are aerospace and aeronautical engineering the same thing?
Answer Hi Carol You are doing a good thing – researching a school and career choice can remove a lot of uncertainty. First, aerospace and aeronautical engineering are basically the same things, but years ago schools decided they wanted to get on the NASA bandwagon and offer a few courses in orbital mechanics and other space related subjects. That led them to the slightly loftier title of Aerospace Engineer. But the bulk of the subject study relates to aeronautics. Most of us are proud to be Aeronautical Engineers, so I wouldn’t worry about the title. As for schools, I don’t have any official rating, but worked with engineers from all over the world. The best, at least theoretically, came from Europe – the french Ecole Polytechnique for example. But for all around theoretical, experimental and computational abilities, it is hard to do better than MIT, Cal Tech, Cal Poly, Stanford, Princeton, Virginia Tech, U. of Washington, Penn State, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Iowa State, Oh
