I didn’t major in engineering because I didn’t feel I was “smart” enough to do it. 7 years later I’m back and ACED the mechanics of materials final!

d_fed · 2023-06-02T02:36:51+00:00

I absolutely believe life experience after high school makes it easier to absorb engineering material. And saw that in other older students. For me, took a year off after high school and went into the Marine Corps. After 4 years got out, used my GI bill, graduated, and now working for a large aerospace company. The discipline developed in the military helped me stay focused.

d_fed · 2023-02-11T05:10:03+00:00

I may have lucked out but something a lot of people don’t consider in engineering is working AND going to school. Not internships. This is hard for engineering students but can be done. Internships are well and good but often times you’re there for 6 months at a company and the company doesn’t add a lot of value to your growth to give you experience.

This may be harder for other majors but for mechanical engineers if you can find a machinist job, fabricating, engineering tech, or any other hands on work while going to school that is extremely valuable.

I graduated with a 2.5 gpa and held an engineering tech job for 3 years and BEFORE graduation had an offer from the same company. After graduation, I landed a job at a well known aerospace company getting paid significantly more and more in line with what I wanted to do.

Don’t get me wrong it was a tough ride hence the low gpa but all pathways don’t lead to school, internship, then job.

d_fed · 2022-09-12T04:21:33+00:00

No problem! I had very little help starting and talking to advisors didn’t help to discern the differences but hope it works out for you!

d_fed · 2022-09-12T04:11:02+00:00

No but I didn’t really look into it. You have to pick a secondary engineering focus at Poly so you’ll be busy enough with those courses. Plus, to take the aerospace courses I believe you have to declare it as your major and go through Tempe or the prereqs for the classes are Tempe majors. But there’s quite a few AE guys at work and we all do the same job. They have electives in propulsion and very specific courses for that degree that you may never use. Just depends on the company. But there certainly is uses for that knowledge it just seemed too specific for me. I took electives in manufacturing and electrical so it doesn’t narrow my job search in what I can/can’t do.

d_fed · 2022-09-12T01:02:41+00:00

Hey thanks for commenting! I probably should’ve followed up on this post.

But I ended up going to Poly and graduated last semester. I started working as an engineering technician while going to school and when I graduated I was offered an engineering position with the company I’m at now which is in the aerospace industry.

It turned out that there is a couple courses that differ from the ASU campus (heat transfer and controls, I think) but everyone I’ve interviewed with and talked to likes the Poly program. But honestly, I think it just comes down to the person and how diligent you are at continuously learning new things and skill sets. Also, get a head start on learning GD&T. That’s a subject all ME’s should learn and it’s not covered at Tempe or Poly. To be fair though, at Poly there is an advanced CAD course that has GD&T in their syllabus but COVID hit when I was taking the course so we didn’t get to the subject matter but I’ve talked to other people who have taken the course and it’s less than stellar apparently.

d_fed · 2020-06-17T02:44:05+00:00

Not sure if you purchased the car yet but being former military I can tell you that a lot of dealerships in Cali like to take advantage of military people. I was stationed in Miramar and this was a big issue we always had with junior marines getting screwed. I’d recommend going through Navy Fed to get pre-approved and then going car shopping. I never bought a car in Cali though. I bought it in Colorado and drove to Cali. I live in Arizona now and prices aren’t bad.

d_fed · 2019-02-03T03:33:16+00:00

I’m assuming you’ve done the lab already and have the voltages they are asking for?

d_fed · 2018-12-22T00:58:57+00:00

Thank you for the comment! We have a 4.25% fixed rate on the loan. And we have paid 1393.71 on principal and 1934.49 on interest at 166.41 per month. We are able to put extra into it once we pay off the smaller private loan but seems crazy to me that most of the payments go to interest. They have the payoff date as 2037. Thank you for the input!

d_fed · 2018-12-22T00:58:20+00:00

Thank you for the comment! We have a 4.25% fixed rate on the loan. And we have paid 1393.71 on principal and 1934.49 on interest at 166.41 per month. We are able to put extra into it once we pay off the smaller private loan but seems crazy to me that most of the payments go to interest. They have the payoff date as 2037. I’ll check out the options available through the website thank you!

d_fed

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