I confess that my BEng is sufficiently far in the mists of time that it's starting to fade but a few thoughts....
- Aero Eng is 3 or 4 years of VERY hard work. It's enjoyable and rewarding but unless you are genuinely interested in engineering, why waste all that time and effort? Frankly unless I had that level of interest, I don't think that I could have stuck it out.
- You can't avoid a year or two of basic theory in an aero-eng degree, it's essential to being able to cope with any of the specialist aerospace stuff. Tough, but that's the way it is.
- If you are looking for an airline career, an aerospace management degree, or something like Leeds' aeronautical science course would be far more useful to you.
- If you ONLY want to be a pilot, and are not even looking to be an aviation manager, why bother with a degree anyway? - get on with the flying!
- There are people working both as Engineers and as pilots - I'm one of them. But to do the main bulk of your training in both at once is, in my opinion, impracticable; each is too demanding in its own right. A combined Eng/Sci + PPL makes sense, but not a professional pilot qualification. Do one, then the other - I don't think that the order matters.
- An engineering degree doesn't qualify you as an Engineer, and not all degree courses are equal in the eyes of potential employers (for example, an Engineering degree from one of the big names like Imperial or Southampton will carry far more weight than one from some other institutions that I won't name). Bear that in mind when making decisions - and consider that A-level grade requirements may give some indication of the level of the course.
G
Last edited by Genghis the Engineer; 10th March 2004 at 00:59.