Starting to think about switching from mechanical to electrical engineering, or double majoring

At my current co-op as a sophomore mechanical engineering student, I’ve been doing primarily industrial controls system programming, electrical and network infrastructure work. I enjoy the programming and electrical work.

I did do some mechanical work, such as creating and installing a mechanical system (including drilling and welding), and then programmed the controls system to operate the mechanical system.

My current plan was to continue in the mechanical engineering but with a strong focus on controls system (including taking some EE courses that lead to the control systems courses, and embedded system/software).

I will be graduating in May 2018 because some of the engineering courses are only offered in the fall, or spring, so my co-op delayed my graduation by a year. I also plan on going for a second full-semester co-op during or after my junior year.

However, I am starting to consider two other ideas.

  1. Major in electrical engineering with a focus in controls, and take some ME courses.
  2. Double major with a focus in controls. However, this will require an extra semester of courses, so I would have to replace the second co-op with a summer internship, and I'm currently paying around $30K per year for tuition.

I am also unsure of how beneficial would double majoring be after graduation in terms of job prospects, salary and career advancement.

EDIT: The double major will take 5 years of courses to complete, while my current plan and the EE-only plan will take 4 years.

There is no need to double major. You are better off just focusing on control systems in one program and then going to graduate school to specialize further if you are wanting more classes. All a double major will do is cost more time and money and won’t really help you 99.9% of the time.

So should I continue sticking with ME or switch to EE?

That’s really up to you. Both of them do a lot of control systems type work. It really just depends on from which direction you want to approach the topic. You can always do one and then, if you decide later to go to graduate school, move into the other field.

Three co-worker engineers (two mechanical and one electrical) at my workplace were strongly suggesting me to go electrical engineering in order to be able to negotiate higher wage/salary. They claimed that if I wanted to focus on controls systems, I would be better off financially if I do it from the EE side.

One of the mechanical engineers is also doing primarily programming, network and electrical work, and only occasionally doing mechanical stuff.

Regarding graduate school, I plan on looking for a company that would sponsor it. I would prefer to go for an MBA over a masters in engineering, but I guess that’s sort of dependent on the sponsoring company’s plan of what positions they want to promote me into (higher level engineering vs. management).

I think in general it’s easier for EE majors to find control engineering jobs that need circuit and microprocessor design background. But if you graduate with a top rank in ME from a top engineering school then the job opportunities probably will be almost equal.

I’m attending University of Iowa. It’s in the top 100, so not exactly top rank, but god enough.

I find circuit and silicon design interesting, but I’d prefer being able to design mechanical systems and then build/program the controls system using off-the-shelf components. Maybe get creative with the components selection and wiring should a situation require it.

On a side note, I’m scheduled for FANUC industrial robot and Cognex machine vision programming training sometime next month at my workplace.

In that case I think ME probably matches your interest. You can take more class in EE, or minor in EE to satisfy your interest. No need to double majors. Majoring in EE and minoring in EE is also fine.

In real life job market it’s probably difficult to work in both areas during the career lifetime. Once you start to specialize in one area you tend the stay in the same area unless you are a project manager supervising the whole team.