If your son is a hands on person, take a look at Cal State Maritime Academy, I majored in EE and am also a hands on type person, and I would have seriously considered this if I had known about it. The ROI on the career is great. A friend of mines DD is attending and had an article written up on her.
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/ships/training-oceanographic-mariners-tomorrow-aboard-rv-roger-revelle
Not all engineering majors are available at all schools, so it may be helpful if she knows a bit about what she is interested in studying. For instance, Colorado School of Mines is great on physical sciences but maybe not Bio Mechanics (just an example I didn’t look). If she is interested in maritime, Webb Institute is tuition free in NY.
I’m a non-engineer with a daughter working on her engineering degree. She’s at Illinois Institute of Technology and will complete a dual BS/MS degree in architectural and structural engineering.
My impression has been that aerospace and naval, along with architectural are less subsets of mechanical engineering and more disciplines that encompass many aspects of engineering in specific applications. Many structural and maechanical engineers work in aerospace, for example. My daughter has worked in architectural engineering internships where she focused primarily on electrical systems of buildings, and has also studied fire protection, mechanical, and structural systems of buildings in her coursework.
Whether a particular school uses grad students for teaching is something you need to ask at each school. At IIT my daughter has never had a grad student teach a class, although there is a large grad student population there. In addition, she has had plenty of opportunity for research (it doesn’t all go to grad students-her friends have had plenty of opportunity too)) and the curriculum offers plenty of project based work and interdisciplinary projects (engineering and architecture students on the same project, for example). I don’t know about other schools, but maybe this is common.
BS/MS dual degree programs— I’d say it depends. My daughter is doing a coterminal degree. She came in with a ton of AP credit and will finish both degrees in four years and a summer, all financially covered by her particular scholarship, even after she made a late change to the masters portion that set her back a tiny bit. It’s the right choice for her, for various reasons, but for other students it might make more sense to get a BS and get to work, doing a masters later if needed. It might be better for some to choose a masters program with a particular focus, a little later on.
As you are making a list of schools, make sure you understand requirements for admission specifically to the engineering major, and ease of changing between engineering majors, or remaining in the major. There’s a lot of variation.
The aerospace industry and aerospace engineering are not the same.
I’m happy to stand corrected if aerospace engineering as a course of study is not interdisciplinary and is indeed a subset of mechanical as the OP mentioned. Architectural engineering as a course of study is certainly very interdisciplinary.
It’s a very specific facet of mechanics, so specific it was spun out of ME as it’s own discipline. The industry on the other hand employs LOTS of types of engineers. They work in aerospace, but most don’t do AE per se unless they are actually AEs.
All engineering flavors are multidisciplinary to at least some degree. Most require a basic understanding of electrical circuits, for example. Aerospace is no different in that regard. It also has essentially the same fundamental focus areas as mechanical engineering, making the degrees quite similar. So similar are they, in fact, that there are still quite a few combined mechanical/aerospace departments throughout the country.
Just for giggles I compared UF’s ME Curriculum to it’s AE curriculum. UF has a combined ME/AE department and offers a combined degree (BS/ME;4+1) in ME or AE (as well as a dual ME/AE degree, also a 4+1), I would think it’s a very typical curriculum.
Both curriculum cover the very same classes over the first 5 semesters (the 3rd semester is a summer term) with the exception of a upper level “Intro to Flight” class for AE’s. By the 6th semester (1st semester as a junior), two class differ (AE require Astrodynamics and a 2nd, more advance Differential Eq class). Both curriculum’s only share 1 class in semesters 7 thru 9 (Control of Mechanical Eng. Systems). Both majors also share a very large pool of technical electives.
If I compared ME to, say Civil, I’m sure about 70% of the classes are still the same in the first 5 semesters (everyone has to take Calc 1 thru 3, Physics 1 &2, Diff Eq, etc, plus the normal Social Sciences and Humanities electives.
I would spend only 50% of your energy looking at engineering side of the equation. Environment is going to be critical. So many engineers get derailed pursuing their major and have to switch. Most believe it’s the level of coursework. I think it has more to do with student support. No one gets through engineering alone. No one.
I would look at very small dorms that have special networking events. Large dorms, large parties. Would stay away from engineering dorms. Too much engineering. Need friends outside engineering. That takes out Mines right there.
I would look at study labs versus office hours. I would look for schools that do a lot of recitations. I would still want all the engineering classes segregated from the general population, but would want evening life to be more diverse.
Friends are critical. Beyond critical. Classes with forced study groups are key. Group work key. Everyone has to pull together to get through it. It’s like a victims group meeting. Sharing the pain is cathartic.
Research is the bomb! Other majors salivate over the opportunities undergrads get in engineering. Sophomores can be doing stuff for NASA. I would look for a very, very heavy focus on research. Attach to a professor in a lab and get the ride of your life. It’s like stepping onto a catapult as your career starts.
“Would stay away from engineering dorms.” - Although there is merit to recommendation of friends outside of engineering, I’d say there are a lot of advantages to engineering dorms. I say that based on my experience at an engineering school, where most dorms were “engineering dorms”. Freshman engineers have mostly the same classes / exam schedules. It can be nice to have study groups nearby (or just walk down the hall looking for somebody to help you sort through a challenging problem).
When my daughter was at an engineering school her freshman year, I happened to be in her dorm room when a friend dropped by and expressed her glee at “no calc problem set assignement today!” (a rare treat)… That meant all the girls had some extra hours to do something fun together.
I agree with @colorado_mom (I almost always do :D)
Engineering is HARD and requires focus and discipline. When you live with people who have majors that don’t require that, it’s easy to get off track.
My son lived in an engineering dorm and has plenty of friends outside of engineering.
That is something that is going to vary by particular student. Neither of my kids lived in engineering dorms and weren’t interested in doing so. One of them even lived in a frat for his last 3 years with kids with different majors . Not a problem.
I don’t recall that UVa even had an engineering dorm option. Virginia Tech does but son wasn’t interested. So, good to check out options at schools of interest if having engineering dorms is important to you.
The closest thing these days UVa has for engineering students is the Rodman scholars program, in terms of living with other engineers. They can live in the same dorm, along with Echols (arts and science) and science scholars. Some kids are not particularly interested in honors type dorms or honors programs in engineering, so it is a matter of what works best for a particular student.
I agree that some students would prefer not to be in engineering dorms. But engineering dorms do have advantages for studies. and it’s possible to make non-engineering friends (if desired) through clubs and activities. For example, my engineering son’s best friends have usually been through his music EC.