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Ask Slashdot: How To Enter Private Space Industry As an Engineer?
First time accepted submitter CtownNighrider writes "I'm in my senior year of high school currently in a selective program for future engineers. I have always been a good student and feel like I can get into most good schools (MIT is a long shot but RPI isn't). I plan on studying aerospace engineering (most likely getting a dual major with mechanical) in college and working for a company like SpaceX once I graduate. I would love any advice anyone can offer for my college search or being an engineer in general. I live in upstate NY and don't want to travel super far, I'm thinking about a 5 hour radius. I have the RPI medal so it's one of my top choices and MIT is my long shot but I'm having a tough time figuring out what schools are worth applying too. Academics come first hands down so male/female ratio and party scene aren't too important."
Interview and get a co-operative engineer position at any space-related engineering firm. Sounds like your credentials could get you an interview. Can't be beat to get a leg up on that type of career; it worked for me...
This is bad advice. Successful engineers spend lots of time asking questions and soliciting advice.
It sounds like you're on the right path... aerospace with dual major in mechanical.
You have some time though, so I'd suggest you get a hobby in the field you're going into. Help out some open source rocketry projects. Surely they exist. Launch some things up really high. Rig up some cameras and get pictures. Write some code. etc. etc.
One day someone is going to be looking at your resume. If it's one in a thousand, you probably won't get noticed. Hopefully they'll be looking at it because Bob down in the lab says he knows this one guy who really kicked ass on this one project. Hopefully you'll already know the guy through the right circles. Hopefully they'll look you up on the web and see that you have your hand in the right projects, that you do good work, and that you love what you do.
Also, it would be good to actually do the work you're seeking to go into. It'll tell you if you're on the right path for YOU.
The secret to Industry is that you don't get promoted to do work .... You get promoted and paid when it's noticed that you're ALREADY doing the work and oh, perhaps they should pay you for that....
I am an Aerospace Engineering/Mathematics Grad Student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. I do more theoretical work now, but I think I can offer a little advice.
If you want to stay state side I would also recommend (in no particular order) you look at U of M, Purdue, Georgia Tech, Cornell (Aero/Mech), Caltech, Stanford (Aero/Mech) and the University of Maryland (more aeronautical).
The biggest thing is to get involved with research projects. Look at current professors and their research interests, see if they have anything related to satellite/rocket design. Do not be afraid to ask/e-mail. Professors and grad students alike love getting undergrads involved, perhaps because they usually come free.
If you do look at Michigan I can recommend looking at Professor Cutler and his RAX project or professors in the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences (AOSS) department. Several people from my graduating class who took Aerosp 483 went on to SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Bigelow Aerospace, so there is a network.
For more U of M information look at:
Professor Cutler: http://aerospace.engin.umich.edu/people/faculty/cutler/
RAX: http://rax.engin.umich.edu/
AOSS: http://aoss.engin.umich.edu/
GO BLUE!
Once you've nailed the academics at a state undergrad level and proven yourself (with less cost), then hit up the larger research universities like MIT. You'll have more track record on your academic resume, and you'll have tons of contacts from your undergrad years to help you get in.
Transferring into a top tier University with less debt is not a bad way to go, if you're willing to do undergrad work at a state level. The majority of undergrad studies - Physics, Calculus, etc. are all pretty much universal whether at the state or Ivy league schools.
It's when you get to the higher levels that your dollars will be well spent at a specialty school.
I'm an aerospace engineering student, nearly done with my undergrad career at Cal Poly Pomona, and I've also done research during two summers at Caltech.
I know people that have attended several of the more prestigious schools and notice that the level of education you receive is almost entirely up to you. If you have the drive to learn, the school you choose is secondary. I will say that the difference between Caltech and a school like Cal Poly Pomona is that the students are much more enthusiastic about learning theory as opposed to simply knowing enough to get a project done.
I think the best thing you can do is actually visit the campus during the school year if possible and attend some of the seminars or group meetings in your field of interest. It will give you a feel for the kinds of students that the university attracts or the types of problems they like to tackle.
