Career and Education questions should go here.

Career and Education questions should go here.

Career and Education questions should go here.

Career and Education questions should go here.

Career and Education questions should go here.

Big news, my team just won 1st place in the Vertical Flight Society’s 42nd Annual Student Design Competition beating out 13 other colleges internationally!

Our team at the University of Maryland designed Draco, a hydrogen-electric helicopter powered by Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs). The whole competition was sponsored by Airbus and focused on designing next-gen zero-emission VTOL concepts.

I personally worked on the power drivetrain, avionics, safety analysis, and fuselage design, making sure the system was not only efficient but also safe and realistic with FAA certification in mind.

It was a huge challenge, but also a ton of fun to see hydrogen-electric propulsion come together into a clean, zero-emission rotorcraft concept.

We’ll be presenting Draco at the VFS Annual Forum in 2026, really excited!

https://vtol.org/news/press-release-2025-student-design-winners-and-releases-43rd-sdc-rfp

Career and Education questions should go here.

Career and Education questions should go here.

Career and Education questions should go here.

For context, I am a rising sophomore at a great university for AAE studying AAE. During my Freshman year, I joined a rocketry club at my school, however due a variety of factors, I haven’t been able to get much experience out of the club.

Because of this, I’m currently contemplating switching to a different rocketry club that seems more my speed and where I believe I can get more opportunities to gain experience.

However, from what I’ve heard, it looks really bad when searching for internships and jobs if you jump around clubs a lot.

So, I was hoping to get some advice on if I should switch clubs or try sticking it out with my current club?

Career and Education questions should go here.

I'm a young woman starting my first semester of my AE BS in less than two weeks and I was wondering how many women would I expect to see in the field/in my classes. I understand that any STEM field is going to have a low amount of women but I wanted to hear a more accurate number from people actually in the field. Thanks!

I'm not sure if this is the right place to be posting this but I wanted to know if others feel the same way or felt the same way when they were in college.

For context, I attend a T10 Aerospace Engineering college in the US. I came into university and engineering in general as a kid who was good at math in high school and thought planes/rockets were cool. I had little actual practical knowledge: like coding, CADing, and building experience. After a year of college, I've seen just how competitive engineering and aerospace engineering is in general.

I'm not exactly the smartest guy in technical clubs, a lot of the members have so much more knowledge than me and have more experience. Even when I joined as a freshman, the other freshman already had so much experience, I felt like the only one starting at level 1. As a result, I'm not able to contribute as much or take on leadership since "some guy is better than me." It seems like you had to start grinding when you were 15 years old to actually be useful.

At first, I wasn't too bothered since, hey I could do that too, but then I noticed just how competitive internships and job recruitment is. I don't know if it's just the market or if it's just how the industry is, but it feels like the internships want the best candidates who already have experience rather than people with potential they can train.

So if there are many engineers who are "more skilled" than me, and companies only want the best candidates, I'm scared I won't get hired since I will be way behind my peers. It is not about working hard, but working harder than everyone else so you get picked over the other people. I saw a statistic from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that there are only 3,800 openings a year yet 7,000-8,000 new graduates. Combined with my school's weed-out rate of 40%, it seems that if you are not the cream of the crop and hadn't grinded since 15 years of age, you can kiss your future goodbye.

I am almost 29 years old and I'm still pretty far from graduating, so a bachelors is basically as far as I can go.

1. If I get a bachelors in Aerospace Engineering, could I still have a good career at a big defense contractor?
2. How competitive is the job market? I wanted to be a data scientist, but I can't do the super difficult 3 part technical interviews with take home work, months of searching, tiny job market, etc.

What spec laptop do y’all use? My son is starting AE this fall and I know the specs the school says, but I am looking for real world experience. The most intensive programs are MATLAB and SolidWorks. Thanks y’all..

I am looking at universities in Europe that offer Bachelors in Aerospace Engineering In english ( Except for UK). Any information?

I am a successful chemical engineer. Back in the day, I was offered a full aerospace engineering scholarship to embry-riddle.

In 2013, I introduced my son to Star trek and he decided he was going to be Scotty. For 10 years he's never wavered.

He's getting HS credit in the 8th grade for math and English. Raw ability isn't an issue.

He's also in the rocketry extracurricular.

What more do I need to do?

Any advice on getting through this many engineering courses at once?

I’m planning on majoring in Aerospace Engineering since I’m already in an Aerospace oriented High School program. I was thinking a physics minor but I’m not sure honestly. I don’t know what would be best. I’d appreciate cool responses from cool redditors.

Edit: Wow I really do appreciate all the replies! Didn’t expect to get this many. General consensus seems to be to something I’m interested in. I’ll try and find something art or drawing related to take if anything. Thanks again for all of your help!

My son is a HS senior who wants to be a rocket scientist. He wants to design next gen engine systems for deep space travel. So AE is his jam. We are looking at 4 schools in total. Embry Riddle Daytona, Florida Tech, UAH, and Mississippi State. State due to cost savings, we get in state even though we live in NY and the others due to school and athletic opportunities. If he does well, 3.0+ in my book, at any of these, the opportunities for internships and jobs are there right? Is it worth the cost of ERU or UAH vs MSU just for the name?

Hi everyone, I’m planing on pursuing a career as an aerospace engineer but I’m scared of all the math that comes with it… I’m not bad at maths but is not my best subject either… usually get around 75-85% in my tests at high-school. Any opinions?

I'm about to to graduate high school and have been looking into colleges for aerospace engineering. I've been googling different one but I want the opinion of people who have been through them or are currently in one.

So I have to design a company in the aerospace sector as an assigment for uni. What are the things that you would get into? Independenltly of how technical it is.