<p>Which University is better for B.S. in aerospace/aeronautical engineering?
I intend on majoring in aerospace/aeronautical engineering in college & joining the ROTC program (pref. Air Force or Navy) because I want to become a Pilot (Jet/Commercial/Helicopter). I need to know which is the best college/university for this out of these schools</p>
<p>-Florida Institute of Technology (Only Army ROTC & slim chances of becoming a chopper pilot, yet very close to Cape Canaveral)</p>
<p>-Syracuse University (Army & Air Force ROTC)</p>
<p>-Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Army Air Force Navy ROTC)</p>
<p>-Clarkson University (ARmy & Air Force ROTC)</p>
<p>-Cal Poly SLO (Army ROTC)</p>
<p>-Alfred University (Army ROTC & only has ME)</p>
<p>Also, out of these schools; which one is the best academically(in terms of engineering)? Which school has the best social life (I know, they’re mostly engineering schools, but still. . .), & Which school is the best all around. Please state both Positives and negatives. Thanks!</p>
<p>Any particular reason for only choosing between those schools? Many of them seem to only have an Army ROTC or ME major, which to me seem to hinder your chances of succeeding with your stated goal.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a strong ROTC program dualed with a strong Aerospace Engineering program there is no better place to look than Texas A&M. Their program is ranked in the top 10 USN&WR, and their corps of cadets is the largest ROTC program in the nation outside of the service academies.</p>
<p>Embry-Riddle, Clarkson, Texas, A&M and Daniel Webster have the ROTC Plus top Aero program. </p>
<p>Daniel Webster college is small with its own airport and fleet of planes and old in flight, but new in ABET AERO/MECH certified engineering 4 year program (the 2 year ABET certified program has been around for decades).</p>
<p>Thank you for your comments. Yet, I’m not looking at any new schools (most of the deadlines are over). I’m just wondering which one is the BEST out of THIS LIST OF SCHOOLS. thank you.
-catharsis</p>
<p>Do you need an Aerospace engineering major to be a pilot or do you just want to have it? Just wondering, because I really don’t know and it makes little sense to me…</p>
<p>To be an Air Force Pilot, yes you need to know aeronautics/aerospace. To be a regular pilot (commercial) I don’t believe you do, but to be a Fighter Pilot you do. Makes perfect sense to me in my opinion; especially because once I am not physically fit to fly (older) then I can still design/develop air craft. . . .makes sense to you now?</p>
<p>I can’t answer the OP’s question, but maybe I can shed some light on the AE for pilots discussion. I went did my AE undergrad at GT and opted not to do AFROTC, though I had considered it. Do pilots need to know aeronautics? Absolutely - do they need to understand the way an engineer has to? I don’t think so. In actuality, being an engineering major in an ROTC major puts you in the engineering career path, at least with the USAF. That’s what they told me when I was interviewing for AFROTC scholarships - I wanted to be an astronaut and study AE.</p>
<p>But if you want to fly and then go work in industry (as an engineer) after you retire - you’ll definitely need the engineering background for the latter.</p>
<p>you should know that more slots in flight school will be allotted to those from the academies. Also, offers to flight school are based on merit alone, so keep your grades up. Do you have one of those ROTC scholarships or are you just going to “walk on” for lack of a better term?</p>
<p>Also, Embry-Riddle’s application deadline is sometime this summer. They have the best undergrad aero engineering program in the country. (US News). The Daytona Beach Campus has all 3 branches of ROTC and the Prescott campus has Army and Air Force. </p>
<p>Really surprised you didn’t try and gain admission to an academy, since they have top 5 aero engineering programs and have the most slots for flight school.</p>
<p>only go to FIT if you like sausage-fests. *<strong><em>ty parties, barely any girls, and great engineering. im a freshman there now but definitely transferring. its boring as *</em></strong> here</p>
<p>Cal Poly
Syracuse
WPI
Clarkson
Alfred (???)</p>
<p>Regarding ROTC and flight training: the Navy (don’t know about the others) requires that you be at the top of the heap GPA wise to be selected for flight training. In years past, candidates were advised not to major in aero or any other engineering major because while earning a 3.5 in engr is great, it might not get you selected over those candidates with 3.8 in International Relations (or whatever). But that might chang a bit (on the front end if not the back end of the path): there are so many applications for NROTC slots that the Navy can be much more selective so most of the slots are going to tier 1 majors. (<a href=“Naval Education and Training Command - NETC”>Naval Education and Training Command - NETC)</p>
<p>Try looking into Middle Tennessee State University we compete against emory riddle as the number one and two schools in the nation in aerospace. we have an excelent rotc program both army and airforce and you could prob. get into navy rotc as well. The link to the schools website is [Middle</a> Tennessee State University](<a href=“http://www.mtsu.edu%5DMiddle”>http://www.mtsu.edu) you should check it out. oh and every pilot should know about aeronautics to be safe in what he or she is flying.</p>
<p>Purdue university actually has the best program i feel. Many astronauts graduated from there, tons of research money pumped into program by NASA,and they have their own Airport on campus. i have personally been to the airport,and toured the school. They even have a state of the art flight simulator that is over 3 stories tall. This place is a pilots dream. Please check it out!! They have ROTC too!!!</p>
<p>can anyone explain to me the fundamental difference between a school like embry-riddle (“the best” aerospace engineering school in the country) vs. georgia tech (random example)? i’m talking strictly undergrad here.</p>
<p>Embry-Riddle is a small, undergrad only (except for a handful of MS programs as far as I know) school where everything is focused on aeronautics.</p>
<p>GT and other large, renowned universities are major schools with a huge array of majors (and thus people). Perhaps the most important difference is research. These types of schools carry out huge amounts of research with giant budgets and help advance the science of aerospace engineering (or anything else they might pour money into). They offer doctoral programs as well, which ERAU does not.</p>
<p>You can get a great education at either type of place, but they each have different advantages and disadvantages, which I am sure if you search the forum briefly you will find a plethora of threads discussing.</p>