Good kid in my program wants to know more about A&M's program beyond what he's getting online. I know of one AEROnerd, but he's randomly here and has apparently abandoned the book of faces. He is trying to decide between AERO at TAMU with the good guys or premed at tu. What say you?

if he isn't a fairy he'll be wearing maroon

simple as that, really

What kind of influence are you when you can't convince a student to choose A&M over tu?

CHEN would be better

I've told him that.repeatedly.

His whole family is a collective of sip Dr's, Lawyers and Pharma's. So the fact that he and they are actually serious about the good guys is pretty cool. He'd be a way better Ag than a sip. Trying to help him break the cycle.

Clown car - get your husband on this thread.

They changed up the program where freshmen are general engineering and then they apply to a specific major once they're here. So not sure how relevant my time in engineering will be, and I wasn't AERO, so doubt I could be a ton of help.

I know it's a small and competitive program, but most I met like the faculty and seem to have a good relationship with them.

And agreeing with NYDA below, if he's thinking pre med, go with an engineering major that gets him organic chem and is more chemistry heavy rather than mechanical heavy. Unless he's dead set on aero, CHEN or BIOM (maybe, didn't know as many) would give him the most flexibility.

CHEN would be good, gives him most of the pre-recs for med school and if he decides he doesn't want to do med school or doesn't have the grades, he has something solid to fall back on.

Plus, I've always felt that engineering nerds have a big advantage on the MCAT. Don't know if that's true, but physics is the weak point of most bio nerds, and I feel that bio is a lot easier material to learn.

A&M AERO is ranked #8 in the public institution ranking and #11 in a ranking of all universities.
Some, (don't over analyze) are making their way into the oil and gas industry after graduation.

I'm not an AERO grad, but am familiar with some of the folks that work in the department.

Ask him if he thinks he'll enjoy being a predoctor if he goes premed and then doesn't end up going to med school.

Tell us more about your so-called 'program'.

What goose said, I worked hard enough and was lucky enough to get into medical school, but a lot of my friends that did BIMS and couldn't get into professional school were screwed. Looking back, it would've been a lot smarter to have chosen a different major.

Tell him to do computer science or computer engineering and then he can work in basically any industry he wants

consider biomedical eng w/ med-school reqs

I think it probably depends on what he wants to use the AERO degree for. If he is still thinking pre-med, AERO won't be a good prep for that. In general, I think that A&M does a pretty great job of producing engineers that are ready to enter the workforce with a bachelor's degree. It's not the best program in the country for preparing for grad school.

I think you should try to get him on campus for a visit. The Aero Dept. has plenty of good teaching professors that communicate a passion for their field. If he isn't already a senior, he might consider something like this:
http://engineering.tamu.edu/aerospace/about/outreach/undergraduate/camp-soar

Or, you can always contact the undergrad advisors to see what they have set up in the way of tours. I've been away for a couple of years, but the undergrad (and the grad for that matter) offices were always very on the ball.

If you shoot me a PM I can put you in contact with a couple of current grad students that did their undergrads at A&M. They would be more plugged in to current opportunities than I am.

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consider biomedical eng w/ med-school reqs

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I'm an AERO. Did my bachelor's and master's at A&M.

If you've got questions or want more info, email me

mid90@tamu.edu

Me too, if you couldn't guess. :P

What do you what or need to know? Quite a difference between pre-med and engineering, especially Aero, directions. I would recommend our program without reservation if he wants to go Aero, or any engineering for that matter, over that other school.

I know very little about pre-med. Extrapolating into the future I'm not sure I'd want to be a doc the way things are going, especially with a lot of med school debt hanging over my head.

Aero is near the top of the list for hardest undergrad major there is, so it isn't for the faint of heart. Having some passion for planes/space helps a ton. I'd be curious what the student's motivations are, and try to answer the medicine/engineering question first. I'm also willing to answer questions here or off-line.

He's big into building things (he's been welding with me since he was a freshman) and he's big into Astronomy as well. I make a comment to my kids in their first year (that I always thought went unheard) that whether they want to be a hobby welder, a pipeline welder, or a guy that designs and welds on spaceships, that I will do my best to get them started on the right path. He asked me yesterday if a AERO degree would allow him to eventually build spaceships. When he talks about space and astronomy I see a passion there.

I think he's leaning premed as that's what his family and the rest of the world says to do ("if you're smart, be a Dr!"). Also having a father and couple of Uncles who are Pharmas probably is his big lean that way. When he talks about med school I don't see the same passion.

Building things growing is up how many kids find their way into engineering. Coupled with your detection of some passion in that arena, I'd say he should go the engineering route. Or at least strongly consider it. How is he with math and science? Knowing *how* to build things, or even just learning how to work on mechanical things, gives you a great leg-up in engineering IMO. I'd say you have a budding engineer on your hands.

A good friend and classmate of mine is a space geek (I'm a plane geek) and has had a phenomenal experience working at JPL designing and building deep space probes. SpaceX is another great outfit with opportunities to design, build and test the newest generation of space hardware, and they have at least one facility in Texas right now and are building another near Brownsville. Another classmate/friend is working in Seattle on Amazon's rocket program too. Even with NASA going down the toilet, there are exciting things on the horizon IMO.

Like Aero95 said, you've got to have a passion for aerospace engineering, or else you won't make it. But if you've got the passion, it's an incredible major.

One of the many things that sets our program apart from others is the capstone senior design project. It's a year long course in which students select their own track (aircraft, rockets, or satellites) and get to form their own teams. During the first semester, students are given a request for proposal (RFP) from a mock customer, and must design a full-scale vehicle to meet the customer's needs. At the end of the semester, the teams present their designs to a gathering of Aggie aerospace alumni.

