You sound like you want to be a mechanical engineer with an emphasis on automotive design, but you don’t want to attain the background necessary to do it. If you’re not interested in science - especially physics, then you’re probably not going to be very successful in getting the necessary qualifications to be one. And even if you get the qualifications, unless you’re clearly a very plugged-in candidate who’s interested in ALL of it and who excelled in ALL of it in school, you’re probably not gonna end up in that career even with the degree. As @Fender1325 said, college degrees are no longer guaranteed to bring you good jobs. Even people who worked hard in college and are very good in their fields are finding themselves working retail jobs to make ends meet while they wait for a job opening that may never happening.
Fortunately, you’re only 16 - you still have some time to figure out what you want to do with your life. I’ll tell you that what I ended up doing (and thoroughly enjoying) is not what I thought I wanted to do when I was 16.
You should really explore what jobs are out there in all different sorts of fields - you might find a career you never heard of that you end up loving and that makes you a lot of money. That happened to my SO, and she wouldn’t trade what she does for anything, even though while she was in school, she didn’t know that the job she does existed, even as late as when she was working on the PhD that qualified her for it.
As far as I know…the highest degree you get to pursue a career as a mechanic is a Associate degree.
Working with your hands is good. But as others said…it sounds like you may be more interested with a degree in mechanical engineering. Unfortunately you need a good science background (aka. physics) for a ME degree. Good with math is also necessary.
At 16 - it’s difficult to really see what you want until you start taking courses toward that goal. My niece started college with a pursuit toward a degree in Pharmacology. It was a 6 year PHD program. After her 3rd year she didn’t like all the Chemistry…so she switched majors and college to Math.
Thx for giving me some ideas and guidelines about colleges. @fender1325 You said that your parents didn’t want you to pursue music. Its the same scenario with me. My parents want me to be educated and to achieve a degree. They said law is the easiest way in my country, however I love mechanics, obsessed with cars as any other kid would. Unfortunately auto mechanics does not consist of a degree, so my parents put their foot down there. @shadowfax You need to understand that I never did physics but from the looks of it, it looks complicated. I’m not a science guy, but if I HAVE to do it, I would. But I was doing some research on the auto engineering field and I saw two main subjects, math and I.T. Can anyone please list the other subjects needed for auto engineering ?
My suggestion is to really dig into your high school classes. This will help you develop your skills and interests. “You need to understand that I never did physics but from the looks of it, it looks complicated. I’m not a science guy, but if I HAVE to do it, I would”.
Take the physics classes. You may find out that you really like physics. Don’t be put off by what others say about the difficulty of physics.
Please keep in mind that good writing is important in any field. Being able to express your thoughts in writing help you to think clearly. The top notch mechanics who post on this board write very well.
@Triedaq Thx man. But how would I know if I need to do physics for Automobile Engineering ? I have no clue whatsoever what subjects are necessary. I’ve been searching but all my searches fail, so right down Im down to word of mouth. So if anyone can share with me what is necessary for auto engineering I would really be thankful. Don’t be confused with Mechanical and Automotive Engineering please.
MIT is a little different then other colleges…They get a lot of research grant money from many different automotive manufacturers. So students have the ability to work on real-life research projects. One time when I visited my daughter who was going to MIT…she introduced me to this KID (he was 16)…he was sophomore at MIT…and he designed and built a carburetor. I don’t know too many other colleges that can offer that level.
Sounds as if you’re NOT in the US…so a degree in Mechanical engineering may be limited where you live. Especially Automotive engineering. You need to look into this further…as to what jobs might be available to you.
The question you guys are asking regularly is ’ What job '. There are more than 100 job vacancies for an auto engineer. Some includes from European Jaguar and Land Rover companies. But mechanical and automotive engineering are different. I believe you don’t require physics for automotive. Please correct me if I am wrong.
You need to understand that I never did physics but from the looks of it, it looks complicated.
Yes, it is, although an automotive engineer really only needs to be decently versed in Newtonian physics, which is pretty straightforward. The stuff that’s actually hard, like quantum physics isn’t necessary for that career.
That aside, shying away from something because its complicated is a good indication that you might not enjoy automotive engineering… Or even being a mechanic. These days, cars are very complicated. My car has more lines of computer code in its systems than the F-22 fighter jet. It has interconnected systems that you’d never thing would be interconnected - like the navigation computer being hooked to the air conditioner. Its performance capabilities exceed those of the supercars of yesteryear.
In short, you don’t just throw cars together and give them cool-looking bodies. If you get into car design or car repair, you will be facing complicated puzzles every day of your working life.
In short, either learn to love solving complicated problems, or seek alternate venues of employment.
@MikeInNH is giving you good advice. I will even add to this by saying that an understanding of physics makes understanding mathematics easier. I taught college calculus courses and I assigned almost every word problem. Many of these problems involved physics applications. I explained enough of the physics that the students, with some work, could do the problems. Many of my colleagues thought that the word problems took to much time. However, I would complete a 10 week quarter and my classes would have finished two more chapters than what some of my colleagues completed in the textbook. When the students saw an application of the calculus, it made learning calculus much easier.
I had a colleague in industrial technology who made the statement “if you can’t apply mathematics, you don’t know mathematics”. This colleague and I did a lot of research together and also team taught a couple of courses. TAKE THE PHYSICS!!
I had a colleague in industrial technology who made the statement "if you can't apply mathematics, you don't know mathematics".
How true.
Some people just couldn’t do word problems. I had a problem with word problems…until I got this great math teacher my sophomore year of high-school. The one thing he would always emphasis when doing word problems is to draw it out. Try to get a visual of what is happening…That one simple thing is probably the best advise I ever got. I now have a BS in computer science and a MS in applied Mathematics.
