I’m a prospective college freshman and I’m considering engineering. I have to decide now because I was originally planning to attend a college that doesn’t offer engineering on its campus. I was originally more interested in physics and computer science than engineering, but I was thinking that maybe I should know what it’s like to study engineering so that I can make a good choice. I’m only quite interested in mechanical engineering, especially that it’s a means to pursue aerospace engineering but I’m not really sure that as an international student I’ll be able to work in the Aerospace industry in the US, which doesn’t exist in my home country. I don’t think that I’ll like studying and working with manufacturing machines and mechanical things, although I enjoy solving mechanics motion problems at high school (I particularly enjoy imagining the situation). What’s your advice? And I hear that it’s very difficult to find a job in engineering as an international students, unlike computer science for example.
Mechanical engineering is a very wide field so you find jobs doing just about anything you want.
Pursuing a career in aerospace could be problematic as you surmise. Any job in the US would require the proper visa or status in this country. The aerospace companies that I am familiar with will not sponser an international person so it makes it very hard to obtain the status to work here.
Check out jobs in ME in your country. They may not be aerospace but could also be quite interesting and fun work.
ME jobs in my country are pretty much just working in factories. We don’t even manufacture car engines in my country (Egypt)
So what other different jobs are in ME?
I’d say maybe pursue citizenship, but I probably am not the person to answer this question. If you’re studying in the US and pursue a Masters after your major, then you will probably have spent 5 or more years in the US, which means you can apply for citizenship.
I’d check on that statement about student visa time counting towards the 5 years required for US citizenship. I’m not sure that it does without extenuating circumstances.