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So, what would you consider the best Aerospace Engineering College out there? I'm looking into colleges right now and can't really decide.

By adceco on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 07:25 pm: Edit

Purdue, MIT, Cornell, Stanford, and Princeton are all very good schools, and prestigious. Look into NASA.

By koreaoh on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 08:46 pm: Edit

I was thinking about MIT and Purdue but I can't really decide. Purdue would be more convienient, since I live in the Cincinnati area, but MIT does have a better program, in my opinion. Purdue will probably be easier to get into, though, not being as prestigious as MIT. I still can't make a decision and Cornell, Stanford, and Princeton still can't be taken out of the picture, as well as some other engineering colleges.

By Cru (Cru) on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 09:43 pm: Edit

uh...
I think you should worry about this after getting the acceptance letters. No offense... Last year, I was thinking about whole bunch of stuffs of what I will do after I get in to MIT. But, I was rejected... Very sad.

By Jim on Monday, February 10, 2003 - 12:25 pm: Edit

Put Georgia Tech on your list. AE there has just got 2 huge NASA grants, and they are hiring alot. Hope this helps.

By aerospace on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 02:56 pm: Edit

what kind of SAT/ACT scores, GPA, etc. would you need to get into these schools?

By aerospace on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 04:42 pm: Edit

specifically for MIT?

By nameless on Sunday, February 16, 2003 - 09:19 am: Edit

You can find those on websites, just put average mit sat scores or somtin like that into a search engine like yahoo or google

By yourhelper on Sunday, February 16, 2003 - 01:06 pm: Edit

hey, koreaoh..tell me your stats and I can somewhat predict what level you are at. I think Purdue is a great school for engineering and it is a lot easier than MIT..But, if you have a shot at MIT, TAKE it...also, Cornell engineering is one of the big 3 in feeding to NASA..Stanford is an interesting character because it is insanely selective, but insanely good, and you can pursue other majors there since it is such a big school..You can't forget UMICH at ann arbor because that is a top five and relatively easy to get into.. Princeton is also a big thing with the recruiters and you may have a shot there...so tell me your stats and I can help you decide based upon those and location..

By BaltoDad on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 04:05 pm: Edit

U.S. News ranks them:

Universities with doctoral programs: MIT, Ga Tech, Stanford, Michigan-Ann Arbor, Cal Tech

Colleges/universities w/o doctorate: Embry Riddle, Air Force Academy, Naval Academy, Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo, St. Louis University

By Dhf1720 (Dhf1720) on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 01:32 pm: Edit

Georgia Tech is ranked awfully high for aerospace. Can someone tell me more about aerospace at Tech and the school itself?
Thanks.

By Qwer (Qwer) on Saturday, March 01, 2003 - 07:40 am: Edit

what do you mean by good programs?

i define it 2 ways:

1) a program is good if you can graduate and learn lots of great things. an average graduate of stanford, mit, caltech, cornell, purdue, uiuc, carnegie mellon, ga tech, etc will do well. you can get a job in the aerospace field going to any one of these schools.

2) if your goal is NASA...as in you want to be the best. this narrows your choices down significantly. look at the NASA page and see the biographies of people. 4 schools dominate while others are few and far between. the NASA feeders are: MIT, cornell, caltech and the US naval academy at annapolis.

By Chrisd (Chrisd) on Saturday, March 01, 2003 - 08:28 am: Edit

I know a recent grad from RPI aerospace/mech. engineering who had two co-ops at NASA Langely, and upon graduation is now employed there.

By Cornellian07 (Cornellian07) on Saturday, March 01, 2003 - 11:11 pm: Edit

Hi Qwer, you seem to know quite a bit about NASA. I am going to Cornell Engineering next year. So I seem to already be headed in the right direction, assuming that you are correct about Cornell being a major feeder school for NASA. I want to eventually be involved in research and development, and know I have to go a good grad school also. I wanted to know how much of this goes on at NASA. Is there more R&D or more actual building projects? Thanks.

By Qwer (Qwer) on Saturday, March 01, 2003 - 11:32 pm: Edit

you're right....to get into the "think tank" or more of the R&D aspect, you'll need to goto a good graduate school.

the faculty advisor you will be assigned will help you. you will probably be able to do substantial research as an undergrad in conjunction with arecibo (cornell owned) and others out of clark-rockefellar hall. i also think they have an office in the rawlings theory center.

as for cornell being a feeder for NASA...dont take just my word for it...check it out yourself! goto the NASA biographies page and notice where the top researchers went to school! caltech, mit, cornell and usna are plastered all over the place.

By 333m3 (333m3) on Monday, March 03, 2003 - 01:08 am: Edit

Hey guys, just a little tidbit on the aero/astro discussion: If you are serious about working for NASA, Purdue is the unsung hero. NASA-Johnson hires more Co-Ops (which in turn are hired fulltime) from Purdue than any other college in the nation. At our last Co-Op interviews, there were 5 branches of NASA interviewing FRESHMEN. Hey, more astronauts have attended Purdue than any other school. We don’t have a 'Grissom Hall' for nothing! (Pardon my double post)

By Cru (Cru) on Monday, March 03, 2003 - 02:51 am: Edit

uh....
For this whole MIT, Cornell, Purude stuff...
Are we talking about grad school?
or undergreadd?

