Pros and cons?
My main concern with the physics is, what would I do with that? I don't want to be a teacher...
Pros and cons?
My main concern with the physics is, what would I do with that? I don't want to be a teacher...
Why are those two majors your only choices?
If you want to design planes, why would you choose anything else? And if you don't want to design planes, why would you consider Aeronautical Engineering?
As for physics grads becoming teachers, college isn't trade school - most people end up in careers unrelated to their major.
Physics is a very prestigious major, and difficult for most people - you should do it (only) if you want to.
At least where I went to school, engineers had very few slots available for non-technical electives.
You can do way more with an Applied Physics degree than an Aero Engineering degree these days. The aerospace industry has been shrinking for a couple decades, and it will probably continue to shrink slowly.
There are a lot of new fields opening up for physics majors. My sister in law works in solar tech. My brother works in OLED display tech. Energy storage is a booming area right now. There's a lot to choose from.
Engineering specialties are narrow applications of "Applied Physics". Aerospace Engineering is one such example. If you're certain you're going on to grad school then Applied Physics probably gives you more options. If you definitely want to do aerospace then you might want to specialize earlier.
Engineering in general is probably more marketable than applied physics, but this is not necessarily the case for aerospace.
Think about it this way-- there are people who so love aerospace engineering that they don't care about pay. They just want to build really really cool planes and rockets.
These people drive down the salaries for the whole profession.
Unless you are one of them, major in something flexible like MechE or EE, with a concentration on something mind-numbingly-boring like heat transfer or quality assurance. No little boy ever wakes up and says things like "I want to grow up to reduce the defect rate from 0.5% to 0.3%!!!" Hence the salaries are higher in these areas.
You can still take such a degree and go work building really really cool planes and rockets if you want. But you will also have other options.
I have a physics degree, and took some ME/Aero courses and now work as a programmer. They actually can be very different.
Aero tends to look more on the macro scale, either from an approach of fluid dynamics or from mechanical stress/strain/oscillation.
Inevitably, with physics, all roads lead to microscopic phenomena... optics, quantum mechanics, etc. You may not be solving these types of problems every day, but all of the research is based on you understanding those principles.
If you have good grades and market yourself as an intelligent, personable person, you will get a job either way.
how do they drive down the salaries for the whole profession??? do they work for free?
go with aero. it could take you to Mars!!
yyy wrote:
how do they drive down the salaries for the whole profession??? do they work for free?
go with aero. it could take you to Mars!!
If you offer most aerospace engineers a choice between:
a) 120k$ a year doing quality assurance for IV tubes or surgical gloves, and
b) 60k$ a year working on some ramjet project that is on year-to-year gov't funding in a congressional district up for re-election,
most of them will take b) without thinking twice.
There are actually aerospace hobbyists who spend their time doing that stuff for free. No one does quality assurance as a hobby.
I am planning on a masters degree and a phd. I like the stuff that you see on through the wormhole with morgan Freeman. I wanted to be an astronaut. I love space. I'm really good at math. I like proofs. I like proving geometric equations and physics equations, like archimedes circle. I liked understanding how my calculus fit into physics. I was good at chemistry. My biggest interest is in theoretical astrophysics, basically I want to explore and understand the mechanics of the universe. I'm really interested in stuff like spacetime dimensions and such. I'm also really philosophical. I'm constantly thinking deeply about life and everything. Me as a person, I am very logical, I never take a side, but always play the devil's advocate just for the sake of understanding. My friends said I shouldve taken a philosophy class, but isn't the whole enabler of philosophy free thinking.
I had a hard time with electricty and magnetism though, maybe my calculus wasn't strong enough idk.
I like nuclear/quantum physics, astrophysics, philosophy, theoreticals.
I just really don't want a shitty job (in my mind), a teacher or quality assurance.
I also want money, not to be rich, but to pursue independent things, for instance making an innovative residential agricultural system
aerospace engineering hands down. It's basically mechanical engineering. Way more 'wow' factor with companies solely from the word 'engineering'
source: aerospace engineer
I say do mechanical engineering and take whatever physics and aero electives you have time for. you can still work on the aero industry with a mechE degree, but you aren't cornering yourself as much. mechE is a very marketable degree.
