I am a current physics major at Georgetown University but I am worried about finding a job. I heard I should double major in engineering if I want to fix that. Case Western is giving me that chance but I worry I am going to miss out on the “prestige” of the Georgetown name later down the line applying to grad school. For reference, I would be doing electrical engineering. I saw the Georgetown CCP program with Columbia but it is not guaranteed acceptance and that scares me to put my entire future on that. Happy to answer any questions that might help you guys help me make this decision as I am so lost what to do.
Do you want to work as an engineer? What types of careers interest you?
I assume you’ve been accepted as a transfer to Case? What year are you? Will you be able to graduate in 4 years total if you transfer to Case and major in EE? Do you have any financial constraints?
I am planning to go to grad school for aerospace engineering, I heard it was bad to do a bs in aerospace since it is so narrow so I chose physics, but I heard electrical engineers also work well as aerospace engineers
I have not gotten my financial offer from Case Western yet, they said it would be possible for me to major in EE and graduate in 2028 ( my normal year ) but that it might be challenging.
I would encourage you to do some in depth research, beyond the ‘I heard’ surface level. It’s likely more common that mech e’s are working in aero type jobs as compared to EE (not that EE can’t work.) What type of jobs in aero are you looking at? Is grad school necessary for those?
Sounds like some uncertainty until you have the Case FA offer. If you need more than 4 years to graduate, you have to take that into account financially (including opportunity cost.) I would sit down with the course catalog and plot out your path for the next 3 years and see if you need to overload credits and/or go to summer score to graduate in 2028.
Not only the admissions uncertainty, but you would also be paying for 5 years of undergrad school and Columbia FA might not be as generous for the 4/5 years. Other potential downsides of a 5 year program:
-leaving your friends for senior year
-paying for a 5th year of college
-giving up at one year salary and possible bonus
-losing one year of experience and possible job promotion
-spending more $ for likely similar job outcome (those coming out of the 3:2 program are interviewing for the same jobs that those with a 4 year degree are.)
I heard electrical engineers have a better chance but I guess I could be wrong. In aerospace engineering, I would love to work on rockets or anything space related. I have never really thought what specifically interested me more, I really love circuitry which is why I chose it. What would be the difference between aerospace engineering for an electrical engineer vs mechanical engineer
This is for you to research, plenty of web resources for this. Plus speak with your Gtown career advisor. How can you make the decision to transfer or not if you don’t have a better grasp on the classes/majors/career opportunities/years required for education?
Could be. OP needs to figure out what type of job they want and what the educational requirements for said job(s) are.
I would normally expect an EE person to go into Avionics if they wanted to work in this industry generally. I would normally expect the people who do the engineering of the actual flight/space vehicles to have a MechE background. I have no idea which, if either, is an easier route though–I would hope you are actually talking to working engineers in the field.
As for Case, this is just one piece of data, but in the per capita version of this Engineering PhD placement study, Case finished 14th, which is quite good:
That put it in the same peer group as places like Georgia Tech and Cornell. It was also 28th total, which is quite good again for a midsize private university (22 of the 27 colleges above it were large public engineering colleges).
Again, only one measure, but I think it is safe to say that people who do well in Case’s Engineering program are likely to have lots of interesting opportunities for whatever comes next.
If you really want an engineering or engineering-adjacent career, it seems to me that this transfer makes sense, and it’s not a downgrade in terms of reputation, in the STEM world.
I would think that it might make more sense to transfer into the Engineering Physics major. This would probably dovetail better with the coursework you’ve already done as a physics major, but it’s still an ABET engineering degree that includes a concentration of your choice - the available concentrations are:
Biomedical Engineering
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Computer and Data Sciences
Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering
Macromolecular Science and Engineering
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Materials Science and Engineering
So, you could concentrate in Electrical if you wanted, or Mechanical/Aero, or even Materials - any of these could be a stepping stone into an Aero career or grad program. And you probably wouldn’t have as much backfilling to do, to finish the BSE. Compare the requirements for yourself and see, but I don’t see the downside if your ultimate goal isn’t to go all-in with EE but just to use it as a stepping stone; the concentration within Engineering Physics should be enough for that, and the extra-strong physics foundation would be an asset in the aero industry and would fit well with the path you’ve been on so far.