I'm so lost... Mechanical vs Civil.. help?

Calcozzo
Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:51:37 +0000

As for the rest of mechanical, designing actual engines doesn’t really appeal to me.



Hardly the rest of mechanical…there’s HVAC, manufacturing (though most people here will try to convince you that nothing is manufactured anymore), automotive (alright, this one actually is hurting), energy (solar, wind, nuclear, oil, and more), utilities, some transportation, naval, operations stuff, etc. There’s far more to mechanical than just engines and bio-mechanical devices. The world is your oyster with that degree.

That said, civil engineers can find themselves in non-traditional roles too. There’s a lot of structural work to be done in aerospace (hell, I’ve heard that they’re more in-demand than aerodynamics/propulsion/weights guys).

At my school, mechanical is marginally harder than civil. I especially notice a lot of overlap between structural and mechanical. If it’s abnormally hard/competitive at your individual school, though, then it’s something to consider. At my school it comes down to mechanical majors having to take extra fluids and thermodynamics, along with some light programming and EE stuff.

As for which you would prefer, that’s totally up to you. If nothing else, civil is said to be the field with more job openings over the next few years.