I’m steadily working on mastering SolidWorks, and I’m hoping by the end of this year to get certified at the first level in SolidWorks, what type of degree in college do I want to look at getting if I want to work with SolidWorks in my career. I’m looking at a Manufacturing Engineering Degree (This is the class I’m in at my High School and have been for the past two years.) Any suggestions?
I wouldn’t pick your engineering discipline based on the kind of software you use, but as a mechanical engineering student I’ve gotten the opportunity to use Solidworks extensively throughout various projects.
If you’re good enough with Solidworks and have an appropriate Engineering Degree you could always work for a Company that Sells Solidworks products as either a Instructor or Outsourced CAD/Engineering labor.
We’ve had various training courses at my Job for AutoCAD, ProEngineer and Autodesk Inventor and all of the Instructors were Engineers that were highly proficient with the software they were teaching. I know one of the Instructors also worked on projects that other Companies had outsourced to his employer.
Industrial Design is my college degree and we used SolidWorks. You’d want skills in Rhino too if you went in an Industrial Design path.
As a note, Solidworks plays more to a company-by-company basis. It’s not a real industry standard and I’ve had some of my colleagues get laughed at when they said we’ve been studying with Solidworks. However there are business that will swear by SolidWorks as the best way to go.
You cant major in “SolidWorks” remember SolidWorks is a design tool.
SolidWorks is used across college curriculum in mechanical engineering, manufacturing, industrial design, robotics engineering, aerospace, marine, automotive engineering, physics, medical and vetenary schools, art, argiculture and more. At a college level, you will see SolidWorks as a requirement for a course. Sometimes at the community college you will see a “SolidWorks” course - but most of the time the course would be entitled, Engineering Design, Machine Design, Finite Element Analysis.
That fact that you know about machining is a real plus. Learn as much as you can about machining - you can design anything virtually - but it takes real talent to know if a model can be manufacuted.
Investigate areas in SolidWorks such as weldments, sheet metal, molding - these are all tied to manufacturing and are important tools. Also in the aerospace and automotive industry the tools like TolAnalyst are also important.
Everytime you make a model - you learn. Just keep learning.
Marie
Thanks for all the information, Though I do believe I confused some people with my question. I wasn’t saying is there a SoildWorks Degree, I understand, this falls into certifications. What I meant was are there specific degrees that deal with designing. Yet this question was answered. Thanks for you time and the good advice. 
–Jeff K–
That’s what I love about FIRST: Having the youths express their desires for their careers and then the adults, mentors, teachers, etc lending some valuable expert advice and encouragement to help guide them in the right direction. Hard to imagine how much value we all are adding to the culture. Very cool, very good!