Mechanical vs. Aerospace

Apologies if this isn’t the right forum, but welcoming any thoughts/guidance/suggestions. My son was accepted FYE and considering between a school that doesn’t have Aerospace (UW-Madison) and focus on Mechanical; or Purdue, which has both. He has been told by numerous guidance counselors that Mechanical is the ‘base’ for Aerospace and that he should pursue that, even if his goal is in the stars with Aerospace and that he can try to find an Aero company later that hires Mechanical Engineers. However, the mom in me thinks perhaps he needs to go straight for Aerospace…shoot for the stars! Any thoughts on this? Any students struggling with the same dilemma?

We have friends at NASA who recommended mechanical to their own daughter. Felt that it offered a broader base and kept more doors opened on the job front. That said, I can understand wanted to leave the door open.

The one nice thing at Purdue, is your son could do research in aero as a mech e.

@momofsenior1 Thank you - very helpful!

There is already a thread on this subject: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/2120665-mechanical-vs-aerospace.html#latest

That’s not really true. A truer statement would be that the science of mechanics is the base for both mechanical and aerospace engineering (as well as civil). Mechanical and aerospace engineering, in particular, share a lot of common material, but it’s not all common. I work in a combined ME/AE department, and slowly but surely, the two curricula drift further apart every time we have a revision of our course offerings. There are a lot of similarities but still some substantial differences.

Most of these differences boil down, ultimately, to the same science applied to different in-class examples. The problem is that those examples can be so different at times, that it makes sense to have some classes taught entirely differently for mechanical and aerospace engineers (e.g. fluid mechanics). In principle, someone with a degree in mechanical engineering should be able to do any job normally meant for an aerospace engineer and vice versa provided they had a firm grasp of the fundamentals, but there will be a learning curve for some of the more specialized jobs in either field.

If he can find an aerospace company that doesn’t hire mechanical engineers, I will personally mail you a check for 1 billion boneh3ad dollars (symbol: B$). Aero-/astronautical vehicles are simply too complex to be built by a single class of engineer. Generally, any of these companies hire mechanical, aerospace, materials, computer, systems/industrial, and even civil engineers to help them solve tough technical problems. It’s all a mater of which subsystems are most interesting to a given student, which can be tough to discern for a high-schooler trying to find the best path for them. In terms of subsystems, aerospace and mechanical engineers are (nearly) interchangeable.

Thank you @boneh3ad , very helpful - loved your response!

@wlmom2 keep in mind that they often change their mind. That’s one of benefits of Purdue FYE. You don’t have to decide right away and are exposed to all the disciplines through the FYE engineering courses. My son was convinced he wanted to go aero before he started and after his first semester decided on applying to mechanical.

I was a manager for one of the large aerospace firms. I hired many college grad engineers. Vary few (and not that I can recall off the top of my head) actually had degrees in aerospace engineering. By far more were mechanical engineers but there were all kinds of engineering represented. I have a degree in civil engineering and have always worked in the aerospace world doing launch vehicle and spacecraft structural analysis.

One of the oddest was an employee who went back to school to get his MS in agricultural engineering. Turns out that that was where the mechanisms classes that he wanted to pursue as a career were.

It doesn’t matter what the title of the degree is. What matters is the class content as it relates to the specific job you want. And aerospace involves all kinds of specialties.

P.S. boneh3ad will never have to pay anyone those boneh3ad dollars!!