Taking Mechanical Engineering and specializing in Aerospace Engineering

Hi Valentia, 
I think that is it amazing that you will be finished with high school and an AA! You must work really hard to get all that work completed! My biggest advice is to take it slow and easy. Engineering school, regardless of the major, is hard. I also excelled in high school, but struggled with college. Enjoy it. College will be a great time and you should really have time to experience what it has to offer. Join social groups and expand yourself! Being a successful engineer is more than just pulling off the grades and being smart. you should also have leadership skills and know how to communicate with others. I work with multi-functional teams and it's critical to have the ability to talk to each of them. Being involved in organization that are not engineering based give you the background for that. As for Mech or Aero, I'm a bit bias to ME. I graduated as an ME with a minor in energy, and I now work in Aerospace. However, I do have a few friends at work that graduated Aero as well. We all have the same job! Even some are electrical and civil! My advice would be as follows: Unless you know you 100% want to only work in Aerospace and specifically want to do aerodynamics, then I like the idea of Mech with an aero focus. The two degrees are extremely similar. The major difference is that if you decided you wanted to do medical devices and save lives, an Aero degree doesn't hold as much weight. Also, within an airplane, we have electrical systems, computer networks, special materials, interiors... all difference aspects of engineering! I think you'll be fine with either degree, as with an engineering degree, you can pretty much do anything!