Hi! I’m a rising senior in high school, female, and planning on going into an engineering major in college. I love physics and I like math also-- I’ll be taking both AP physics and AP calc this year. I was set on mechanical engineering because it was more of a general category. I wasn’t (and still am not completely) sure what I really want to design or work at in my career, but designing and implementing things and solving problems seems appealing to me. At first I kind of wanted to engineer things like furniture and general household items (like things at Ikea. Sounds weird but…). I’m pretty creative with real-world ideas and such and I am constantly coming up with little solutions for every day problems.
Filling out college apps and doing research on engineering majors, I have recently discovered the category “engineering physics”. I originally wanted to go into physics-based engineering because I really like physics, but I hadn’t come across a category like it.
With that said, what kind of things do people do in mechanical engineering vs. engineering physics? What’s the difference in terms of classes I’ll need to take, things I’ll learn. Pros, cons, everything. Thank you!
The typical engineering curriculum in the US has a foundation of physics but stops at the general physics level (first year stuff). In an Engineering Physics (or Applied Physics) program, you will take quite a lot more physics, through quantum mechanics, advanced electrodynamics, mechanics and statistical physics. In addition, you will take some engineering courses which depend on the university you are at. In the Applied Physics program at my institution, Illinois Tech, the student will focus on a specific engineering field and take what amounts to a double major with physics and that engineering field. Other universities have differing curricula.
With an engineering physics degree, you will have a broader background, covering areas which touch on Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering but you will not specialize so much as with one of these majors. This can be a plus or minus depending on your perspective. You should be able to compete for engineering jobs (you can also do so with a pure Physics degree) but if the employer is specifically looking for a mechanical engineer and is not willing to give you a look it could be a negative. Fortunately, many employers are aware that a physics major can be an excellent hire.
For engineering physics, the curriculum involves more mathematics and physics than a typical engineering student would take. You do need to take a certain number of credits of engineering electives, and at least a Umich, you are required to have an advisor approve your selection to ensure that it is a coherent sequence - in other words, a random selection of engineering courses from all over the place will not work.
Although there may be no formal specializations within engineering physics, depending on how you choose your engineering electives, you should be able to say that you focus in a certain area. So if you use a coherent sequence of mechanical engineering courses for your engineering electives, then you can say that you are doing an engineering physics degree with a focus in mechanical engineering.