Despite what everyone is saying, your interests align more with physics or applied physics, so I would say go that route. If you realize you don't want to pursue physics post-grad, apply to MechE or Aero M.S or PhD programs. I know a lot of people that went that route and did very well.
Again, you will be fine either way.
I studied Physics in undergrad, specifically because I wanted to run for a D3 school. I then went to graduate school for a PhD in Aerospace Engineering and I now work for NASA Goddard.
That said, there is a risk in what I did. AE grad programs were reluctant to take a risk on me because I had a non-traditional undergraduate background. It worked out, but I was not able to get any funding from my department until after I finished my masters degree. It did work out in the end but I was very lucky. I don't think I would make the same choices again.
If you are sure that you want to be an aerospace engineer, go directly into an AE undergrad program. You will find that getting jobs or getting into appropriate graduate programs will be much easier. If you are not sure then applied physics is appropriate. However be aware that if you want to move from physics back into AE, you will need to get outstanding grades (I didn't), be lucky and find a professor who happened to do the same thing (my approach), or both.
If you do become an aerospace engineer and come to work at NASA Goddard some day, we would be very happy to have you on our track team.
Wow, either choice sounds like it'll make college a real 'fun' time. Don't be a loser, bro. Study something easy like communications or gen studies like me. I freakin loved college, man. Wish I could go back every single day of my life! The working world sucks, man. You only get to do college once and life's too short to spend it in the library. Once its over its over. So what that my first job was a deep fryer at the local fish fry joint? Now I have a nice 9 - 5 at the DMV. Job is pretty prestigious and I had a great time in college.
Logical Man wrote:
I'm also really philosophical. I'm constantly thinking deeply about life and everything. Me as a person, I am very logical, I never take a side, but always play the devil's advocate just for the sake of understanding. My friends said I shouldve taken a philosophy class, but isn't the whole enabler of philosophy free thinking.
I also want money, not to be rich, but to pursue independent things, for instance making an innovative residential agricultural system
Set up your "innovative residential agricultural system", then use it to grow some renegade hydroponic bud. You will have plenty of money, and when you test your product (I'd say once a day at least) you can do lots of free thinking and you'll be capable of next level philosophizing. You may go through the wormhole and never come back ;-)
An undergraduate physics degree is a degree preparing you for graduate education. I got my b.s. in physics and mathematics and am about to go back for a masters in mechanical engineering so I can actually do the work I am interested in.
The thing is the school I'm going to has one of the best engineering programs in the world, it's science program looks less than engineering.
Logical Man wrote:
The thing is the school I'm going to has one of the best engineering programs in the world, it's science program looks less than engineering.
Harvey Mudd?
Lots of good comments here and not too many trolls. My daughter is interested in Aerospace Engineering also [has done SLI with NASA twice and TARC one year] and there is the question about what the field will be like in 10-15 years, but you can probably say that about nursing even.
Rule 1; You always want to get paid to think (and not do the same thing every time). Both options will give you opportunities to do so.
Rule 2: You want to keep your options open but... It is hard at this stage to know how things will evolve.
Rule 3; Go to a good school because your peers (and the faculty can be your peers by the end) matter more than almost anything. You seem to have gotten this item done very well [Mudd? MIT/CalTech, and numerous others fit this]
Where do you want to live - NASA stuff tends to be in Huntsville and Houston, but Goddard is very good and I liked working with the people from there (20+ years ago now). Other aerospace is located more places of interests to me.
Good luck; it is the most exciting period in life in many ways, immersed with your peers with new stuff all the time and learning how to really think. The nature of that thinking might be the biggest difference between the two.
4runner wrote:
yyy wrote:how do they drive down the salaries for the whole profession??? do they work for free?
go with aero. it could take you to Mars!!
If you offer most aerospace engineers a choice between:
a) 120k$ a year doing quality assurance for IV tubes or surgical gloves, and
b) 60k$ a year working on some ramjet project that is on year-to-year gov't funding in a congressional district up for re-election,
most of them will take b) without thinking twice.
There are actually aerospace hobbyists who spend their time doing that stuff for free. No one does quality assurance as a hobby.
My degrees are in mechanical engineering. (I went in thinking about aerospace engineering, but I wanted a more diverse background before I entered the working world.) I can can confirm the above, I would take option b before you even got to finished the sentence.