Programs Need Some Advice On Majoring Mechanical/Aerospace

[Neal73]

I'm currently attending community college for Pre-Engineering. After that I will transfer to a higher university for a bachelor's degree and I plan to go to a different university for a master's degree.
My original plan was to just focus on Mechanical Engineering. However, lately I've found that I really like three branches, Mechanical, Aerospace, and Electrical.

So I'm considering double majoring in Mechanical and Aerospace with a minor in Electrical. It's not that I want it for a better résumé, I just want to learn it all, and know as much as I can in all three of those fields. Afterwards, when I pursue my master's degree I'd also like to dual major in Mechanical and Aerospace. I've looked into it and I've read that a large amount of people dual major master's degrees. It's more common than I initially thought. Mechanical and Aerospace is very closely related. Aerospace just focuses more on the aerospace applications while Mechanical is very broad.

Anyways, my question is, are these goals obtainable? I don't necessarily care about the time it takes. I mean to a certain extent... I just want to know if it's possible. I'm very interested in all these. If it's possible, how much further of a step would it be to get a major in the Electrical too? As opposed to the minor. Only with the bachelor's degree. The master's I am only wanting the MechE and AeroE. Would it be possible?
Thanks

 

[axmls]

A triple major in engineering would be epic overkill, and there's not much a point. After all, you won't be working as all three (in general). Your company will likely hire others to fill other specialty roles.

Electrical and mechanical have much less overlap than mechanics and aerospace. And aerospace is very close to mechanical, so you could probably get by just majoring in mechanical.

If you are considering a double major, check out the requirements for each major at whatever school you want to go to. If they only have a couple of classes extra you need to take, then maybe you can go for it. But really, it might be better to say, major in mechanical engineering and then go on to get a master's degree in aerospace (or mechanical with an aerospace focus). Because if double majoring is too much, if you go with mechanical, at least you have more options if you decide you don't like aerospace, and then if you do like aerospace, you can still work in aerospace won your mechanical engineering degree, or you can fairly easily transition to aerospace in grad school from what I know (which is not much).

I can speak on the electrical engineering major--at least at my school, it would be highly unfeasable to tack on an electrical engineering major. The course overlap is less than mechanical and aerospace. The biggest overlap would be in control systems, but I don't think very many mechanical engineering majors take upper level electromagnetism, signal processing, electronics, power, etc. courses.

 

[Vanadium 50]

The stereotype of someone with a double major is a go-getter who was able to achieve more than expected.
The stereotype of someone with a triple major is a total flake who can't make up his mind.

As far as staying in school longer, engineering is a practical profession. People will be wondering why you want to be an engineer who avoids actual engineering.

 

[OldEngr63]

By the time you fulfill the requirements for anyone of these degrees, you will be rather fully committed in that direction. At this point in your academic career, you are looking at things from a very unreal perspective. Choose one, get into it, and plan to make a go of it.

I am an ME, but I have a strong interest in electromechanics. Long after I left school, I began to study electrical machines. I mostly worked on my own with a few good texts, but I also took the intro electric machines course at two different schools (the courses turned out to be different as night and day, even though they used the same text!). Something like this can be done, but it does take a lot of work.

 

[Neal73]

A triple major in engineering would be epic overkill, and there's not much a point. After all, you won't be working as all three (in general). Your company will likely hire others to fill other specialty roles.

Electrical and mechanical have much less overlap than mechanics and aerospace. And aerospace is very close to mechanical, so you could probably get by just majoring in mechanical.

If you are considering a double major, check out the requirements for each major at whatever school you want to go to. If they only have a couple of classes extra you need to take, then maybe you can go for it. But really, it might be better to say, major in mechanical engineering and then go on to get a master's degree in aerospace (or mechanical with an aerospace focus). Because if double majoring is too much, if you go with mechanical, at least you have more options if you decide you don't like aerospace, and then if you do like aerospace, you can still work in aerospace won your mechanical engineering degree, or you can fairly easily transition to aerospace in grad school from what I know (which is not much).

I can speak on the electrical engineering major--at least at my school, it would be highly unfeasable to tack on an electrical engineering major. The course overlap is less than mechanical and aerospace. The biggest overlap would be in control systems, but I don't think very many mechanical engineering majors take upper level electromagnetism, signal processing, electronics, power, etc. courses.

The stereotype of someone with a double major is a go-getter who was able to achieve more than expected.
The stereotype of someone with a triple major is a total flake who can't make up his mind.

As far as staying in school longer, engineering is a practical profession. People will be wondering why you want to be an engineer who avoids actual engineering.

By the time you fulfill the requirements for anyone of these degrees, you will be rather fully committed in that direction. At this point in your academic career, you are looking at things from a very unreal perspective. Choose one, get into it, and plan to make a go of it.

I am an ME, but I have a strong interest in electromechanics. Long after I left school, I began to study electrical machines. I mostly worked on my own with a few good texts, but I also took the intro electric machines course at two different schools (the courses turned out to be different as night and day, even though they used the same text!). Something like this can be done, but it does take a lot of work.

Thank you all for your replies. Yeah I kind of figured I was overshooting there. I just find it all very interesting. My main interest is mechanical engineering though, so for now I'll focus on that. There's a lot of overlap between MechE and AeroE at the university I plan to attend after my Pre-Engineering. So if I find that it's not too much more I may look into tacking AeroE on as well. If there's a lot of overlap would that be a feasible thing to do? Like I said, it's not that I think it'll make my résumé look better, it's just I find it all very interesting an I'd like to learn as much as I can. Thanks again for all the replies guys. If I went solely for MechE with a focus on aerospace applications would that allow me to get a job working in the aerospace industry?

 

[OldEngr63]

There are some jobs (not necessarily a lot) for every type of engineer in every industry. I knew a civil structures fellow who had worked in the aero area exclusively. The are some slots for MEs in virtually every conceivable industry. Don't spread yourself too thin; get depth and a very solid understanding. These are the important things.