Mechanical Engineering vs. Aerospace Engineering

[Grave9]

Hello all,
Hopefully you can shed some light on this for me. Currently I'm attending college for Mechanical Engineering but I'm not sure if this is the branch of engineering I want to go down.

What are the main differences of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering?

What would make you choose one over the other in your opinion? I love mechanical things, but then I love aeonautics too, I'm stuck in the middle. :)

Thanks

 

[Pseudo Statistic]

I can't really answer your question, but don't universities now offer mechanical and aerospace engineering as a double major? (I know http://www.uq.edu.au does)
If I understand correctly, you could take on both at once and drop aerospace if you don't like it.
And if I'm not wrong, isn't aerospace engineering applied mechanical engineering, mechanical engineering with a certain context? Or am I very wrong in thinking so?

 

[ranger]

I can remember someone from this forum stated that they switched from aerospace to mechanical becuase the math is harder in aerospace.

 

[FredGarvin]

Pseudo Static is pretty much right on. Neither is harder. They're just different. The math is the same no matter what you are doing. One might have difficulties with concepts, but the math is the same. ME is a more general field so you get exposure to a lot of things that can be encompassed in AE as well.

If your University has an AE degree just take a look at the classes required for graduation.

 

[Rocketa]

I don't know much about AE, but ME has lots of different topics you can choose from. Like only in thermal fluid, there are turbomachinery, HVAC, thermal management.

I think AE has a bit narrow applications, and ME can be applied to many areas.

 

[Grave9]

I've decided to go with Aerospace because that's what I really want to do. As for the math, I don't care if I have to take the hardest math out there. I love math.