Materials Science Engineering Q

<p>What are your thoughts on MSE? Job opportunities? How is it different from ChemE? Is it a good idea to dual major MSE w/ another concentration?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>I'm in MSE. I like it very much. It's a small field so you get to know everybody in your major and have small classes. I find the stuff we're learning interesting and we get to melt metal with fire, so I guess it doesn't get a whole lot better than that.</p>

<p>Job opportunities are good. Neither I nor anyone I know in MSE have had a problem getting a job after graduation/internships over the summer and pay seems comparable to other fields. The most important thing is to make contacts. It's a relatively small field so knowing a few people can help you, a lot. For example, a friend of mine is graduating this year with around a 3.0, probably a little lower. Because of his crazy level of involvement with our MEPS program (materials science professional societies) as well as his experience (a year co-oping and 3 summers interning) he was able to say no to any interview that was below 75k. He's walking into over 80k a year starting out, doing R&D for some steel company. Now, that isn't typical, but it gives you an idea of the opportunities that are out there if you work for them.</p>

<p>I haven't done anything in ChemE so I'm not sure. In MSE you specialize in polymers, metals, biomaterials, ceramics, composites or nano materials, so a part of the difference might be that specialization. </p>

<p>I don't really think so unless there are two things that really interest you and you're open to the idea of taking an extra year or so. Notice I say taking an extra year instead of summer classes because you should be interning over the summer, not taking classes.</p>

<p>What schools are you looking at? I think GT has a pretty good MSE program.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the information and that's relieving to hear that finding jobs/internships for MSE is fairly easy. I actually am not even from atlanta, just the hawks are my favorite team, but I am most likely going to attend Univ. of Michigan (i think #3 in MSE?). Once again, thanks for the help.</p>

<p>Do people ever specialize in more than one field? (ie metals and nano, etc.)</p>

<p>UMich has a great MSE program for sure.</p>