I'm really interested in Engineering, especially Automotive and Aerospace.
Aerospace seems to be forgotten about until a couple of years of ago, since many people thought there weren't many openings in the field, according to the US Labor Bureau.

What courses should I be taking for automotive engineering?

Some of the top schools like MIT and Princeton, U Mich, etc have programs for Aerospace and it looks really interesting.

On the other hand, I have been obsessed with making things, and cars since I was crawling. It doesn't seem like there is enough ready info about the Automotive Engineering field, since many people get confused between the terms engineer and technician. My goal would in the automotive world, would be to work for a manufacturer designing bodies/chassis or something close to that.

I figured for both of these routes, Mechanical engineering seems to be the most fit, along with courses such as thermodynamics, aerodynamics, etc.

I also thought that especially for the Automotive field, a major in electrical engineering would be fit too, considering that it's one of the options in the plan to rid of our dependence on fossil fuels. To give an example, cars like the Tesla Roadster.

I guess I kind of answered my own question here, but then what kind of salary could I expect working as a starting engineer for a company such as Nissan or Honda?

I've noticed that the Aerospace starting salary was around $60,000.

Thanks for listening to the rant!

 

Knowing where the general markets are heading you want to green your career. If I were looking at engineering I would put auto last and electrical first. I believe this country will eventually have to look at a national nuclear energy program was well....you should look into the nuclear engineering field too. Its sad to say at this juncture but America's auto industry is all but dead unless it does drastic changes (like killing the UAW).

Your main goal should not be starting salary but a field that will be pretty much guaranteed a position when you graduate, and a bright future for a career. I don't see auto or aerospace as two particular fields that will have burgeoning prospects, unlike electrical and nuclear.

 

older article, but an interesting read:
http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/Index...ArticleID=13717

 

I guess with the economy taking a poop on itself and us, our nation's got to choose a new system to deliver us energy, whether it be solar, wind, nuclear... but those are all just methods of making electricity right?

If anyone is working in EE field or is studying EE, could they tell me what the courses are like and their difficulties?

Thanks.

 

You might want to talk to your school counselor. They should also be able to provide a lot of info to you about various programs of study and career fields.

I would suspect that most larger universities would have programs specific to whatever type of engineering you want to do, whether it's Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace, Civil, etc. When you have an idea of which major you'll choose, pick a school based on their strength in that field. Then, compare other engineering majors, and I suspect that a lot of the core classes will overlap. This is a bonus because if you get into your 3rd year and decide you'd rather be doing Aero engineering instead of Mechanical, then it's easy to switch majors without throwing away a lot of course credits.

 

$60K fresh out of college as an aerospace jr engr? Seems unlikely but maybe I'm out of touch. I'd have said $45K give or take regional differences, and no real difference to automotive salaries. Put it this way, as an engineering manager I never pay top dollar for unproven talent.

Both of those fields are interesting but highly cyclical businesses. You had better be one of the better engineers where you end up working unless you like finding new jobs when you've been laid off.

 

mech engineering:
get a crack copy of solid works and play with it, you will be staring at something like this tool for days on end.

elec engineering:
thinking a rf background or power will have staying power. in either case exposure to software firmware is essential. DSP design is good.

software:
most everything is a net application or should be


companies, other than google, never can consistently support an engineering staff. lots of turnover so it would be difficult to work in just one type of industry but if its what you like it must be done.

 

I'll be graduating with my mechanical and aerospace engineering degree this may and have a job lined up so I can probably give some insight.

I'm not sure if you know but AFAIK, there is no "automotive" engineering. Your closet bet would be mechanical engineering based on what you would want to actually be doing. Aerospace engineering is not going to help you in this field. Though this might seem rude, you have to be realistic with yourself as well. The automotive industry sucks right now (let alone the economy in general); hopefully by the time you graduate it will get better but now GL finding a job in that field -- everyone is trying to get out of it.

Thermodynamics is a required course of mechanical engineering so you will be taking that along with a upper level heat transfer course. As I said, taking aero will not help in designing chassis or anything related.

EE / Mech are the two hot engineering degrees right now because of the energy issue. I had NUMEROUS offers from power generation / oil companies so if thats something your interested in, the market is surely there. As I said before, the auto industry is not hiring much if any now.

Assuming you can even get a job at honda / nissan (honestly I doubt it right now), for a mechy assume about 50-60k starting as thats the average.

Aerospace starting salary is slightly higher becuase there is next to no jobs as compared to the rest. Its a very small and specialized job market and unless you are 100% certain you want to live in either in one of ~3 major aerospace states, I would suggest another route.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask

 

For aerospace that is common; think about how many aerospace jobs there are total. Its a very small job market hence the higher pay and more competition.

It must depend on your area because I'm starting well over 45k (and 60k for that matter) with just my B.S. in Mech and Aerospace engineering.

 

I got my BSEE in December. fwiw, my comments below:

1. If you want to have an engineering degree, make sure you are ready to work hard. They will drill you on math. I recommend EE because to me it was the easiest and high probability of getting a job. AE is known for being a very hard major where i went and jobs are few and difficult to obtain.

2. I make ~$60k straight out of college and i live in an area with relatively low cost of living. Total pay is meaningless without understanding cost of living.

3. An absolute MUST, do coops or internships and gain some experience before you graduate. They will help tremendously when you start interviewing for full time jobs.

EDIT: My background is in analog electronics but my job is more project management related, i do not know anything about power. PM me if you want to know more about EE in general.