Personally, I do not believe there is anything so broadly defined as an “automotive engineer”. Like any complex piece of machinery, the industry relies on many engineering disciplines to design, fabricate, test, market and repair their products. Mechanical, electrical, optical, software and other engineering disciplines must all come together to form the final product. You could be interested in optical engineering and spend your entire working career employed by an automobile manufacturer, subsidiary or primary vendor and never once see the rest of the operation required to deliver the end product. The “jack of all trades” position is l-o-n-g gone…
“I had a problem with word problems. .” @MikiInNH–You are supposed to have a problem with word problems!
Twenty five or thirty years ago, I was sent to a conference at the University of Michigan on Michigan’s statewide testing program. I have no idea why my institution sent me, but at the time it was a good excuse to get out of town and since I was provided a car to make the trip and my expenses paid, I went. One of the sessions that I attended was conducted by an attorney and the topic was solving problems. This attorney made the statement that one of the difficult things in mathematics was to take a problem in English (or some other language), and translate the problem to mathematical symbols, manipulate the mathematical symbols to arrive at a solution, and then translate the solution to English. His final statement was “The only way I know to teach this process to students is have them work word problems”.
I think that this process of translating from English to mathematical symbols and from the resulting mathematical solution back to English is very important. I had a colleague who taught the mathematics content courses for elementary majors and she disagreed with me. She said that the word problems weren’t relevant to elementary students today. She recited one word problem for elementary students which started out that Johnny had 75 cents he was going to spend at the candy store. It went on to say that gum drops cost 10 cents an ounce, chocolate drops cost 15 cents an ounce, etc. and then the student was to figure the mix of candy Johnny could get for 75 cents. This colleague went on to say that the prices didn’t make sense and that candy stores don’t exist today and the children would not “relate” to the problem. I said that we should modernize the problem. My modern version reads “Johnny knocks over a little old lady who has just cashed her social security check and has $200 to spend… He wants to buy some drugs. Now marijuana costs $5 an ounce, quaeludes go for $10 for 15 capsules, etc. Johnny wants a mix of the different drugs for his $200. How much should he buy of each narcotic?” My colleague, who was quite conservative was horrified at my suggestion. However, the point is not whether the problem is “relevant”, but whether or not one can take the steps to solve the problem.
A quick search shows that there are bachelors and graduate degrees in automotive engineering in fully accredited colleges that are fully financial aid compliant.
Alright I understand. I can’t do the physics now because of the education system. I might run a course of it next year, and I’d tell you guys if I’m liking it or what.
“My parents want me to be educated and to achieve a degree. They said law is the easiest way in my country, however I love mechanics, obsessed with cars as any other kid would.”
What country are you living in, if you don’t mind me asking?
By the way, I was not obsessed with cars when I was a kid. After I washed out of college, I enrolled in an auto mechanics program, and I really liked it. I stuck with it and I turned out to be fairly decent. That was 20 years ago
When I was a kid, being a mechanic was the furthest thought from my mind
My point is . . . things may work out differently than you imagined
@Nicolai, I agree with @db4690 that you must not live in the USA, or at least you are a new arrival. If you live in another country, it will be difficult for use to provide good advice since we don’t know your local economy.
You are truly blessed to have the parents you do.
There are a lot of variables we don’t know here. For example, are your parents in a position to help you get into a top law school. Here in the U.S., far more lawyers graduate than there are opportunities for lawyers. You may find this link interesting:
However, if you’re in a position to go to one of the top law schools, an ivy league school, and you place decently, you’re almost guaranteed to get a good offer.
But there’s certainly nothing wrong with engineering either. If you’re technically oriented, that might be a better path. As with law, however, the school that you attend and how you place can send your life down a whole different path. An MS in engineering from MIT with a good GPA is far, far more likely to get you a great offer than an MS from most colleges.
And if you can manage to get into a military academy you’re golden. That’s well worth discussing with your parents. It’s an entirely different life, but if you’ve got the “stuff” it’s a path that guarantees a great career.
Michigan Tech in Houghton, MI is the top automotive engineering school in the country, but within the automotive engineering, there are specialities such as electrical, mechanical, chemical, etc.
However, if you want to just go to an tech school instead of engineering, you may find it exciting to work for a racing team building race cars. You may not make a lot of money at first, but if you don’t have a lot of commitments, it could be exciting. There is more to life than just making money anyway.
But any engineering degree will require Chemistry 101 and 102 and Physics 101-103. No getting around them.
If it is just engines you are interested in, consider aviation. If you earn an A&P license (airframes and power plants) you can make serious money. If you like diesels, you could also look into working on power plants on cruise ships or cargo ships, good money and plenty of travel.
A quick search shows that there are bachelors and graduate degrees in automotive engineering in fully accredited colleges that are fully financial aid compliant.
Yeah, sure there are. I’m sure if you looked hard enough, you could find someone willing to take your money and provide a degree in arm pit farting too. Almost without exception, those are 2 yr degrees or diplomas from institutes that are geared toward collecting money and sending you out into the world with no real skills. Most of those credits will be dismissed by any real engineering college should you decide to pursue a specific discipline so in essence, almost worthless if your true intent is to be involved in designing anything.
Also, in today’s job climate, I can pick and choose from candidates that have Master’s degrees in a specific area. HR won’t even consider passing along a resume with a 2 yr degree, it’s so far down the pack of contenders. a 2yr degree entitles you to submit for a stint as a co-op while you pursue your 4 year degree. And those positions are hotly contested.
I can see the interview now- what education do you have that qualifies you for this position? I have a degree in Automotive Engineering. Really, which part of the car are you qualified to engineer? <>
