<p>I've been accepted into both schools for engineering. I want to do aerospace engineering, which Cornell doesn't have, but I still am considering Cornell. So I was wondering if anyone could give me his/her experience of aerospace engineering at Umich. Can you explain things like work load, how are the professors, how do the professors prepare you for the aerospace industry, if you integrate well with the central campus people,etc. It would help a lot if someone could give an input. Thanks.</p>
<p>I did not major in Engineering, but have been to the Aerospace Engineering building a few times, and it is impressive to say the least. It was named after Francois Xavier Bagnoud (a Michigan student from a wealthy Belgian family) who died in a helicopter crash. </p>
<p>The university of Michigan offered the first program in Aerospace Engineering in the United States all the way back in 1916. Since then, it has established itself as one of the top 5 Aerospace programs in the country. Among 10 most active on-campus recruiters at the CoE are Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and NASA. </p>
<p>A fun fact to consider. Michigan is the only university on Earth to have an alumni chapter on the Moon! hehe!!!</p>
<p>I agree with Alexandre. Not to forget the designer of BlackBird plane (Lockheed SR-71), Kelly Johnson, was a graduate of Umich in 1930's and just to name few next to Kelly Johnson. That tells you the greatness of UM aerospace engineering.</p>
<p>I'm a senior in the aero program. I attended Embry-Riddle for my freshman year, then transferred to UMich, so I have some metric for comparison. I know nothing about Cornell.
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I've been accepted into both schools for engineering. I want to do aerospace engineering, which Cornell doesn't have, but I still am considering Cornell. So I was wondering if anyone could give me his/her experience of aerospace engineering at Umich. Can you explain things like work load, how are the professors, how do the professors prepare you for the aerospace industry, if you integrate well with the central campus people,etc. It would help a lot if someone could give an input. Thanks.
[/quote]
The workload is high, but that's standard in all engineering programs, at all schools. The professors are mixed, but none are easy. There are a few exceptional ones, many decent and a couple who are (allegedly) terrible; this is probably what you'll hear from most students at other universities. All of them have been responsive in office hours and emails (homework/project/exam questions etc.). They're generally quite friendly, and recently two new professors were hired with a third on the way. Research-wise, astrodynamics and controls are quite strong. As far as industry-preparation goes, well, it's nothing exceptional. You learn the standard aerospace engineering subjects and some aspects of computational methods. There's a CAD course which is quite popular, and a required laboratory course involving design/built/test/analyze experience. The two capstone courses (final year project courses) available take you through designing an aircraft or a space "system" (which might be a satellite or other spacecraft component). One of my professors wrote me a letter of recommendation for a scholarship, and I firmly believe his reputation in the rotorcraft field helped me win the award. The master's program in space systems engineering has a 100% employment rate (I think decent engineering programs stay around 90-100%, but that's complete speculation), with most graduates going to NASA JPL and Lockheed Martin. Team projects are extensive... through all four years, there are nontrivial group projects in your courses. There's a unique avionics course being offered which prepares students to be literate in the flight controls computer systems that modern aircraft require (my favorite course so far); I believe this should be standard in aerospace engineering programs. The Michigan aerospace engineering program currently emphasizes technical communication quite a bit... in the annual engineering writing contests here, I believe over two thirds of the winners were aero students (I was one), disproportionate to the size of the department. This addresses the usual engineering student blindspot in writing and speaking skills.</p>
<p>I know I don't sound very enthused, but I honestly believe UMich has an excellent aero program, and I intend to stay here for a master's degree. I suggest you check out the undergraduate</a> course schedule and course</a> descriptions to get a better idea of what you'll be learning. I can say it is vastly better than the education I would have received at ERAU. It is rigorous and I believe, balanced.</p>
<p>On alums: yes, Kelly Johnson went here. Same with a couple of astronauts, and the current head of the Skunk Works. There's a moon rock in the atrium of the FXB (quite a nice building) donated by NASA (which has ridiculous security provisions).</p>
<p>For what it's worth, after enrolling in UMich, I've interned at Eclipse Aviation (awesome startup in New Mexico, won "Best of What's New" in Popular Science several years ago), Sikorsky (maker of the UH-60 Black Hawk, among others...), and in a few weeks I'll be working at Boeing on aerodynamic modeling of the 787. I still love helos though, they're wonderful...</p>
<p>Interacting with central campus students is no problem. No one forces you to make friends with only engineers. Many engineering students (including me) live on central campus and ride the bus daily to north campus. It's not an issue at all, though you will not have as much free time as most LSA students.</p>
<p>Do you know if you want to focus in aeronautics or astronautics?</p>
<p>Oh and of course, read the department website:
<a href="http://aerospace.engin.umich.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://aerospace.engin.umich.edu/</a></p>
<p>Thanks a lot for all of your responses, especially aoeuaoeu. Michigan does seem like it has one of the best aerospace programs. I think right now I'm interested in aeronautics, but I wouldn't mind doing either. If it's possible can you go into more detail about those capstones courses?</p>
<p>The two capstone courses are Aero 481 Aircraft Design and Aero 483 Space System Design. Only one is required for the degree, but some students choose to take both. I haven't taken either yet (I'm taking 481 this fall), but people say that they have heavy workloads.</p>
<p>I can say more on Aero 481 because I'm an aeronautics guy. Aero 481 is a large team based course. Each class has two teams competing to design an aircraft to satisfy an RFP (request for proposals), basically a set of mission/performance requirements for the desired aircraft. This is basically how almost all modern aircraft design programs are initiated, especially defense aircraft. The teams are large, on the order of a dozen students, with several subteams that handle individual aspects of the aircraft like weights, aerodynamics, structures, propulsion etc. Two professors teach the course: one focuses on the physics and nitty-gritty analysis, the other on the multi-disciplinary and practical concerns (e.g. a wing might perform well in flight, but be impossible to manufacture. also costs). Currently, the course has students design a surveillance UAV (e.g. RQ-1 Predator or RQ-4 Global Hawk), which is definitely a "sexy" field right now. Students don't carry out the entire analysis (which takes hundreds of man-years), but go through the steps in starting with performance requirements and ending up with a conceptual design with estimated performance and physical dimensions (including a full 3D CAD model).</p>
<p>I don't know so much about Aero 483 other than it's also a large team-based course. I know that this semester they designed a space probe that would somehow track the [url=<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis%5DApophis">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis]Apophis</a> asteroid<a href="another%20timely%20subject">/url</a>. The team aspect is similar to that of 481, large teams with subteams. A great deal of work goes into orbit planning and electronic systems configuration. That's all I can say on that course.</p>
<p>Hey aoeuaoeu, I just sent you a PM :P</p>
<p>I have been accepted to UMich Engineering with $30,000 and Berkeley Engineering with $20,000. Which one do you think I should accept. I am from New York and I love sports, especially football. I also like hot weather. Please help.</p>