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Unread 01-04-2008, 17:18
R2K2D2 R2K2D2 is offline
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Re: Mechanical Or Electrical???

It truly depends what you want to do. I started off studying EE and then switched to ME. For me I really enjoyed developing and designing moving appendages and thats what initially caused me to want to switch degree programs.

However, ME is probably one of the most diverse engineering disciplines out there. As an ME student you will most likely take some kind of introductory programming course, solid mechanics courses (statics and mechanics of materials), dynamics and kinematics (understand mechanical motion), circuits and electronics, controls systems, and thermodynamics fluid mechanics and heat transfer (thermal science courses). These are the main subject areas that ME's focus on in school. It's because of this broad background that MEs are able to work in a variety of different areas upon graduation. Also, engineers at every school have to take technical electives. These are courses outside the core subject area, those mentioned above for MEs, where students learn about advanced topics. You can take these in various different subject areas. If you want to do ME and take some advanced electrical and controls courses, you can take those as technical electives. As I am about to graduate I will be working as a Controls Development Engineer. It's kind of a mix of various subject areas that I've studied in school.

Good luck on your decision. Most schools offer introductory engineering programs for the first year that let you decide what it is that you want to do. They expose you to different subjects and allow you to interact with faculty in order to decide what specific field of engineering to pursue. One thing to keep in mind is that no matter what engineering discipline you select you will learn how to think critically and solve problems. At the end of the day that's what a good engineer is...a problem solver.
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