<p>I love Math and Physics. I’m in love with airplanes, helicopters, and rockets (I really am trying not to be pretentious), and my dream job would be at Boeing. I got a 780 on my SAT I math. However, when I take part in math competitions (really hard math problems) I usually don’t score to good. On the AMC 10, I only scored in the mid 90s. Is this something to worry about? The question may seem ludicrous, but I am serious.</p>
<p>Aerospace certainly sounds like a valid path for you, just remember that it is not the only one. Aerospace is very mathematics intensive, and most of the jobs in Aerospace are less glamorous than most people expect - far more people get their first jobs working for companies like Piper and Cessna than with Boeing. I would not worry too much about your competition mathematics, as you will generally have adequate time and resources to complete the required tasks, just make sure that you can reach a sufficient level of comprehension. And please remember that your first two years of college will be dominated by math and physics preparation, so you have lots of time to acquire that level of skill.</p>
<p>The question, as you predicted, is indeed ludicrous if that’s all that you are worrying about. Math competitions have little correlation to how you will perform in aerospace engineering. </p>
<p>Cosmicfish, believe it or not, there are many people in aerospace that would prefer working for small companies instead of Boeing/Northrop Grumman/Lockheed Martin. Working for small companies, in an engineering sense, generally leads to more responsibilities and potentially less “down” time. And on top of that, I wouldn’t generally agree with your statement of aerospace being very mathematically intensive. Sure, maybe compared to a history major, but as an undergrad most aeros will simply take Calc. 1-3, DiffEq and maybe a Linear Algebra or PDE course. Nothing outside the ordinary for any other engineering major.</p>
<p>I know many people who DO prefer working for small companies, and I agree with the reasons you mentioned, but that is not what the OP mentioned. Plus, when most people (including the OP, by appearance) think of aerospace engineering they are thinking of the stuff going on at the big aerospace companies or at NASA… relatively few people go into aerospace engineering so they can design Cessna wings.</p>
<p>As to the math, I started out in aerospace before switching into electrical. Having taken most of the “core” courses prior to the switch, I feel I was able to get a good look at both majors. While both majors required similar math preparation, aerospace courses were almost always mathematically intensive, while most electrical courses required less intensive and less diverse math.</p>
<p>I agree with no correlation between Math competitions and Aerospace Engineering. Remember, most of engineering will use “applied” mathematics. There are some students (I for one) who did much better with applied (or computational) mathematics than theory.</p>
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<p>What did you study in electrical engineering?</p>
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Electromagnetics and remote sensing. Actually one of the more mathematically intensive specialities of EE. Most of the math in EE seems to be focused on E&M or in signal processing, but I cannot recall any areas of aerospace that were NOT in the same league or even more so.</p>