During the second semester, teams actually get to build their designs. I'm not exactly how it all works for rockets and satellites, but in airplanes, we scaled our design, made a wind tunnel model, did wind tunnel experiments, built a radio-controlled (RC) model from scratch, and get to fly the RC model! This was absolutely my favorite part of undergrad; and while I enjoyed being an aerospace major on the whole, this made every unenjoyable part of undergrad totally worth it. Plus, employers love to see this kind of hands on, cradle-to-grave design work.

This is me and my team with our final product, Amelia AirHeart (mission was for a UAV to fly organs between hospitals for transplants). I'm the farthest on the right.

Here is a video of one of our flights, in which the pilot does some acrobatics!

Class of 2010 here. I work down at JSC as a payload engineer for the space station. Sounds like he's a hands-on wrench-turner. Jobs like that tend to be hard to come by with an AERO degree. People think you're too smart to do the grunt work and want you in the office. Some of the most fun I've had in my professional career was when the union techs went on strike and I went down to the assembly line of the F-35 and built it by hand. I know its a little controversial, but I'm inclined to tell him to look into aircraft technician over Aero engineer I from the sound of it. He's really gotta love the math, science, and nerd aspects of space/airplanes to excel in AERO.

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Extrapolating into the future I'm not sure I'd want to be a doc the way things are going, especially with a lot of med school debt hanging over my head.

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this cannot be overstated

if he does med school, all his ENG friends will be make nice monies while he is poor and slaving away in med school then residency

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if he does med school, all his ENG friends will be make nice monies while he is poor and slaving away in med school then residency

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It is much worse than that, I fear. Today, a doc can look forward to making pretty good money within a few years post-residency and catch-up with an engineer or other professional within a decade perhaps, even with med school debt. Tomorrow, the government will be essentially capping earning potential by artificially controlling the market through the insurance system and limiting (a) payment for procedures or (b) simply limiting procedures. Combine that with the always increasing liability climate and many docs won't be able afford to even practice. So you'll still end up a house-sized debt, AND have much higher costs to practice, with reduced payments for those services. It is a bleak future. Next will be the benevolent ruler telling a doc where they must go practice so that everyone is served equally.

it sure makes me angry. The gov't has overly restricted my industry on one side, and lawyers have made it way more expensive from the other side.

Why do you have to be talking **** EFE?

There's the nerd I was looking for!

You need to get stars or book face again long enough to exchange contact info

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if he does med school, all his ENG friends will be make nice monies while he is poor and slaving away in med school then residency

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It is much worse than that, I fear. Today, a doc can look forward to making pretty good money within a few years post-residency and catch-up with an engineer or other professional within a decade perhaps, even with med school debt. Tomorrow, the government will be essentially capping earning potential by artificially controlling the market through the insurance system and limiting (a) payment for procedures or (b) simply limiting procedures. Combine that with the always increasing liability climate and many docs won't be able afford to even practice. So you'll still end up a house-sized debt, AND have much higher costs to practice, with reduced payments for those services. It is a bleak future. Next will be the benevolent ruler telling a doc where they must go practice so that everyone is served equally.

it sure makes me angry. The gov't has overly restricted my industry on one side, and lawyers have made it way more expensive from the other side.

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Although earning potential will undoubtedly be reduced for MDs, Canada's docs still make a very good living, so I think that concern is a bit overstated. What is a larger issue with med school today is student debt. Avg debt coming out of school has been sky rocketing.

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What is a larger issue with med school today is student debt. Avg debt coming out of school has been sky rocketing.

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Nice, Goose.

I could be mistaken, but I don't think Canada has the lawyer problem we have down here. Get a malpractice insurance quote for up there and down here before you convince yourself things will be fine. I know of a pharmacist at home that had to retire a few years ago after multiple decades b/c his insurance just about equaled his annual revenue. Hard to absorb that kind of hit.

In my world, I know liability insurance for making aircraft parts is in the ballpark of 15% of gross sales. CEO's would murder their mothers for a 15% profit margin in this industry just for a reference. And it only goes up, and gets compounded at every step in the manufacturing chain. A new Cessna 172 in the 60s used to cost about the same as a typical first-year engineering or other professional annual salary. Today that same plane with a tiny bit of evolution is tickling $400k. Think about that. The medical industry is going down the same road right now.

That sounds like a lot of effort.

But being serious to your question I would challenge your student to pursue engineering in general at TAMU. Lots of people move around with majors during their days at TAMU. Saying he wants to be an AE is good for now but odds are he will change.

That being said, Aerospace Engineering is still the toughest thing I have done in my life, although my newborn is challenging this. It set me up very well when facing challenges at work. After graduating I did the normal routine job of being a structural / liaison engineer but got my masters and moved to the business side of the house. Having the degree and experience of actually knowing how the products is designed, sourced and built made the figuring how to get it sold and working strategically with partners much easier.

Everybody has has their own path though so while others have shared their stories as well as I, your student needs to think about what would be the best decision if he decides to not pursue an AE degree after being enrolled.

I can can tell you this in my company out of the in state schools TAMU students have a high reputation of hard workers and getting stuff done.

I thought this was a "will it take off" thread. I am disappoint

I graduated with my BS in 2012 and am currently in the third year of my Ph.D here at A&M. Very good, very challenging program. The sips don't get the same type of facilities or research money that we do at A&M.

In my experience, Aggies tend to be the ones to stick around in industry as well, particularly at Johnson Space Center (although those folks are from all over).

I got my Aero degree back in aught two and have never used it. Would recommend.