I want to be a...

Car Designer. Anybody know some of the best colleges for this? I was thinking about going into mechanical engineering. I am pretty sure that it has something to do with car design. Could somebody post some information on car design.

Kettering University in Michigan, is the choice of schools for automotive design if you live in America. Guess where I'm going:)

I live in Michigan and dont know where Kettering is. What town is it in?

Flint, it was formerly known as GMI.

Originally posted by enginerd
Flint, it was formerly known as GMI.

Now GMI I recognize! Thanks.

Is car design a branch of mechanical engineering?

Yes and no. To make body panels that won't bend or tear and hold up for the life of the vehicle, strength of materials and other engineering disciplines are necessary. It all depends on who you work for and what they do. So to be safe, Yes.

Of course...

Automotive engineering is a branch of mechanical engineering. Here at Penn State, it doesn't even get it's own name...just ME with an emphasis in automotive classes. Everything about cars is described within ME...engines, strength of materials, electronics, you name it....

My last project that I just finished was a C++ simulation of a Ford engine using different airflow and fuel characteristics. If that's not cars..nothing is.

Hope that helps

Art Center in Pasadena, CA is another great place to go. An old friend of mine graduated from there and has had a job at Volvo Advanced Concept Design in Camarillo, CA since.

it sounds as though there is some disagreement as to what "car design" really means, and for good reason. There are many different aspects of a car that all need to be "designed."

Art school is a good place to start if you want to design the appearance of a car (sketches, clay models, etc).

Mechanical engineering is a good degree to start with if you want to get into design of the "hard" parts of a car, like the window regulators, connecting rods, etc.

Electrical engineering is a good place to start if you want to get into the design of electrical components / systems

Rather than list all the types of engineering that I can come up with, I'll just summarize by saying that almost every kind of engineering has automotive applications. The top 3 are probably mechanical, electrical, and controls.

Originally posted by IntegraR0064
Automotive engineering is a branch of mechanical engineering.


I think there are a whole lot of automotive engineers with degrees in electrical engineering who'd disagree with you on that one. ;)



Frederick is a nice place - what's the name of that little brewery on the main drag through the touristy area? I took my girlfriend there for dinner years ago and had some excellent crab cakes (and she had a really good chicken - yeah, it was pretty much the whole bird that they brought)

Originally posted by ivymike1031


I think there are a whole lot of automotive engineers with degrees in electrical engineering who'd disagree with you on that one. ;)


That's true ;)

As to the brewery.......not sure there are a lot of them.

Thanks everyone. I am going to just stick with Mechanical Engineering. If that doesn't work out I might go to a school like Wyotech or UTI. Does anybody know how much out of state tuition is at those 2 schools?

Kettering University in Michigan looks like a great school. I want to go there after high school.

They have a web site. http://www.kettering.edu

The only reason that I might not go would be if I can't get enough money to pay for it. $40k a year if I remember. But if you graduate you could very easily be making $100k a year after that. So it would be well worth it.

You remember those Volkswagen commercials that have their engineers working on those cars? What would their job title be? Automotive Engineer or Automotive Designer or something else?

Don't get your hopes up, you probably won't make $100k/yr in your first decade as an engineer...

$100k was probibly to sarcastic. But many engineers make that much money at the larger companies. But starting its probibly closer to $60k a year at most.

After looking at there web site again, they also have a work program where you can make up to $60K. Hummmm. In their terms that probibly is like closer to around $10k.

$60k to start still sounds a bit high to me. Here are some articles that you may find interesting:

http://static.monstertrak.com/mediacenter/newspaper/detroit_030501.html

https://engineering.purdue.edu/FrE/ESCAPE/fields/mechanical/stat_gifs/salary_e.html

Originally posted by ivymike1031
Don't get your hopes up, you probably won't make $100k/yr in your first decade as an engineer...


Yep. More typical is 50-60k

I'm starting college after the summer, and I would prabably go mechanical engineering or veichle engineering at KTH or Chalmers in Sweden. The thing here in Sweden is that it's free, you only pay for books and the place you live and so on.
KTH co-operate with for example american MIT, so there is a possibility to go there for a year (even if it's very difficult to get one of the places available).

Here you get around $225 a month from the state, and $425 a month as a low interest loan, also from the state.

At Tennessee Technological University (the college that I will probably attend) they have a co-op program and you leave college for a semester to work at a company. I believe they have one at Saturn, which is not far from where I live. It not only gives you good experience and you might get hired by that company when you graduate. I can only hope.:D

There are more than 2.2 million professional engineers working in the United States today. And with the average starting salary for college engineering graduates at almost $ 47,000 a year, the industry will surely continue attracting talent.

2.2 million professional engineers working in the U.S. Thats a lot more than I thought there were. Well still doesn't change anything.

At $47k a year thats still a good living.

I started at $50k (EE), which is right in the middle of where engineers from my school (VA Tech) have started over the last few years. How much you end up making and how fast varies wildly. I've been shopping around a bit lately and the going rate for 3-5 years experience seems to range from mid $60ks to a high (of what I've seen advertised as a general "engineer" position) of $86k, depending on experience and qualifications. Security clearences are a big deal around DC and make a big difference. The difference from a BS to MS doesn't seem to matter too terribly much. There are few jobs that want MSs, but most employers seem to equate BS + 2 years experience to a MS. The Naval Research Lab, for example, does exactly that for pay and promotion purposes. The money also depends on where you are. $50k makes for a very tight living in NYC, but a quite comfy living in Richmound VA.

The real big money in engineering is for people that either come up with and patent ideas, or engineers who make good managers of other engineers. The latter is fairly rare in engineering types, which is why its in demand.

2.2 million professional engineers working in the U.S. Thats a lot more than I thought there were. Well still doesn't change anything.

Out of 300 million that's not that many. :)

At Tennessee Technological University (the college that I will probably attend) they have a co-op program and you leave college for a semester to work at a company.

Co-oping is a big thing at Tech and a wonderful program in general. At Tech you alternate semesters working and going to school for your junior and senior years plus typically a summer or two. Some companies (larger ones usually) pay for housing, and pretty much all of them pay better then your average summer job. The REAL big advantage is that it not going gives you actual engineering work experience, it gives you ins and contacts with a company in your field. Your first job as an engineer is the hardest to get, and knowing people is the best way to do it. Many of my friends ended up working for the companies they co-oped with.

EDIT: Though a couple of extra 0s in my US population number. :)

Knowing people is ONLY way to do it, not the best way. Hell son, just get into a good trade profession and be happy. I'm making a damn sight more than the starting pay you guys are looking at, and it's only taken me about 3 years to get up to speed on everything. Plus I didn't have to take any higher education to qualify, though that's never a bad thing in life.

Oh yeah, something else to consider: A lot of gov-ment jobs (which can be quite nice for engineers) look for a 3.0 average or they don't even consider you. It doesn't matter if your major is rocket science or under water basket weaving or if you want to Harvard or Bo-Diddly Community College. "3.0" is a magic number.

that's cool, I need to start requesting letter grades on my work packets in school in order to boost my GPA. I'm in a school-work prgram here at Tigard high School, I got to a job site for a month and work there for school credit and get packets of work instead of regular curriclum.