By Dhf1720 (Dhf1720) on Tuesday, March 04, 2003 - 10:50 am: Edit

Ga Tech has just won two huge NASA grants and has a very strong aerospace program. Question, where would you go for aerospace, Ga Tech or Purdue, and why?

By 333m3 (333m3) on Wednesday, March 05, 2003 - 11:36 pm: Edit

NASA just granted Purdue millions in a joint venture in nanotechnology research along with the other space projects going on in Discovery Park.

I would choose Purdue over GT:
1. Because I attend Purdue (the most important reason!)
2. There are girls here
3. Its not an urban campus
4. Purdue's aero program is in the top 10 (as is GT's)
5. We can play Football and Basketball
6. Hardcore Co-Op program...etc, etc

When it all come down to it, we go to college to get good jobs, but your GPA and school name only GET you the interview. If you cant communicate with your employeer and sell yourself as someone who is fun to work with, you may as well go get an A.S. as your local community college. Youll save a lot of money. So put rankings aside and go to the place where you can be yourself and develop as a person.

By Randy80016 (Randy80016) on Sunday, March 16, 2003 - 04:38 pm: Edit

This is largely irrelevant but I just found out Neil Armstrong went to USC, I can't remember what exactly he did, but I think it was pretty big.

They may no longer have a good program though. And its pretty easy to get into- they took my ass.

By Koreaoh (Koreaoh) on Wednesday, March 19, 2003 - 08:38 pm: Edit

these are my top five schools, in this order, for aerospace engineering, please make suggestions
1-mit
2-cornell
-georgia teach
4-michigan ann arbor
5-purdue

By Wesdillingham (Wesdillingham) on Thursday, March 20, 2003 - 01:15 am: Edit

ok all of these schools are great schools but one that was over looked is a school specifically for aerospace, embry-riddle aeronautical university. small but a good school. possibly best aerospace program. check it out at erau.edu
2 campuses 1 in prescott arizona the other in daytona florida. i suggest anyone interested in aerospace consider it.

By Dhf1720 (Dhf1720) on Thursday, March 20, 2003 - 10:06 am: Edit

Koreaoh, why is Cornell so high on your list? It doesn't even have a separate aerospace dept. You're right not to list Stanford for undergrad aerospace, since it doesn't have a major (only grad). Ga Tech and Purdue are very, very solid. You might also check into Illinois. My list for undergrad aerospace would be:

1. MIT
2. Ga Tech
3. Purdue
4. Michigan
5. Illinois

Below these I would put Cornell, Princeton, Texas and Maryland. Some of these schools combine aerospace with mechanical engineering. In effect, aerospace becomes a track within mechanical. There are considerably fewer aerospace offerings in these programs. And fewer facilities (wind tunnels, combustion chambers etc). What are the thoughts of others on this?

By Koreaoh (Koreaoh) on Thursday, March 20, 2003 - 05:48 pm: Edit

for Dhf1720, the reason i put cornell so high on my list was that, supposedly, most NASA guys are from 5 colleges, MIT, Cornell, Caltech, Stanford, Berkeley. I don't want to go west, so caltech, stanford, and berkeley are out of the question, and it's obvious why i put mit #1, as for cornell, ive heard good things about it. the other three are from usnews, etc.

By Purduepeterocks (Purduepeterocks) on Tuesday, May 27, 2003 - 01:49 pm: Edit

Neil Armstrong recieved two degrees at Purdue University. The third was at University of Cincy . . .he only attended a few classes at USC. The Aerospace program at Purdue is better that Ga.Tech for several reasons. The havea better computer scienec and technology department than Ga. Tech and you will take a lot of classes in those areas no matter where you go. Purdue also has more alumni in the Aero Eng world than any other school, so your alumni base is huge. That makes it easier to get a job. Also, Purdue can offer a top 15 business school to go along with your degree. The only engineers that get promoted these days are ones who took a solid core of classes in business. Purdue also has name recognition. When employers and deans think of the five biggest names in general engineering, Purdue, MIT, Cornell, Stanford and Carn. Mellon are traditional regarded as the best engineering schools. I have friends who went to all those schools and I went to Purdue. We all graduated with about the same GPA in our respective degrees and earn the almost same exact salary. The only thing I can say that I did better is job placement. Purdue cares more about teaching real world applications, work and team work than any other presitigious engineering school . . .I have worked with PE's (professional engineers) from MIT, Rose-Holman, Illinois, Michigan and even Cal-Tech and Purdue by far does the best job of preparing students for the work world. Heck, the fact that more Fortune 500 & 800 CEO's and presidents came from Purdue than any other public univeristy (and only Univ. of Penn, Harvard beat us for all schools combined) shows what you can do with a Purdue degree. Plus we got a great social scene . . when I was there, a local bar was said to be one of the best college bars in the nation by Playboy! We have one of the biggest Greek communities. We kinck ass in football and basketball. And we have the hottest engineering chicks anywhere in the US. Hail Purdue and GO BOILERS!

