<p>I am considering a career in Astronautical Engineering and someday hope to work for NASA. I know Tufts is not <em>particularly</em> well-known for engineering, but I know they do have a strong eng program. Will Tufts suitably prepare me to go into the field competitively? I do plan on hopefully going to MIT for a Masters Degree in Aerospace Engineering, so would that significantly help me? Thanks</p>
<p>EDIT: I should also mention that I plan to hopefully minor in computer science</p>
<p>Short answer: yes.</p>
<p>Long answer: there are a lot of professors in ME doing research and teaching classes in areas necessary for Aeronautics (controls, dynamics, MEMS, materials, fluids). You won’t get as specific a view as you would at a department that has an aero major but you’ll still learn plenty, especially if you take advantage of research and internship opportunities.</p>
<p>GE Aviation, for example, recruits very heavily from the ME department. They offer a program called EEDP (Edison Engineering Development Program) in which recent grads work full time while also taking an intensive two year course taught at GE by experienced engineers. In the third year of the program GE then pays tuition at a Boston-area school (I believe the options are Tufts, Northeastern, BU, and MIT) and the student takes courses there to round out a masters degree. You then graduate with no obligation to GE, an MS (or Masters of Engineering), and a decent savings (they pay a very competitive salary, too). About five members of my graduating class (just over 10%) are now participating in this program; a few others are working for GE Aviation outside the program, too. I know at least one of my former classmates who is now at GE has career aspirations of working in the Space industry, as well. In addition to the Edison program GE takes a decent amount of interns and co-ops from Tufts.</p>
<p>GE is far from the only path, though. A friend of mine who graduated in 2011 from the ME department just finished his MS in Aero/Astro here at Stanford in the winter and is working at a GPS company in San Francisco starting in a couple months (he also interned at NASA Ames part time for all of last year). I know another guy who (I think) is graduating tomorrow who interned last summer at a company called Terrafugia working on making a flying car - I’m not sure what his career plan is. There are a number of other students who work in aviation-related internships or jobs post-graduation at places like Draper Laboratory, Boeing, etc.</p>
<p>In summary - you should be proactive in taking relevant electives and forming relationships with professors doing research interesting to you as well as trying to find internships. But I assume that’s mostly the case anywhere.</p>
<p>As far as a minor in CS - that certainly can’t hurt but I don’t think would be too necessary for Aeronautics. Depending on what your specific interests would be, a minor in math might be more useful, especially if you want to look at the effects of fluid flow or other similar fields. But if you’re interested in CS then certainly go for a minor.</p>
<p>Thanks Hebrewhammer, that was really helpful.
Do you know where Tufts mech. engineering students go for grad schools? Are there plenty of people going to MIT, Stanford, Caltech or Princeton?</p>
<p>I can’t speak to longer term (those who work first and then go back to school), but about a quarter of my class (2012) went straight to various types of grad programs. </p>
<p>A surprising portion (about half of those) are doing the program I described at GE.</p>
<p>The ones that go straight into grad programs elsewhere tend to do pretty well. I can only speak anecdotally, though, but everyone I know of who left Tufts is in a very highly ranked department. There are usually a few MIT and Stanford but I’m not aware of anyone who went to Caltech. Princeton isn’t as well-regarded a program; I have a few friends at grad school now who went there as undergrads and it sounds like it has a much larger focus on undergraduates than grad students.</p>
<p>Here are a few examples from the last few years:
One of my teammates on the XC team graduated Tufts in 2011 and turned down MIT to do his PhD at Michigan in heat transfer. A 2013 guy on the track team is going on to MIT in the fall for materials engineering.
A close friend of mine that I worked on a few projects with is currently at the MIT Media Lab (he was also admitted to their ME department). I have a friend who just completed his first year in a PhD program at Georgia Tech and another friend who will be starting his MS there in the fall.
I had a friend from my year who also got into Stanford but turned it down for money from Illinois. There is another member of the class of 2013 who will be joining me there, though.</p>
<p>There are usually a few who will do the 5 year program (BS + MS in 5 years - you apply as a junior, I think the cutoff is mostly GPA) or just stay at Tufts for a traditional MS (you can probably find a professor who will fund you). I know a few who’ve done that each of the last four years or so.</p>
<p>I would say that you shouldn’t worry much about grad school before applying to colleges. It can’t hurt to be thinking long term but you might discover other interests between now and then. One of the great things about the School of Engineering at Tufts is that it’s just one school within a larger university. I have plenty of friends who have gone in both directions between Engineering and Arts and Sciences. I definitely had a great engineering education at Tufts but I also had the opportunity to interact with a much more diverse group of students than if I had gone to a more technical school.</p>