<p>I’ve gotten one valuable perspective thus far and I would like to hear additional opinions from the CC gang.</p>
<p>Lake Jr. wants to apply to an Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering department at an out-of-state university. He has a good opportunity for a near full ride scholarship that is specific to his first choice. However, at present all the undergraduate engineering departments at the college have been designated as “impacted majors,” meaning that OOS applicants are essentially second in line to state residents for available seats in the major. A further bit of invesigation revealed that the Physics Department has no such restriction. To take advantage of the scholarship, should Lake Jr. declare for the Physics major instead of AE/ME and then later apply for a Master’s Engineering program if he needs an engineer’s degree?</p>
<p>Obviously, big technology companies such as Boeing and General Electric in the main want AE/ME degree holders, but on their websites I see that they also recruit Physics majors for SOME Aerospace related jobs.</p>
<p>I used to want to do the Physics->Engineering Ph.D route, so I did a fair amount of research on this. It seems like what’s really important is that if you are going to major in physics, try to at least take some engineering classes or classes that can teach you the same things. For example, don’t skip out on any thermodynamics/thermal physics classes, fluids classes, anything like that. If it’s possible to get a minor in engineering (don’t laugh, GT offers these) then that could work.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t know how this would look to an employer, though, but this is how it would work if you wanted to go to graduate school. I know of one person personally who majored in physics and was accepted to Caltech’s mechanical engineering graduate program, so it’s certainly do-able and the top schools apparently see the value of physics degree holders.</p>
<p>look into programs called applied engr. that should give you an idea of the type of coursework Jr will do.</p>
<p>the only main issue is how to pick his specialty. If he’s a physics major, we’ll be too busy taking physics classes to take classes in all the different ME tracks (control systems, fluids, etc). He kind of has to pick one and stick with it. If he was an engr major, we would have to take classes in all the fields (note: he probably could learn all the material. its just an issue of taking the coursework and being able to argue that he is competent in a field he has no background in, yet)</p>
<p>thought: i find it weird that your son is a shoe-in to get a near full ride, but can’t crack the engineering major.
can he put engr as his first choice major and physics the second choice?</p>
<p>You misunderstand flemmyd. One has to apply for and be awarded the scholarship. My point is that he is a strong candidate for the scholarship. The school is a public university and the mechanical and aerospace engineering programs are impacted, meaning that state residents are put ahead in line over non-resident students in the freshman class when applicants are approved/admitted to the major. Freshman must state their intended major on the university application form. As I said, one option is for junior to declare for the Physics major, which is not impacted, so chances are he would be admitted to the College of Science, whereas he might waitlisted or even denied admission to the College of Engineering because of lack of enough seats to meet the demand even from state residents. In other words, there is less competition for seats in the Physics department.</p>
<p>What happens to him if he’s rejected? He’ll be able to apply for the physics department, correct? Seems like he should apply to engineering just in case, if that’s the situation.</p>