Aerospace Engineering Schools

If you're interested in the space Industry: FIND A SCHOOL THAT HAS AN AIR FORCE RESEARCH LAB CUBESAT PROGRAM.

Obviously other clubs/programs are great. Things like competition rocketry, air plane design, SEDS, etc... these are all great things. But CubeSatellites are one of the best things you can get involved with if you're looking to get into the space industry.

Background: There are a lot of Universities that are working on CubeSats. Some are self funded, some are funded through program's like NASA's Undergraduate Research Program, but the king of them is the Air Force Research Lab's University Nanosatellite Project. The AFRL's UNP is designed as a comprehensive engineering project. They are student run (meaning that you have an entirely student based team, with students working as the Project Managers, Chief Engineers, subsystem leads, testing and integration engineers, etc. This means that you get an unparalleled ability to get experience starting on day 1 of college. And if you get involved early, you can really climb up and get experience that most college students could never reasonably get.

I've got the honor of working as a Program Manager for a 3U CubeSat at my University. We have 3 active satellite missions funded by both the Air Force and by NASA. Not only do we get a chance to work on real hardware/software that will go to space, we get to do things like applying for licenses, dealing with money, applying for launch contracts, dealing with government organizations, keeping documentation. Yes... some of it is boring, but it is a one of a kind opporunity to get involved at a high level without needing to leave your campus. As a college engineering student, saying that I'm responsible for a quarter of a million dollars in funding, and managing a team of 40 engineers to build a satellite is one of the greatest things to put on my resume.

This past summer I was the annual SmallSat Conference, where I got to meet Gwynne Shotwell, and have a personal lunch with the SpaceX mission manager, who was a former UNP Chief Engineer at another University.

In my lab, we have roughly 150 active members (both undergraduate and graduate), and of that number, close to 40 have already received offers this year for positions at NASA, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Air Force and tons more. And the same story is true at every University involved with UNP. (Like I said, the SpaceX Mission Manager is a former UNP Chief Engineer!)

So yeah, you don't have to go to UB, but I would check for what schools are involved, and if any of them are a place you might be interested in. If you can't get involved with a UNP school, look for others that have CubeSat programs. (The CubeSat standard was designed at Cal Poly, so seeing that on your list, that would definitely be ideal!)

/r/AerospaceEngineering Thread