I am a college freshmen in engineering. I am still torn between environmental, mechanical, and aerospace engineering. There are so many opportunities in all three majors! Do other engineers face difficulty in narrowing down their major?
As far as engineering, how does grad school tie in? Is it necessary to qualify for amazing jobs like at NASA, the EPA, or the Energy Department? If my undergrad were in environmental, could I reasonably go to grad school for aerospace, or is it a track? I was considering mechanical because that to me seems broader and perhaps I could in grad school then decide between aerospace and environmental. I intend to volunteer for engineers without borders following undergrad. Would grad schools frown on taking a year off for engineers without borders or similar programs? Are any of those ill suited for that type of volunteer work?
Any experience in those three major/fields would be much appreciated! Thank you!
Does your school require you to declare a specific major by the end of your freshman year? Is it difficult to switch between engineering majors?
I ask because at most schools, the first two years of environmental (esp. if part of civil), mechanical, or aerospace are pretty much the same so you don’t really have to decide which way to go until registering for your 5th semester classes. Environmental may be more different depending on the program. You should be able to check out all the required classes for each of these majors on your college’s website.
Mechanical and aerospace are much more closely related to each other than to environmental, but mechanical is more general broadly applicable than aerospace. I would recommend majoring in ME and taking aerospace courses as the technical electives.
Those government agencies will hire a range of engineering levels from BS to PhD. At the BS level, your work will be pretty routine, cookbook design. The difference is that at an MS or PhD level, you will be expected to do more original work and be more independent. There will be a higher starting salary but you also have the opportunity cost for spending more years in school vs. earning a salary.
I don’t think professional master’s programs would frown on time off for those volunteer programs. If you are thinking of a research-based MS or PhD, get involved in research as an undergrad and establish a good relationship with one or more professors who can write your recommendations a year or two down the road.
Environmental engineering is typically a subset/subfield of civil engineering (or perhaps chemical, but more often civil). I would think that a mechE major would be able to go to grad school for either aerospace or environmental. You can take some of the environmental classes for electives.
The agencies you cited have such a wide variety of jobs that it’s difficult to answer questions about whether you need a graduate degree. Suffice it to say that all of those agencies offer jobs to people with only a BS. I don’t know much about the EPA but the other two certainly have jobs that require all the way up to a PhD as well. It really just depends on what you want to do for said agencies. If you end up deciding to do grad school, though, make sure you get some research experience as an undergraduate
Doing a year of EWB won’t hurt your chances at graduate school. I’m not sure how common it would be for an aerospace engineer to work with them but I don’t think they’d say no to one, and they certainly have plenty of the other two you mentioned.