By the way, more men who have landed on the moon (including the first and last) came from Purdue . .

By Adnagwenlwa (Adnagwenlwa) on Monday, July 28, 2003 - 11:39 pm: Edit

Hi I'm a Junior in High School and strongly considering going to school for Mechanical & Aerospace engineering. Speaking from experience, is there any way you could tell if this career is meant for someone? And, would it be more difficult to enter the feild, because I'm a girl?

By Knightrider (Knightrider) on Monday, August 04, 2003 - 05:41 pm: Edit

Yes i think it would be harder for a girl. I'm going To Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and there are 19 boys to 1 girl. It's not that the teachers are sexist or anything like that. It is just because, well there are more boys than girls in that feild.

By Edenz (Edenz) on Tuesday, August 26, 2003 - 12:31 pm: Edit

There's a few more things to consider. I go to U of M (University of Michigan) for Aerospace and I love it. You might want to consider other factors besides the strength of the Aerospace Dept.
1. Competitiveness. MIT is extremely competitive. I got in there, but I didn't like a single person I met in the process. They were all rather snobby and considered themselves better than anybody else just because they went to MIT. Not something I wanted to be around or become.
2. Variety. One of the major reasons I choose Michigan was because there was so much here. I have other interests besides Aerospace (Languages, Literature, Art), if you go to an exclusivly engineering college you won't get to experience these things, or meet people who have different interests from yourself.
3. Changing Majors. You may be positive you want to do Aerospace. But the average college student changes their major 4 times. You may find you don't like Aero, or like someting else better. (You better LOVE physics and math). I've wanted to be an Aero engineer from birth (literly) but after taking some classes here, I switched to a Dual major in Aero and Computer Science and am going to persue a grad degree in Aero/Systems Engineering.
4. Campus. VISIT THE CAMPUS FIRST. When I visited MIT's campus I really didn't like it. It's very urban with no trees or grass. On the other hand I really liked Ann Arbor - the campus is right in town so there's lots to do, but it's not too big and there's tons of parks. North Campus (the engineering part) is really wooded and the building are pretty new.
Hope that helps
P.S. Being a girl doesn't really matter that much. I've never really noticed (except for one advisor who I quickly switched)

By Unnamed0404 (Unnamed0404) on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 04:42 am: Edit

Im going to be a high school senior this year, and im strongly considering aerospace engineering as a major. I really enjoy math and physics, but i hate making speeches in front of people. Do u guys think that'll be a problem?? Also, im sort of confused about which school i want to go to. I considered MIT and CalTech but those schools are like almost impossible with my SAT scores. I was hoping to go to one of the UC's, but I'm not sure which one has the best aerospace department. One of the above messages mentioned berkeley as having a good one....but when i looked it up in collegboard.com, they don't even have an aerospace department!! Can someone help me out???

By Sapan (Sapan) on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 - 12:26 am: Edit

HI Everyone
I am a sophmore in City College OF NY majoring in mech engg. i finished my high school outside US. when i came here i had no choice other than school i m going in but now i want to transfer to a school with good aerospace program in coming spring. A school with good Co-ops. can some one advice which school should i apply..coz not all school accepts transfer students...my GPA is 3.8

By Bramiozo (Bramiozo) on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 - 05:17 pm: Edit

I think that Koreaoh indeed is focussing to much on quality of name and reputation, social and geographical circumstances are at least as important, whatever you do, don't forget to live, corporations are not grábbing students, they are excepting students, only the exceptional students are contacted effortless and being exceptional is predominantly determined by character and ambitions, so it really is important for you to enjoy your courses and to be enticed to learn and do more than you are supposed to do, then the name of your college might as well be The Looney Tunes college.

By Bramiozo (Bramiozo) on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 - 05:17 pm: Edit

By the way...wass up with Koreaoh, which college did he choose ?

By Akolemba (Akolemba) on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 07:12 pm: Edit

Hey, my name is Andrew. I'm looking to get into aerospace engineering... but I'm not exactly at the "top" of the ladder with grades and all that such stuff. I'm decent enouph to still be ranked high... but not high enouph for MIT to smile at me as well as other colleges like that. But, I was wondering if you knew of the lower end schools that NASA took students from? I've been looking at places like Florida Institute of Technology and University of Texas in Austin. On top of that some other schools like University of Alabama and Pen State. Not quite the top of the ladder but decent schools for a decent kid like me :-/... So back to the main topic. Do you think that I have a fighting chance to work in some part of NASA comming from schools like these.... and may some part i don't mean janitor :-). So yeah, please let me know of any information you can dish out. As well as, thank you for your time to read this.

By Bmueller220 (Bmueller220) on Friday, March 19, 2004 - 03:34 pm: Edit

I am looking to major in Aerospace Engineering, I live in Maryland so I am considering both Maryland and prestigous national schools,(MIT). I am a junior in high school and as of now I have an SAT of 800M 750V, my weighted GPA is 4.8, non weighted 3.99. I wil have gotten through AP Calculus BC, and AP physics by the time I graduate. What schools would you guys suggest? Also NASA or private industry?