Rising 1/C, Aero Major, AMA

USNA_EAS_2021

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Hey everyone! By now most of you have likely heard about your admissions decisions, and if you haven't, you should hear soon. As the title says, I am a rising 1/C in the aeronautical engineering major and am available to answer any questions to the best of my ability. Fire away!
 
Thanks for offering to do this! I've heard aero is one of the most challenging majors at the Academy. Is this true? How hard are the other engineering majors in relation if you know?
 
Thanks for offering to do this! I've heard aero is one of the most challenging majors at the Academy. Is this true? How hard are the other engineering majors in relation if you know?
Hey, there's a bit of truth to every rumor. At the academy there certainly seems to be a hierarchy to the engineering majors. Each one presents their own set of challenges. For example, mechanical engineering is a very broad topic that can be taken many different directions depending on the student. Systems (robotics) is very coding intensive, while also incorporating aspects of mechanical. Electrical engineering is its own beast that strongly diverges from the other majors.

Aero has its own quirks that make it difficult, and I will be speaking to the aeronautical side (rather than astronautical). We start very similarly to the mech's, learning a foundation of structural engineering skills. However, we quickly diverge through a series of fluid dyanmics courses (Aerodynamics I & II, Gas Dynamics, etc) that deal with high speed compressible flows that are typically encountered in aeronautical applications. These courses largely focus on engineering at the smallest level (think about individual molecules in a flow).

There is also the category of classes regarding the aircraft as a whole. The most prominent of these are Intro to Aero, Performance, Stability and Control, and Flight Propulsion. These are unique from most other engineering classes, as we analyze the large scale behavior of vehicles, whether they be propellor, jet, or rocket driven. However, they give an excellent blend of knowledge to be taken into real world aviation careers.

Lastly, and perhaps most unique to aero, are the writing and analytic skills classes. The gauntlet for many aero majors is Wind Tunnels, where we make several presentations, write a 40-60 page engineering paper with LaTeX, and design our own experiment to run and evaluate by the end of the semester. Then, there is Flight Test Engineering, which is an excellent blend of every aero class taken thusfar, and involves several flight operations in a Be55 Baron followed by extensive data reduction and reports.

So, as you can see, the disciplines required for study in aero are broad. However, that being said, the actual difficulty is up to the individual person. I couldn't see myself doing any other major, no matter what school I chose attend. And if you stay on top of your work, you should never have a night past 9 or 10 pm. As a pre-requisite to the major, I would definitely agree that strong skills in calculus and physics are a necessity. On top of that, you will find that effective communication and writing skills make your life easier in any engineering major.

Hope this gives you some insight to the major!
 
How difficult is the Cyber Security class plebe year? I personally am horrible with most things computer related, and that has been worrying me. Also, how hard would it be to start a club team? I would like to compete in Orienteering since it was my varsity sport in high school, but currently USNA does not have a team (while West Point does), so I am curious about the possibility of starting an Orienteering team.
 
How difficult is the Cyber Security class plebe year? I personally am horrible with most things computer related, and that has been worrying me. Also, how hard would it be to start a club team? I would like to compete in Orienteering since it was my varsity sport in high school, but currently USNA does not have a team (while West Point does), so I am curious about the possibility of starting an Orienteering team.
Cyber Security isn't too bad Plebe Year, as it is mostly qualitative memorization and involves only the most basic coding. If you can memorize Reef Points, then you'll be fine here too. However, the 2/C Cyber class is somewhat of a firehose of information (and they treat it like you have no other classes). Part of my bias here is that they haven't slowed down at all with the online learning and it meets four days a week (at 6:30 am PDT right now). But long story short, if you can survive the other plebe classes, you should do just fine in cyber as well.

Clubs aren't actually too hard to start up here, as long as you deliver a solid plan and get some mutual interest from around the school. You just have to be sure that (a) it is safe(ish), (b) you have a financial estimate, (c) you have a petition of fellow interest, and (d) you find an officer to serve as a representative. Orienteering sounds like it'd be a huge hit with the Marine Ground community!
 
