Im a second year mechanical engineer at University of California at Irvine. Im learning a lot, but I think my school is too theoretical. The material is really interesting (right now Im taking dynamics, materials, and a class on line integrals). I'll tell you how a degree helps in 3 years :)

I think I have an unfair advantage on my classmates because Ive been working on cars for a good 10 years, but I wont complain. I think having real experience helps a lot in what we're doing, but I know if I took a couple of years off to wrench on cars and went back I'd forget how to integrate... SO right now I'm a 19 year old second year on a five year plan.

It used to scare me that some of the aerospace and mechanical engineers I knew didn't even know how to work on their own cars.

If you can't work on a reasonably complex machine I don't think you should plan on helping to make any either.

“They'll never outsource CEO's or CFO's......

”No wonder I never rocketed-up the advancement ladder....I keep asking questions like, "....how come it's OK to get cheap engineers from India....but all our CEO's are all stateside? I'm *sure* we can find a CEO from Calcutta that'll work for only 40X an engineer's salary instead of the US-average of 200X.."

”Then the meeting gets quiet......”

Wil, you have a way with words.

Best,
Grady

Well I am a Chem E but through my career I have done something relating to just about all of the diciplines. Frankly, I would look where the entry level jobs are that interest you are and major in that. Once you get some time in the field, you can move around to the other ones. I have been a Chemical Plant Process Engineer, Environemental Engineer/Manager, Semiconductor Facility Engineer, and a consultant. Throughout these positions, I have designed , installed, started up and operated complex systems or all sorts. Right now I work for an Air National Guard Civil Engineering Squadron and have to say this job is a heck of a lot of fun. I am still finding things to do that I never dreamed I would be doing when I graduated.

Besides, Chemical Enginners get to make the cool things that blow up or eat what the other engineers build! :D

Steve, Follow your heart, it will take you to where you need to be.

Steve, lots of good advice here.
I particularly like "follow your heart". I knew I was going to be an engineer when I was 10. Started as aerospace, then moved to mechanical, got a degree in math at the same time. My brother tried to follow, but he quickly found out it wasn't in him. It has to be in you.

On degrees, I got as much as I could becasue I love learning, two BS, both elementary and secondary teaching credentials and a MS from Berkley in Combustion Engineering. And the interviewer was most impressed because I liked to work on cars. Got a job doing research on rocket propellants. Spent most of my years blowing things up to understand the physics of detonations for rocket propellants. Now, I am at the second to highest technical grade at Lockheed.

Other side of the coin, my former supervisor 10 years ago has only a BS from Cal Poly. He is now VP on THAAD program. I would work for him on any project he asked, because it is really deep in him.

Also worked for Pan AM as a coop student in college. I would recommend a year of airline work to anyone coming out of college. What fun. And then you travel.

Just make sure the school is ABET accredited. . .and a "BSME" is plenty.


Well, BS has gotten me a long way. ;) hmmm . .. maybe I should start writing BSc. . ..

I only glanced thru this topic, but one statement did catch my eye by Souk. And no, I didn't pick out this statement simply because Souk is a local friend of mine. It's very true:

"An engineering degree does not make you an engineer! You have to be an engineer at heart to be a good engineer...and you don't need an engineering degree to be a good engineer.

Just because someone has PE after his/her name doesn't mean diddly. It's just passing a test. Those who produce good work that is clever, effective, practical, and so on, are those who are the true PEs. I don't claim to be a great engineer (civil) by any means. But I know a good one when I see one. Some of the plans I review for my municipality are ridiculous. It seems like some people simply want to get stuff on paper to get the job approved and get going on construction. Those guys who like to "wing it" in the field scare me.

And yes, civil engineers are the ones you yell at when traffic backs-up, roads fall apart, your basement floods, bridges fall down (God forbid....), ........... etc. I don't know of many things civils do that the average Joe appreciates. It's not like computers or architecture that people woud marvel at their creation. Civil stuff is just there for the utility.

Thanks all. I understand about a degree or PE not actually guarantying anything about the person's identity. In My field we have a very sought after certification. It requires a practical lab test that used to be 16 hours and is now 8 hours and that only comes after a written qualification exam. It's actually very difficult, and there are about 10000 in the world. But I have met my share of CCIE's and walked away wondering how they passed.

