IndigoPlateau

I'm in a fairly unique situation with my college options. My parents don't make much money and my sister is going to be heading off to college a year after me so I have to minimize expenses. What that means is that I'm pretty much restricted to the northeast (I live in PA). I have the stats to get into a top school but there aren't many with aerospace programs. There are some, but they would likely be less willing to offer me financial aid. Based on my estimates from statistics I've looked at it is more financially viable for me to attend a top engineering school for something else than a smaller one specifically for aerospace.

ucbalumnus

Do your "stats to get into a top school" include at least a 3.0 GPA and 1490 SAT CR+M or 34 ACT? If so, consider the automatic full ride at University of Alabama - Huntsville, which is near the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

There are other full rides that are competitive at places like NCSU and Georgia Tech. Berkeley also if you major in mechanical engineering.

Gettalife

Couple of thoughts. Sounds like you have ruled out going to Penn State? Top 20 in aerospace/aeronautical pubs/citations. Aerospace engineering major. I know some great aerospace engineers that have come from Penn State.

But more importantly, and I expect I'll probably get some comments for saying this, but having an aerospace engineering major is just not required or even necessarily desirable to work in the aerospace industry in general. Many typical aerospace engineering major courses tend to focus on a fairly narrow set of skills that apply to fairly narrowly defined groups within aerospace engineering organizations. There are far more electrical, mechanical, materials, and even civil engineers working in the aerospace industry.

If you want to go to a "better" school, and want to work in aerospace, you can confidently choose one of these engineering majors.

Its more important for you to understand what aspects of aerospace interests you and what engineering majors are "required" for these areas or subsystems.

http://academic.research.microsoft.c...inid=1&last=10

boneh3ad

Absolutely, 100% true.

Maybe not desirable any more than any other engineering major, but certainly not undesirable.

True, but there are also far more electrical and mechanical engineers in general than there are aerospace engineers. Aerospace engineering is a fairly niche field providing engineers for fairly niche jobs so it works out fine. It is just important for people to know that it isn't the only path into the aerospace industry.

Gettalife

What I meant by "or even necessarily desirable" was that in terms of the number of job opportunities that the number of true aerospace major related positions in the great majority of aerospace related organizations is much fewer than say the number of mech-e or ee positions. The majors themselves are much broader, and the number of specializations within these majors that relate to aerospace jobs is simply larger. Yes, agree that the belief that one needs to major in aerospace, aeronautical or astronautical engineering to best get a job in aerospace is simply not true. For new college grads, I also think that in general, aerospace engineering majors will have significantly fewer aerospace (and non-aerospace) job opportunities than say mechanical or electrical engineering majors, especially with future reduced defense spending.

Gettalife

One more Penn State datapoint:

US News 10th best aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical Bach degree Program

Aerospace / Aeronautical / Astronautical | Rankings | US News

Btw I didn't go to Penn State

boneh3ad

LOL at them for still having Caltech and Stanford listed in the top 10 for undergraduate aerospace engineering programs. Fun fact: neither Caltech nor Stanford offers aerospace engineering as an undergraduate degree.

Gettalife

Yeah - asleep at the wheel - credibility gap

NeoDymium

Just one among many reasons to trust USNWR rankings.