Hey, there's a bit of truth to every rumor. At the academy there certainly seems to be a hierarchy to the engineering majors. Each one presents their own set of challenges. For example, mechanical engineering is a very broad topic that can be taken many different directions depending on the student. Systems (robotics) is very coding intensive, while also incorporating aspects of mechanical. Electrical engineering is its own beast that strongly diverges from the other majors.

Aero has its own quirks that make it difficult, and I will be speaking to the aeronautical side (rather than astronautical). We start very similarly to the mech's, learning a foundation of structural engineering skills. However, we quickly diverge through a series of fluid dyanmics courses (Aerodynamics I & II, Gas Dynamics, etc) that deal with high speed compressible flows that are typically encountered in aeronautical applications. These courses largely focus on engineering at the smallest level (think about individual molecules in a flow).

There is also the category of classes regarding the aircraft as a whole. The most prominent of these are Intro to Aero, Performance, Stability and Control, and Flight Propulsion. These are unique from most other engineering classes, as we analyze the large scale behavior of vehicles, whether they be propellor, jet, or rocket driven. However, they give an excellent blend of knowledge to be taken into real world aviation careers.

Lastly, and perhaps most unique to aero, are the writing and analytic skills classes. The gauntlet for many aero majors is Wind Tunnels, where we make several presentations, write a 40-60 page engineering paper with LaTeX, and design our own experiment to run and evaluate by the end of the semester. Then, there is Flight Test Engineering, which is an excellent blend of every aero class taken thusfar, and involves several flight operations in a Be55 Baron followed by extensive data reduction and reports.

So, as you can see, the disciplines required for study in aero are broad. However, that being said, the actual difficulty is up to the individual person. I couldn't see myself doing any other major, no matter what school I chose attend. And if you stay on top of your work, you should never have a night past 9 or 10 pm. As a pre-requisite to the major, I would definitely agree that strong skills in calculus and physics are a necessity. On top of that, you will find that effective communication and writing skills make your life easier in any engineering major.

Hope this gives you some insight to the major!

Amazing response, thank you
 
Did you validate any classes plebe year? Did you feel like your high school adequately prepared you for your classes whether you validated or not?
 
Did you validate any classes plebe year? Did you feel like your high school adequately prepared you for your classes whether you validated or not?
I validated Physics I/II, Chemistry I/II, Calculus I/II, and English I, for a total of 27 credits, or about 1.5 semesters. Definitely allows for some flexibility in the schedule and opens up certain programs like early graduate school.

I would definitely say that, minus navigation and cyber, all of the classes offered during plebe year were no more in depth than at my high school. In fact, I had the opportunity to take Physics C in highschool, and that prepared me well above the level required for Physics I and II. I got a 5 on the AP chemistry exam and received 94% and 96% on the two chemistry validation tests, respectively. My school definitely prepared me well for those.

English is kind of a weird one because they just give you a piece to write an essay on. For the English I validation, I felt fine, but I remember the English II validation was a poem I just couldn't wrap my head around (so no validation there).

The calculus validations are offered prior to Plebe Summer. You can even validate differential equations if you possess the prerequisite knowledge, as one of my friend's did. Overall though, I'd say that the plebe year classes are *very* close to the curriculum offered through AP.
 
Cyber Security isn't too bad Plebe Year, as it is mostly qualitative memorization and involves only the most basic coding. If you can memorize Reef Points, then you'll be fine here too. However, the 2/C Cyber class is somewhat of a firehose of information (and they treat it like you have no other classes). Part of my bias here is that they haven't slowed down at all with the online learning and it meets four days a week (at 6:30 am PDT right now). But long story short, if you can survive the other plebe classes, you should do just fine in cyber as well.

Clubs aren't actually too hard to start up here, as long as you deliver a solid plan and get some mutual interest from around the school. You just have to be sure that (a) it is safe(ish), (b) you have a financial estimate, (c) you have a petition of fellow interest, and (d) you find an officer to serve as a representative. Orienteering sounds like it'd be a huge hit with the Marine Ground community!
Thank you for the info! I've been appointed to both USNA and West Point, so I'm trying to see what my options are and where I would be most successful.
 
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