Going back to school for Mechanical Engineering

[Madison Cox]

Hello Everyone, I am debating on going to college for mechanical engineering. I am currently 21 years old working as a technician for a Toyota dealership making 15 dollars an hour(averaging 80 hours a week). I went to school for automotive mechanics at a tech school(20k in student loans, still paying off).

For a few months now i have been thinking about if i want to continue this as a career. And the more i think about it, i came to this conclusion. I don't see a Mechanic as a career, i see it as a job. Sure master technicians are making 25 dollars an hour(averaging 80-100 hours a week). But this job is so stressful mentally and physically. I currently started looking at engineering opportunities and mechanical engineering caught my eye.

So what i want to know is, What is a normal day for a mechanical engineer? Is the starting salary good and does the money get better down the road? What exactly does a mechanical engineer do? Is is worth me going back to school adding to my student loans to pursue a bachelors in ME?

I don't have any bills except my student loans and tool bill. So i think now is the best time to make this change. Need all the advice i can get. I greatly appreciate all the feedback.

 

[PhanthomJay]

How did you do in your earlier math courses? Did you take physics? Pre -calc? Before you decide, an interest in math and physics, and a good understanding of both on the courses you have taken, are a necessity.

 

[jrmichler]

The entire job of a repair technician is to take a machine and make it work as well as when it was new. The engineer takes a machine, assumes that the technician has already made it work as well as it can, then changes it to make better. An engineer, even when doing something as simple as changing oil, is looking at the machine thinking "I would have designed it differently and better".

Make your decision on job satisfaction, not the money. At $15 per hour, and 80 hours per week, those student loans should be paid off in under a year. Do that before making changes.

Plus what PhanthomJay said above about math and physics.

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The Schwarzschild Metric: Part 1, GPS Satellites​

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[scottdave]

I 2nd what @jrmichler said about tackling your current loan. Take a look at how you can put your current income to paying that off pretty quick.

 

[Scrumhalf]

I know this thread is a few days old, but you have received solid advice.

You have a vision of where you want your life to lead and I commend you for that. At your age, for most people who have taken the fork after HS towards a job (vs. college), the choice is already irrevocable. The disposable income is too great a drug to give up.

Keep your nose to the grindstone and save, save, save. For the next 2 years. Pay off your current loans and build up a war chest that you can draw on. In the meantime, get back into the game with classes. Meet with a college counselor in your state university and see what you can do at your local community college that you can then transfer over. What you need to do more than anything else it to get back into the studying frame of mind, especially in math and physics. The best way to do this is to take classes at your local community college (if your work schedule allows it, of course). You also have lots and lots of online options for self-study these days, a lot more than existed in my day, but it, of course, requires a degree of self-motivation and discipline. The other advantage of taking a CC class vs. self-study is that you can get an actual grade from the CC that will count for more in your 4-year college application than your vague assurance that you are ready.

Good luck! We need more engineers in this world! :)