<p>I had a very bad, and abusive relationship with my dad. I finally stood up to him, and now probably will no longer have college funding, but I'm going to talk to financial aid, and got my aunt as a cosigner for the rest of my college years.</p>
<p>I was originally in aerospace engineering, and I took one intro class. It was really rigorous, but I really loved the material, and I found it fascinating. I think out of all my engineering type classes, aerodynamics was my favorite, and I liked the material a lot more than MechE or other engineering classes.</p>
<p>I really like the material, I think the whole idea of space and flight is really amazing, but my friends keep telling me that I should switch engineering majors. I'm going to be in a lot of debt, and I'm glad I'm away from my father, but the issue of getting a job after college is a big one, and people say something more diverse like MechE, or Industrial systems is a better choice.</p>
<p>But I don't have the same passion for the majors, and I'm stuck at a crossroads. Should I keep going with aerospace, and use my passion to work hard, or should I try a safer engineering major?</p>
<p>And what makes these friends experts on the topic? Study what you enjoy. If that happens to be aerospace engineering, then do it. For what it’s worth, I don’t foresee air travel going away any time in your lifetime.</p>
<p>If you’re stubborn like me, it’s aerospace or bust. That said, I have financial luxury of low debt and flexibility to be un/underemployed. Only you can decide how much debt you’re willing to live with. Me personally I wouldn’t go over 40k even if it were MIT. Ignoring the soul crushing debt of a college education for the moment, I am of the opinion that if you’re motivated and have the ability to do better than most (often goes hand in hand) in a particular field, go be the best <strong><em>fill-in-the-blank</em></strong> engineer you can be and things should work out.</p>
<p>Always take what you hear from friends (or even read on these forums) with a grain of salt, because many times, what people try and pass off as fact is really just an opinion based on speculation and/or rumors. Do the research yourself - Ask for advice from people who are actually working in the field. They will be the most knowledgeable about industry trends and outlooks.</p>
<p>And adding to what boneh3ad already said, not only air travel, but space travel, and heck, any kind of travel for that matter! Aerospace engineers can work on practically anything. Need to design a train? Aero’s can do that (think CFD/Structures/Controls). Need to design a car? Aero’s can do that too. Need to design a ship or submarine? We got that covered as well. Mechanical and Aero degrees are virtually interchangeable these days.</p>