Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science double major?

Hi everyone,

I have read through many forums but have not found someone in my situation. I’m going to attend college next year in hope of eventually attaining a Mechanical Engineering degree. Before you say I should focus on Mechanical I would first like to explain the program I’m entering. Many liberal arts colleges offer a 3 year/ 2 year program which means that you will study 3 years at the liberal arts college to get a bachelors in most likely Physics or Math and 2 years at a partnering University such as Columbia or Case Western Reserve to get your bachelors in Engineering. My question is if Computer Science is a marketable major along with Mechanical engineering and if it will help me during my career. I hope to work at a private sector company such as Space X one day. I understand it is highly competitive. If not, are there other majors that are worth double majoring in along with Mechanical Engineering. Thank you for your time and I apologize if I posted this in the wrong section.

How much time and how much money do you have? There’s very little overlap between a CS and a mechanical engineering degree, so getting a second bachelor’s will probably be an extra two years minimum.

People are going to hire you either as an engineer or a computer scientist. Not both. You want to work on the rocket, be an engineer. You want to design computers or program them for the rocket, be a computer scientist. Nobody is going to hire you to do both.

A few people MAY hire you to do both but I would not count on it, the field is very specialized and is not worth the long shot.

Also see other threads about 3-2 programs. They sound good at first, but lots of disadvantages. (Don’t ask about that here. Just search - it’s been discussed many times before).

I will offer a slightly different opinion and say that ME and CS is actually not a bad combination, and the skills you acquire from both of those may offer an edge in certain positions, primarily those in the area of robotics. I’ve seen a number of positions that have asked for those with knowledge of both dynamics/mechanical design and machine learning/controls/etc. That said, generally speaking, even in this area, most jobs will involve handling either the mechanical aspect or the controls aspect, not both, and I’m not sure there’s any significant benefit to having both majors, especially since the controls and algorithms can be part of an ME curriculum, too. You’d be better off getting a Master’s than spending 5 years on a two-major combination that will help in only a handful of cases–and even in those cases where the two majors would be useful, it’s still certainly better to have a Master’s with a specialization in that area rather than a double major.