<p>I have recently come across this major and it seemed very interesting to me. Can anyone in this field explain if they believe this is a reliable major and tell me if they like it? Job market is relatively small 22k, will I be able to get a job from this major out of college? I hopefully plan to obtain a masters degree. thanks!</p>
<p>A guy I know is a PhD and has had an awesome career in the field. Start your search backwards by looking at companies that hire such folks. Semiconductor, Pharma, etc etc etc. and see what the demand looks like from there.</p>
<p>My younger son majored in this as an undergrad and is now applying to PhD programs. It is the future. These are the people who will discover the next, better silicon chip.</p>
<p>The field is in rapid growth I heard. From a Korean website, I read that many physics majors who are doubtful of their job opportunities go to graduate school in materials engineering, explicitly implying (an oxymoron?) its practicality. And if I am to add a thing, Koreans are all about practicality and efficiency :D</p>
<p>I got a lecture from a materials science professor and it was very very interesting. He showed us some of his research which included: sending infrared light through paintings to see the original sketches (believe it or not, some paintings have different sketches underneath that mean something!) And sending metals to the space station and heating them up real hot and cooling them to see what happens to the structure in space rather than earth (it became stronger!). I myself will be majoring in ECE but I might take a few classes in Materials Science just out of sheer interest. Have fun!</p>
<p>I’m gonna either major or minor in Materials Science in college (my major is either gonna be MatSciE or MechE). I’ve done a couple summer programs in MSE and they’ve all been super interesting, the field is growing and many people get PhDs in MSE. You can specialize in electronics, in polymers, ceramics, etc. I don’t know too much about the job market but the field is growing rapidly!</p>
<p>thanks for the insight everyone!</p>
<p>I’m also under the impression that Materials Science and Engineering is the key to unlocking the future. Numerous technologies have been predicted but are limited by the materials currently available. With the nano-world coming into play, it truly appears that nothing is impossible. </p>
<p>That said, I’m not sure how prospects are for bachelors with a MatSci degree. If you’re interested in working on the forefront of technology, consider an advanced degree. I think you’ll find tons of opportunities in Materials Science with a PhD and probably with a Masters as well.</p>
<p>Yeah I plan to get a masters with the 5 year plan at cal poly and maybe eventually get a PhD</p>
<p>This thread is recent enough I don’t mind resurrecting; also, long time reader, first time poster. </p>
<p>I’m almost halfway through an MSE program at a Big 10 university, and our department has been rapidly growing these past few years. I chose this specific engineering major because of my equally strong interest in chem and physics…yet I don’t love chem enough to go through the nightmare of ChE. I haven’t been disappointed. I think of the major as combining elements of ChE, MechE, and solid-state physics into its own entity. A bit more lab-focused and a bit less design-focused relative to other engineering majors, it seems.</p>
<p>As a response to your question about jobs, OP. My general impression is that, yes, probably more employers are looking for the Big 4 traditional engineering majors. But MSE is well-respected, and becoming increasingly more so. My cousin, a quality manager at 3M, has mentioned this. From what I have seen, our graduates fare pretty well and they go to a very wide range of industries. It doesn’t seem to suffer as much from the reputation of “you know a bit about a lot…what can you actually produce?” that something like biomed does (not knocking BME’s, just feel their curriculum doesn’t give them a lot of options if they can’t get something in biomedical industry).</p>
<p>An anecdote: I recently joined an online internship board for STEM majors in my state. One position I checked out at a medical device company was asking for ME, BME, and EE, preferably with some good CAD skills. I backed out because I didn’t meet any of those qualifications. The next day, the hiring manager e-mails me to send in my resume; this led to an interview. During it, I asked him about these posted requirements and he told me he thought that MSE was an excellent background for the position, and for a lot of technical positions in general, because of its broad applicability (note: applicability, not just knowledge). Wish me luck on interview #2.</p>
