<p>At my school the two engineering majors I'm interested in are engineering science with a focus in materials option (unaccredited) and a full blown accredited mechanical program. I think I like materials more, but I'm wondering if the weakness of the program would hurt me. The school is UVA by the way.</p>
<p>Is the material science engineering major accredited? If not, I would choose mechanical. I’ve seen mechanical engineer worked closely with material science.</p>
<p>What part of materials science are you interested in? It’s a pretty broad field, and if it’s not the mechanical part of materials you’re interested in then MechE might be a pretty tough slog to get through.</p>
<p>Nanotech probably interests me the most, but I haven’t really learned that much about mechanical or electrical properties in my introductory mse class. From what we have learned I think I prefer electrical properties. However I know that I really didn’t like E&M when I did it in high school and that I could never be an EE.</p>
<p>Materials would probably better prepare you to do nano-oriented research since nano is really just a special case of bulk materials, except that you don’t get to use infinite boundary conditions. The only people I know from mechanical that really got into nano-type research are those doing MEMS devices (which are fairly cool in their own right).</p>
<p>I’d recommend taking a look through this textbook: [Amazon.com:</a> Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction (9780470419977): William D. Callister, David G. Rethwisch: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470419970/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0471581283&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=15WPD9WEK4XKA2G8TE47]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470419970/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0471581283&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=15WPD9WEK4XKA2G8TE47) to see what a typical Materials Science curriculum would entail (use Amazon’s Look Inside This Book feature). For the most part, I had a specific class on every chapter on that book through my four years of undergrad.</p>
<p>Ha that’s the book we’re using in my intro to mse class now. Where did you go for undergrad Reaver if you don’t mind me asking?</p>
<p>I was at Carnegie Mellon, but I’d say about half the people I know in grad school that took an intro MSE class had that book. It’s still one of my favorites. When I started to study for my candidacy exam I started with that book to make sure I really understood all of the fundamentals. Whenever I need a refresher in a random topic I always turn to that one first so I can remember which things to look for in my more advanced books.</p>