Mechanical Engineering with Aeronautical Minor

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>Cornell Engineers,</p>

<p>My son is an aspiring aeronautical engineer and is interested in Cornell. We are trying to figure out the course sequence to obtain the aero minor on top of the mechanical engineering major.</p>

<p>Does the student have to use up elective time outside of the school of engineering?</p>

<p>Can the minor be completed in four years without having to add extra courses on top of an already demanding curriculum?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>PTH</p>

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<p>A few things to understand about “electives” at the engineering school, and I am assuming the mechanical engineering track. There are 4 kinds:

  1. Technical Electives
  2. Major Approved Electives
  3. Advisor Approved Electives
  4. Liberal Arts Requirements</p>

<p>Technical electives is any technical course (math or science/engineering relating) above or equal to the 2000 (roughly sophomore) level that is not prescribed by the MAE major.</p>

<p>Major Approved Electives are electives that are chosen to help align the students with their interests within MechE. These are courses chosen from an approved list and you can think of these courses as your “concentration”</p>

<p>Advisor Approved Electives are classes that are chosen to help align the students with their broader career interests. If you are considering business later, you can talk to advisor and they will sign off on business classes. If you are considering design work, again talk to advisor to get DEA classes approved. </p>

<p>Liberal Arts Requirements are classes that the student can choose OUTSIDE of engineering that are pre-approved in certain categories such as “Cultural Analysis” or “Social, Behavioral Analysis”. There’s a HUGE list of them to choose from but you must pick a variety that cover several categories.</p>

<p>The Aero minor requires 6 classes: <a href=“http://www.mae.cornell.edu/mae/academics/undergrad/upload/Aerospace_Minor_Application_Form-2.pdf[/url]”>http://www.mae.cornell.edu/mae/academics/undergrad/upload/Aerospace_Minor_Application_Form-2.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If you are taking MechE with the Aero minor, it’s difficult because 2 of the classes you take for the Major Approved Electives can’t be double counted, which effectively means you would need to take 4 Major Approved Electives. However, the other 4 classes could be (check with undergraduate advisor) used towards the technical and the advisor approved electives. So all in all, 4 classes can be double counted, while 2 of them cannot.</p>

<p>If you are not doing the MechE route, I’m not sure at all and I can’t really comment. Unless you are doing BME, there really isn’t enough coverage of the basics to help you through the upper level classes. It’ll definitely be doable, but definitely challenging.</p>

<p>So no, it won’t “take up your elective time outside of engineering” because you can’t double count anyway. But “yes” you can complete in 4 years without too much overloading. The challenge is to plan a schedule for junior/senior year around that goal though… The aero/senior approved classes aren’t offered every semester or even every year. Since you can’t double count them, getting 4 of them to fit in the schedule on top of the other requirements is difficult.</p>