<p>Cause I got accepted to a college as a material science and engineering major, but I also want to do some other engineering major.</p>
<p>I think it will be a good idea since material science covers the materials in general, which pertains to many other specific engineering field. So if I take up Aerospace engineering major, my guess is that study in material science will prove helpful in studying for and applying my aerospace engineering major (since new materials and their strength, price,thermodynamics, etc from material science pertains to aerospace engineering too).</p>
<p>Ture? false? </p>
<p>Also, one more question, I heard that most engineers do not go for Ph.D why is that so? and is there really no reason for an engineering major to pursue Ph.D unless one wants to be a professor?</p>
<p>I do not know what the curriculum is like for either but I doubt many classes count for both. Engineering majors generally have very few hours to take extra courses. I’m guessing about the only courses that will count for both are your general classes. Compare the two curriculums and see if any classes count for both. You will be in school a long time if not.</p>
In-between. A related double major can improve your understanding of a specific speciality, but no more than simply taking a few extra courses would. A major is meant to be a reasonably complete set of courses to pursue a particular career - a second major prepares you for two careers rather than extra-preparing you for the first one. Remember that engineering as a profession is pretty specialized, so it is highly unlikely that you will find yourself in a position where the breadth of two majors is really necessary or even helpful.</p>
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No, they don’t, just like in other fields. There are several reasons for this - most people don’t want to be in school that long, most people don’t want to do research, the career incentives are not significantly better, the long-term pay impact is about zero…</p>
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No, many engineering PhD’s go into research labs, government work, etc. In some schools, this is actually a much more typical path than going for the professorship. I myself do not have any intention of going to a university - I will be working for my company in a research role.</p>
<p>For what it is worth, Berkeley has officially supported double majors in Materials Science Engineering with Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Nuclear Engineering. Presumably, that would appeal to those who want to focus on the intersection of Materials Science Engineering with one of the other branches of engineering, or who want a second type of engineering as a backup job and career direction if job and career in Material Science Engineering does not pan out (as it is a relatively small field by itself).</p>
<p>Mostly false. Double majors rarely pay off and these two you mention have little overlap, even though the aerospace industry has a lot of use for both. Until you get to the graduate level, the materials side of aerospace engineering is fairly superficial in comparison to materials science. At the graduate level, they are much more related.</p>
<p>my suggestion is to figure out roughly what you would like to do in the aerospace industry and get a degree based on that. It sounds like you are into materials, so doing just a materials science degree honestly shouldn’t hurt you when it comes to getting a job in aerospace, though maybe a few guys on here with more materials experience can clarify that.</p>
<p>Paging RacinReaver…</p>
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<p>There isn’t a field on Earth where it is more common to get a Ph.D. than to not get one. It is a ton of work, doesn’t really net you more money than just a M.S. (on average) and only helps you if you want to pursue research as a career. In other words, there simply is no reason to get one unless you want to do research. If you do want to do research, a Ph.D. may be the way to go, and can lead you into government labs, industrial research groups, academia or a handful of other related places. It doesn’t limit you to only going for a tenure-track position.</p>
<p>While you CAN do a double or dual-major, it’s kind of like the football player who can play wide-receiver and cornerback in college. Most likely in the pros, he will play just one position.</p>
<p>Yes, some employers saw my resume and said “Oh, you did a dual math/CS major…nice”, but I was still hired for one position under the same pay scale as someone who just did a CS major only.</p>
<p>You should get a good number of technical electives that you can take and specialize your degree. If you want to do aerospace materials take aerospace tech electives.</p>
<p>As far as a Phd it completely depends on your career goals. If you want to go get a job at a manufacturing plant type place then it will do you pretty much no good. If you want to be a professor it is necessary. There are a ton of other jobs between those two where it might help you a little, not at all, or a lot, but until you know what you want to do for a career it’s pretty useless to think about whether or not you want a phd.</p>
<p>Thinking back to the people getting jobs out of undergrad from the MSE department at my school, hiring seemed to go in waves. One year everyone would go to aerospace, the next semiconductor, the next metals, etc. A friend that graduated a year before me wound up going to work with Lockheed in their satellite division. He was a double major in MSE and Physics.</p>
<p>I did my undergrad in Materials with a minor in physics. I chose note to double major since there were a ton of physics classes I could have cared less about (freshman year E&M was bad enough for me, forget the upper-level one). Instead I focused on the classes more applicable to materials science (quantum mechanics, extra thermo classes, and solid state physics), and I think it was a good choice.</p>
<p>I think which field you major in and which you minor in (even if you double, one will still be your main focus with more electives in it) depends on what sort of job role you’d like in the aerospace industry. If you’d like to design the landing gear on an airplane, you’d probably want MechE/Aero. If you want to study the effect of corrosion and fatigue on the landing gear (and possibly figure out new alloys to mitigate the problems), then you’d probably want materials.</p>
<p>Does your school provide concentrations? For example polymers, biomaterials, metallurgy, electronics, et cetera? If so, that should open the door for doing specific research.</p>