<p>All hiring managers probably aren’t as awesome as this guy, but I just wanted to point that MSE’s may have a lot more options than job postings suggest. </p>
<p>During a tour of a small engineering college in the Northeast, the Dean, an MIT graduate, said that if he were beginning his career today he would major in Materials Science because of the expansion of research and practical applications in the field. Lake Jr. has expressed interest in studying composite materials, but has said he would rather major in Chemical Engineering as opposed to Materials Science. He is enrolled this semester in the intro Materials course but has no plans for a MSE major. He’s under the impression that a career in Ch-E will provide a greater variety of opportunities. He loves Chemistry but doesn’t favor a degree in Chemistry. Ch-E seems to be a rational alternative.</p>
<p>I am taking Principles of Materials Science and Engineering this semester. At Iowa State, it is a requirement for us IE’s as well as AeroE, ME’s and AgE’s.</p>
<p>I am not going to BS you, the lectures for this class are extremely boring, I don’t know if it has something to do with the professor but I did not care at all for this class the first few weeks.</p>
<p>Once we started getting into metals, ceramics and their properties, I started to enjoy this class much more, it is a combination of some very interesting concepts with some very boring mathematical calculations.</p>
<p>First third: We spent a lot of time on crystal structures which was very boring to me, like learning about the geometry of lattices, crystallographic planes and directions, diffusion rates and phase diagrams.</p>
<p>Second third: We dealt with metals, ceramics and their properties. We spent a lot time learning about the different phase transformations of steel which I found very interesting and less math intensive than the first third.</p>
<p>Final third: We are dealing strictly with polymers and their properties. General Chemistry covered it very quickly but this is more in depth and deals more with industry applications of polymers and their properties</p>
<p>The Mat E majors at Iowa State are a small group but they are very supportive of each other- I visited their learning community online and they are very organized.I think it could be an interesting major if you are cut out for it.</p>
<p>@bschoolwiz “I am not going to BS you, the lectures for this class are extremely boring, I don’t know if it has something to do with the professor but I did not care at all for this class the first few weeks.” </p>
<p>This is very interesting. When my boy was looking at schools to attend he attended a session (not a Iowa State but another midwest university) where Department Chairs gave short presentations to the incoming students about the merits/opportunities of their departments and majors. Being a chemistry major myself many years ago I was pushing the merits/board opportunities and applications in Material Sciences (in BME, ME, ChemE, EE, etc) but that one short 15 min presentation was enough to push my son into Computer Engineering. Now a junior at the University of Michigan. I still feel career-wise you can’t go wrong by going the Material Sciences route</p>
<p>The description that bschoolwiz gives of the intro course pretty much mirrors mine, with the exception of my course covering a bunch of stuff about band theory and semiconductors as well. I found the whole course fascinating; to each his or her own. </p>
<p>It sounds like both of our schools have different intros for majors and non-majors. And every single AE and ME who I’ve talked to who took the non-major course said it was boring and difficult. I guess MSEs are an odd bunch.</p>
<p>thanks for all the responses, I got into Cal poly and UCLA and I’m torn between which school to go to, does anyone know which has a better materials engineering program? </p>
<p>I can’t say I know, but from an uninformed Midwesterner’s viewpoint:</p>
<p>UCLA: better academic reputation overall (not that Cal Poly’s a slouch)
Cal Poly: real focused on hands-on experience</p>
<p>I would say UCLA if you’re thinking grad school and R&D jobs, Cal Poly if you just want any remotely engineering-related job, even if stopping with a B.S.</p>
<p>Don’t underestimate hands-on experience, but both sound like great options.</p>
<p>Cal Poly all the way.I took the Intro to Materials Science at Cal Poly even I was an EE major. I remember it was hard, may be because I took it in the summer.
BTW, my first boyfriend went to UCLA and graduated Summa Cum Laude but had terrible job/career in engineering. Got laid off a few times and since switched to Law, not sure how successful he is as a lawyer but UCLA did nothing to help him in engineering.</p>