Another thing to look for, and ask current students of those universities, is how difficult/easy it is to get funding and school resources for engineering projects and competitions.
Lastly, I now have a math minor and find it much more valuable to have more mathematics (advanced D.E.s, tensors, numerical analysis, set theory) under my belt than classes on the specifics of bearings or fasteners (something that my aerospace curriculum doesn't cover at all, but M.E. majors do). The way I see it, the abstract concepts are harder to learn on your own, but specifics of equipment you tend to learn as you deal with the equipment, read specs from catalogs or from your employer's protocol.
Don't go to Caltech for aerospace unless you just want to learn airplanes. I work at JPL and have a lot of interaction with CalTech students who complain about the lack of space stuff in the aero department... they don't even have an orbit mechanics class. MIT is ok if you want to do systems engineering, but generally their aero department doesn't do much space stuff either (last I heard, their orbit class was taught by a grad student who took it upon himself to have some sort of orbit class).
If you want to do SpaceX, I'd write them an email and ask for their advise, ask where they recruit from. They will probably want chemical prop and systems engineering people.
From what I've seen the best schools if you want to do space are Carnegie Mellon, Purdue, Colorado, UT Austin, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Michigan, UCLA, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Carnegie Mellon and Stanford have awesome robotics programs. Michigan and Caly Poly SLO have excellent cube sat programs. Michigan, Stanford, and UCLA have excellent electric propulsion. Georgia Tech and Michigan have excellent systems engineering. Purdue, UT Austin, and Colorado have excellent orbit mechanics. And Purdue has probably the best chemical propulsion program. Georgia Tech has a really amazing senior design class (best out of the 5 that I've advised as an industry person).
If you don't want to go to far, I'd recommend Michigan, Purdue, or CMU. But try to email SpaceX and see what they advise (but be aware that the person who responds will be biased towards their alma mater)
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
Disclosure: I went to RPI, I work at SpaceX.
Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Rochester Institute of Technology, Clarkson, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Rensselaer, Olin, Columbia, etc are all very decent schools for engineering. The goal here should be to end up with an aeromech degree and no debt. Bring up a Google map of the northeast and search for university... huge list, right?
Private schools like RPI are good schools, but the costs make changing your mind late in your education a pretty expensive mistake. I'd recommend taking a bunch of different engineering courses early on (Computer Science, Structures, Electrical, Robotics), so you can really identify if aeromech is really something you like. CAD, Matlab, Python, and knowing your way around Office-like suites are interdisciplinary engineering staples. Space systems blend a ton of different aspects of engineering together, and you've only begun to scratch the surface in high school.
What will make your resume pop out for any aerospace employer is spring/summer/fall work experience. You can land engineering internships simply with good grades and common sense, but some will be 6 months long, and bump your graduation date by a semester or two. This adds more cost, so beware. Also, some classes are only offered in the fall or the spring, and you may need them to graduate.
Research projects are also a good way to go to get experience, but you get as much out as you put in. Try to butt into every aspect of the project, not just what you're working on, and understand how all parts fit together. You should leave the project knowing how to start up your own research if you were given the money.
When it comes time to apply to internships and jobs, don't focus too much on the qualifications - entry level engineers never meet the qualifications of entry level engineering jobs. If they did, they wouldn't be entry level. Some advice I got: If the qualifications are what you want to know, apply for the job. If they're already things you know, you will be bored. Use your college recruiting office for ideas, but spend time going to websites of companies you see in the news - they all have careers pages and open jobs, despite what the news says about the economy.
Bringing it back to the title, I feel it's best if you try to ignore that you want to go to School X and work at Company Y. Focus on being well-rounded and multifaceted for the first 2 years of a 4-year program, and then spend the next 2 years chasing the one aspect you've preferred the most. The roundedness will get you in the door at big (or little) engineering firms, and the late specialization will get you a full-time position fresh out of college.