With REUs, the students are also paid, housing is provided, and there is also an amount to put towards travel costs.
REU info
http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.jsp Various majors
http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list_result.jsp?unitid=10006 Engineering
http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list_result.jsp?unitid=5049 Computer and Information Systems and Eng’g
I posted the above this morning…it does include housing.
Also…some kids prefer to find internships near their home towns, so in those situations, the student lives at home.
Thank you so much! Great info!
Also want to comment that aerospace is a more specialized engineering field and requires a higher level of engineering application (H is ECE, and he mentors HS kids in rocketry competitions) - we live in the Huntsville AL amid the aerospace companies, NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne, etc. Many students will go for the broader ME degree for UG, or another more general engineering UG degree. Often in aerospace, students will go further in school - as employee or go on to master’s after completing UG. Specific aerospace openings may be more limited for entry level UG, so that is why the sharpest college students (strong GPA, among other things including taking advantage of EC engineering activities) - who also can present themselves well for competitive internships, co-op etc…
The Honors College also assists with internships and career development.
https://universityofalabama.az1.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/jfe/form/SV_byLkroVrnLuaYyp
To answer your original questions: YES, there are opportunities, and YES it is competitive. As @SOSConcern pointed out above, the best students will land these opportunities more easily than those students who are either struggling academically in this field, or who cannot present themselves well. There are many ways to make yourself more marketable, and to stand out:
- have a stellar GPA - aero is a difficult subject, and showing that you are mastering it is your first toe in the internship door, so to speak;
- get to know the aero professors well and early - faculty will seek out the brightest students and the more engaging students for research opportunities, etc.; and faculty will also be needed for letters of recommendation later;
- join the University's Emerging Scholars program (and later, as a junior aero student, join the University Scholars program and/or the AEM Honors Program - this is different to the Honors College);
- become an active member of the numerous aero- or engineering-related organisation chapters on campus (AIAA; Women in Engineering; Sigma Gamma Tau; etc.) - AIAA especially has regular meetings and interesting guest speakers and is a 'must-join' kind of group;
- join other organisations in the aero industry (which aren't on campus), such as ATCA, AHS, EAA...
- join early (i.e., don't wait until your senior year) one of the engineering teams related to aero (Design/Build/Fly; rocket/propulsion; hovercraft; robotics; quadcopters; UAVs) - these teams are led by seniors who need to satisfy a design project to graduate, but some teams (maybe all of them?) have and need many additional students on their team, some as early as freshman. Don't be shy about this - put your name forward to be involved!
- join MentorUp and network with peers and older students/faculty;
- attend every career fair (held 2x a year) if only for the sole purpose of getting comfortable marketing yourself - nothing may come of your visits to these career fairs for several semesters, but you will at least gain experience with interviewing, presenting yourself, and dressing professionally;
- if you have any spare time in addition to the above, join a completely different group or activity that YOU enjoy entirely for fun - it's a talking point to show that you are more well-rounded and actually have a life outside of engineering.
Now, that’s just the academic part…then, in your other spare time, and after you’re actually ready to apply for internships, use job search engines for local opportunities (Indeed comes to mind) or an individual company’s website to search for nation-wide internships. The biggies already mentioned above in aero are: NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, Pratt and Whitney, etc. Be very clear about what interests you or you will go nuts applying for everything: Aeronautical Engineering seems like the most specific kind of engineering, when in reality, within aero, there are many different paths to follow (I wish I could put a flowchart in here!): Decide, for example, if you are a space person, a flight-return-to-earth person, or an underwater person. Decide if you want to be a commercial person or a military/government person. Decide if you want to work in structures, propulsion, aerodynamics, composite materials, design, testing… The better you can describe your field of interest, the better chance someone will hire you within that field.
Since you are not a student at UA yet, let me weigh in with my son’s experiences with aero-related internships. My son started searching for an internship during the fall of his freshman year. This might seem early, but he already had some work experience and other activities to put on a resume (along with letters of recommendation)…and trust me, you only have 3 summers to find work experience, so make each one count! As a freshman, he actually received a paid, engineering-related internship with a local company, as an “Applications Engineer”, so that was his summer job and he lived at home. It didn’t have a whole lot to do with aerospace per se, but it was useful at the time and filled the resume further and gave him an additional job reference.
Again in the fall of his sophomore year, he started applying to Boeing Commercial internships, as that was his main focus. He received an offer about March of his sophomore year from Boeing. Each company will provide different levels of support for interns - some will offer full corporate-provided housing, some will offer a housing stipend and you find your own housing, and some will only offer a wage (no housing). My son worked for Boeing at their North Carolina Dreamliner assembly facility. He was then placed on an educational leave of absence, meaning he was technically hired by Boeing at the end of that summer and would return the following summer, this time to Washington on a different airframe platform and in a completely different area. So, 3 summers; 3 internships. He found these on his own (i.e., not with UA assistance), and we knew going into UA that that was probably going to be the case. This was almost a sticking point for him…but he decided to risk attending UA with eyes wide open about having to work hard to be competitive with aero students from other ‘name’ schools.
PM me with any other questions you might have about the aero program at UA. I’m happy to share! 
@aeromom Thank you so much for sharing your son’s experience! Hopefully when I share this info with my son it will ease his concerns. The whole process can be overwhelming and this board has been so helpful! I may take you up on your offer to PM for questions down the road
Sunday Huntsville Times has an article about the UAH multimillion-dollar wind tunnel which will be one of only a few nationwide on a university campus - being championed by the eminent scholar in propulsion, Dr Phillip Ligrant. It is currently under construction as part of UAH Johnson Research Center (also on campus). They are hoping to have the facility completed and partially operational by the end of this calendar year.
Ligrant is a professor of ME and Aero eng, and is the project’s principal investigator. The test sections of the tunnel gives them the conditions they need for testing - possible test applications include supersonic engine intakes, scramjets and hybrid space vehicles and components.
There are a number of area employers that have employees seeking graduate and doctorate degrees at UAH.
Students who co-op or intern in the Huntsville area might want to explore what UAH has to offer.
IMHO, an UG aerospace eng student would want to go to a larger program for UG, unless there are things at UAH that are more appealing to them.
IMHO, an UG aerospace eng student would want to go to a larger program for UG, unless there are things at UAH that are more appealing to them.
^^^^
Why do you say this @SOSConcern