<p>I'm getting a little ahead of myself here as I'm just now getting into undergraduate research... However, I was curious how common it is for a student (either graduate or undergraduate) in engineering (or other sciences for that matter) to change their main research interests midstream? </p>
<p>Does there have to be a transition between the two areas of research or can students typically just decide they want to try something else and start working in another, completely unrelated lab (within their major)? Are professors typically willing to let a graduate student jump into a new area of research or do they want to see previous, related experience? </p>
<p>I'm sure that the answer is that "it varies" but I am interested to hear the views of other students out there that are familiar with this issue. FYI, I'm a MechE major if that makes any difference.</p>
<p>Well maybe I was just a little two long winded in asking a simple question… </p>
<p>Basically what I want to get a feel for is how much mobility an engineering student (particularly a MechE) in the research path has with their research interests (i.e. is it uncommon for a mechanics/design research to switch to working with fluids/heat transfer?).</p>
<p>if you go to [Mor</a> Harchol-Balter’s Homepage](<a href=“http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~harchol/]Mor”>Mor Harchol-Balter's Homepage) and see the grad school talk, you’ll find that many people wind up declaring on their SOP that they will study X in grad school, but that they wind up changing their mind and studying Y.</p>
<p>Yes it is possible to switch. I’m a Mech E and I know a few classmates who switched. It completely depends on your advisor and your program though. You may be required to take “track” courses to get you up to speed say if you jump over to fluids/heat xfer. The materials guys also have their own track of classes as well. It’s not a killer like in undergrad where you change majors and start over, you may have to take a few other courses or maybe not anything different at all, depends on your situation.</p>