ABET, huh, I'll have to look that up.

I am not an engineer, but I use them when it suits me. (joke, kinda) It looks to me like the ME and EE disciplines are more glamorous, but I might prefer civil engineering. With CE, mother nature is your foe, and she's going to win.....it's just a matter of time. And you build big stuff. Wind shear is significant and you have to consider what's going to happen if it gets hit by a fully loaded semi. Plus, you get to stand back and see (probably also drive over) what you've built. One of my colleagues is the chief engineer on the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Now that's something your grandkids can show your great grandkids.

Plus, like Vash says, there's a lot of CE work out there, and MUCH more to come when voters figure out that roads are built with tax money, evne if you do wish they were free.

A pessimist says the glass is half empty.

An optimist says the glass is half full.

An engineer says the glass is too big.

n'nah. . .

An engineer says the glass has a safety factor of two.

:p

ME here too. I have had pretty good sucess with my automotive design career.

For me the most telling factor is what you did as a kid, were you always taking things apart to see how they worked and being unable to get them together again. Hey that is what school is for.

I agree too that there are two types of engineers, those who work with their hands and those who have read all of the books. Ideally you want to cover both but school teaches where to find the answers you need, but the hands on part is either there os it is not.

Good luck, I would encourage the ME but I am biased.

Mike

love it!!!!
i tell my girlfriend her hair is nice and parallel all the time.

socatoa? foil? very funny. i will go even further back and bring up:

my poor dear aunt sally......wait, how does it go?
i was just solicited by a engineer to go and work in beijeng. if i was only more mobile...hmmmm.

HaH!!! I was always dismantling stuff, anything, watches, TV's whatever was in more than 1 piece, sometimes not even that mattered if I had a hammer.

Yeah, I think I've decided ME is the way for me. I've taken a few of the various personality tests over the years. The one that I found the most interesting was supposed to tell you what sort of job you were cut out for. My primary set me up as someone technical, engineer, etc, and my secondary said I liked to work with my hands, mechanic, carpenter, etc. The person administering the test said that often people pursued the first for their career and the second as their hobby, and that's exactly how my life is so far. I'm in a technical career, and for fun I work on cars and do home improvements and work outside with my hands.

It sounds like ME would be the perfect marriage of those two.

Tensors, eigenvecors and my favorite aerodynamics term, phugoid.

Re: Professional Engineers and degrees:

Years ago, a big east coast manufacturer bid on a research job. THe prospective client asked for a copy of the credentials of the people that would be working on the project. He commented on the small number of advanced degrees, despite the fact the company had a reputation for being creative. The VP in charge of research told him "My people are doo damn busy innovating to be bothered with more formal schooling".

And, within reason, I believe that. Too much ejudimacitaion solidifies the brain to off beat ideas. Observe children and their creativity with blocks or erector sets. That haven't been told yet that his or that is impossible.

This place blows me away! I started my career in automotive repair school, then in to actual repair. I followed that with military (F-16 avionics). Now I'm out and have been considering school again, heavily leaning toward Mechanical engineering. So, I've been talking with the wife about it for a while......then here is just about everything I've had questions about right here.....good old Pelican Post!
I did have a question though. If I was to emphasize on aerodynamics what path would I take....still M.E. or something different altogether?

Right ON!

Go M.E.

(way back, circa 1990) I considered an aero-degree (up here where Boeing once dominated) but for the three aero-grads i knew who had the hardest time finding work.

. . that is, the vast majority of work that goes into a jet is NOT figuring the aerodynamics. There may be a bit of work there with scram-jet and engine-tech right now; but there is more need for materials and structures to optimse those craft. (IMO)

. . and then systems, systems systems . ..

all points to ME.

That's version 3.0, correct? I'm sure they're very aware of the wind harmonic issue.............. :p Downright amazing, what happened to the original bridge.

In CE, the road thing is kinda cool when you build from scratch. The un-fun stuff is rehabbing bad stuff. It's not the material work itself that's necessarily bad. It's dealing with the existing conditions like keeping roads open to use and all the staging that must be done.