<p>I am a Junior and I'm trying to narrow down my college options. I've been really looking into becoming an Aeronautical Engineer and my goal is to work for NASA (however far fetched that is...). Can anyone tell me some good choices for schools? I've been looking into Stanford mostly. Thanks!</p>
<p>cal-tech, MIT, Purdue, Georgia tech, U. of Michigan</p>
<p>Public? Private?</p>
<p>Neither Caltech nor Stanford offer undergraduate degrees in aerospace engineering. Keep that in mind.</p>
<p>What are you looking for in a school? That would be helpful for us to give you ideas.</p>
<p>University of Colorado at Boulder: My son is a sophomore majoring in aerospace engineering there and he is being exposed to a ton of cool stuff…Plus they get lots of funding from NASA.</p>
<p>then look at Texas A&M, gig’em =)</p>
<p>Case Western in Cleveland, OH has a lot of merit aid . My son is very happy there ,doing AERO/ MECHAN ENG . major .</p>
<p>Note that aerospace / aeronautical engineering may be a subarea of mechanical engineering at many schools, so you may want to expand your list but check whether each school with mechanical engineering offers sufficient depth in the aerospace / aeronautical area for you.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone. I don’t have a preference to private or public. And I’m looking for a school that will give me some real world experience and help get me into a job right out of college.</p>
<p>Any major engineering college will give you the opportunity for real-world experience and jobs right out of school.</p>
<p>Do you have a geographic preference? Size preference? Price limit?</p>
<p>Do you realistically have a shot at Stanford?</p>
<p>I don’t have a geographic or size preference, but my family doesn’t make enough to afford a big tuition. </p>
<p>And I think I have an ok chance at stanford, but not a definite thing.</p>
<p>University of Miami</p>
<p>Well I mean, there are tons of schools then. Some of the best have already been mentioned, but some good places to start would be (in no particular order):</p>
<p>University of Illinois
Purdue University
University of Texas
Texas A&M University
University of Florida
University of Michigan
University of Washington
Pennsylvania State University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Princeton University
Cornell University
Case Western Reserve University
University of California - Los Angeles
University of Wisconsin
University of Minnesota
University of Colorado
University of Maryland
Georgia Institute of Technology
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University</p>
<p>There are certainly others and I am sure I offended someone by leaving their favorite school off of here. Oh well. You have lots of options, so you really ought to do some thinking about how you want to narrow it down.</p>
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<p>Not that far fetched. IMO the two best schools are CalTech and Johns Hopkins. I’ve heard that UMCP, MIT, and Purdue also have good programs. </p>
<p>CalTech has really strong science programs and the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, which has managed important NASA admissions. The Mars rovers are notable examples. Johns Hopkins has the APL Space Department, which is smaller than the CalTech JPL, but has managed important missions like Messenger and New Horizons. JHU also has the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is the science center for the Hubble Space Telescope and will be the science center for James Webb once it is completed. </p>
<p>Also, I would recommend doing undergrad in physics or mechanical engineering and then a masters/PhD in aerospace engineering, because an undergrad in physics will give you the foundation to pursue further study in any kind of engineering.</p>
<p>Based on that post, I would avoid the advice al6200 gives out. There are dozens of schools that receive substantial NASA funding and cooperation, including all of the ones I listed. You can work there with just a BS, and if you know you want to do engineering at some point, there is no reason to get a BS in physics.</p>
<p>Embry-Riddle</p>
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<p>Do any of them have facilities as important as the Jet Propulsion Lab? </p>
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<p>BS in physics is excellent preparation for any graduate degree and you will know more about the science for the missions you’re working on.</p>
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<p>That depends on what you are trying to do at NASA. There is no one-size-fits-all school or degree for NASA (or any other job for that matter). JPL is an incredibly tiny lab in comparison to the total number of people working at NASA. Not surprisingly, not working at JPL represents almost no detriment to your ability to get a job at NASA.</p>
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<p>False. I know many people who have had physics degrees and done fine in engineering graduate school, and I know plenty of people who have really struggled in graduate school with a physics degree, even to the point of not being able to cut it. It is a fine degree, but if you know you want to do engineering in graduate school, do engineering as an undergraduate.</p>
<p>Also, if you are looking to get a job designing a spacecraft, NASA isn’t going to give a wink about whether you know how a black hole forms and evolves or how a star goes through its life cycle or anything like that. They are going to care if you know how to design a spacecraft. There are plenty of physicists working at NASA, but the vast majority are not working as engineers, but as physicists. If you are looking to get a job researching aeronautics, chances are you have never seen anything as a physics undergraduate that would help you in that area. NASA looks for nearly all types of engineers and hires them in much greater numbers than physicists.</p>
<p>I never said that JHU and CalTech are the only places where one can study before working at NASA, I merely pointed out that students at those schools benefit from access to the APL, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (students from other schools can apply there, but only over the summer, only for some positions, and it is MUCH more competitive). The JPL is not incredibly tiny compared to the rest of NASA. JPL has 5000+ employees, NASA has 18,800+. I know that the NASA number is probably excluding lots of contractors, but even then the JPL is not “incredibly tiny”. </p>
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<p>I know that. Studying Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering are fine options, but in my opinion physics is the best option. It is more impressive than an engineering degree and you will understand more of the physics related to the missions you are working on. This isn’t a job requirement, but it will open up more career options and there are certain tasks that you will be more likely to be assigned if people know that you have a physics background. If you ever decide that you want to move into a science division, or a job where you work closely with science, you’ll be in a better position if you know more physics. Engineers work less with science than you’d think, but it still comes up. If you need more aerospace engineering, you can always get a masters/PhD in that subject. It will be easier to get an engineering grad degree with a physics undergrad than it will be to get a physics grad degree with an engineering undergrad.</p>
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<p>Tell me how many of those 5000+ employees went to Caltech or worked at JPL while in school. The answer: not that many of them.</p>
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<p>Again, NASA isn’t going to care if you understand what good comet dust is. They are going to care if you can design an aerogel net to capture it in. You are missing the forest for the trees. Physics is a major you do if you want to go into physics. The job performed by the vast majority of NASA’s technical workforce is not doing pure physics, but engineering, and for that, an engineering degree is absolutely a better preparation.</p>
<p>I also consider it irrelevant that a physics major can do an engineering graduate program better than the other way around. How is that relevant to working at NASA? The OP wants a job at NASA. That hardly requires a graduate degree (unless he wants one or needs one for the jobs he is interested in) and it absolutely doesn’t require a physics degree (in fact, the majority of physics that NASA uses is performed in academia, not in-house). If you want to work as an employee of NASA, you are better off being an engineer and specializing in something NASA needs.</p>