Major question...

[Shady18]

I have a question to pose:

I'm interested in becoming an engineer, but I'm not sure what branch best suits what I would like to be doing professionally. I have a large interest in designing/building cars and basically anything that can help people get from point A to point B. I think it would be neat to work in cooperation with the military on projects (I have a friend who is hired by the navy to help design submarines) involving mechanics. Now, that being said, the obvious choice would be mechanical engineering, but I would like to know if this is an incorrect assumption, or, being correct, if there is a certain focus of study in mechanical that I would need to concentrate on.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am new to this site, but I can already tell that the people who post know what they are talking about and probably have experience which would be of use in answering my question.

Thank You,
Adam [:D]

[russ_watters]

Sorry it took so long to respond...

MechE is good because its general. It applies to anything that has any moving (and sometimes things with non-moving) parts. Cars, tanks, subs --- yeah. Being general also means there are more jobs out there than with a more specific degree. There are a lot of jobs you wouldn't even think of (trust me - there were a lot that I hadn't thought of until I started applying for them). Come to think of it - go to Monster and do a search for entry level jobs in various disciplines and see what appeals to you more.

Now, the big question is if you want to be that general or if there is a more specific aspect (fluids, heat transfer, mechanics, robotics, materials, etc) that you want to go into. Depending on the answer to that question, you may want to do MechE and focus your electives (you won't have many) on a specific area or go into one of the related fields like Aero, Materials, Structures, etc.

[Phobos]

I agree MechEng is the way to go.

Mechanics for general design
Fluids for airplane/submarine propulsion design
Heat transfer (thermodynamics) for...um...engine design?