Design the things that fly. Four years of hard math, then aircraft, rockets, satellites or missiles.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$134,960
Entry engineer
$86,700
Senior or chief engineer
$205,890
The national median is $134,960 a year, and the bottom tenth start near $86,700. This is one of the best paid bachelor's degree jobs in the country, and the reason is simple: the work is hard, the math is real, and the consequences of getting it wrong are severe.
$75,000 to $90,000
First engineering role out of a four year degree
Embry-Riddle, one of the biggest aerospace schools, reports an average starting salary of $74,798 for its graduates within a year of finishing. That sits below the survey's bottom tenth because it counts every first job, including ones outside aerospace.
$205,890
Chief engineers and technical fellows
Above that sit program managers and technical fellows at the big manufacturers. A security clearance also raises your pay, because the pool of people who hold one is small.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is two years at a community college then transfer into an in-state public engineering program, plus the Fundamentals of Engineering exam in your final year. The high end is four years at a private aerospace school at list price. Most aerospace jobs never require a professional license, so the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam years later is optional for many people. Paid co-op placements and heavy scholarship money mean few people pay the high figure in full, and the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) opens the federal side of that.
File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) every year. Engineering degrees also attract a lot of scholarship money, and paid co-op placements can cover a chunk of your tuition.
Paid internships and co-op terms
Manufacturers pay students well for six month placements, and most hiring happens from that pool.
Tuition help for a master's
Common at large employers, who will pay for a part time graduate degree while you work.
Security clearance
Expensive to obtain, so employers sponsor it, and it follows you around the industry.
Retirement savings with a match
A 401(k) plan where the employer adds money on top of yours.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
An accredited engineering degree is the whole gate. Everything after it is optional.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Calculus, physics and chemistry. Strong math grades are what get you into an engineering program.
Bachelor's degree in aerospace or mechanical engineering
4 years
Four years, accredited by ABET (the body that accredits engineering degrees in the United States). Embry-Riddle's aerospace degree runs 129 credits with tracks in aeronautics, astronautics, jet propulsion and rocket propulsion.
Internships or co-op
Summers, or a six month term
A paid placement at a manufacturer, a research lab or a government center. This is how most graduates get hired.
First engineering job
Year 1
You work under experienced engineers on one small part of a huge system. Expect two years before you own anything.
Optional license or master's
4 or more years
The Fundamentals of Engineering exam, four years of experience and the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam gets you a Professional Engineer license. Most aerospace engineers never need it.
Calculus
Not optional. Aerospace engineering is applied calculus for four years.
Physics
Mechanics and thermodynamics are the actual content of the degree.
Computer science
You will write code to run simulations from your first semester.
Technology or shop class
Knowing how things are actually built makes you a better designer.
Engineering licenses are issued by state boards, coordinated by NCEES (the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying), which covers 68 member boards across the states and territories. The route is an accredited degree, the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, four years of experience and then the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam. Most aerospace engineers never do it, because companies that manufacture products are exempt. The rule that will actually affect you is ITAR (the International Traffic in Arms Regulations): most defense and space work requires United States citizenship or permanent residency.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Campuses in Daytona Beach, Florida and Prescott, Arizona. Four propulsion and flight tracks, all accredited.
Purdue University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Michigan
Large public programs with wind tunnels, propulsion labs and deep recruiting pipelines.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology
Small, extremely competitive, and heavily research focused.
Your state university's mechanical engineering degree
A perfectly normal route in. Many aerospace engineers hold mechanical degrees with aerospace electives.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Propulsion
Jet engines and rocket motors. The hardest and best paid corner.
Aerodynamics
Airflow, wind tunnels and simulation. Heavy on computation.
Structures and materials
Making something strong enough and light enough at the same time.
Guidance, navigation and control
Keeping the vehicle pointed where it should be. Very mathematical.
Test engineering
Instrumenting hardware and breaking it on purpose. Hands on, often at remote ranges.
A rocketry or design build club
Rocket, drone and aircraft design teams are the single best thing on a student resume in this field.
Computer-aided design
Learn a real modeling package. Employers expect it on day one.
Python and MATLAB (an engineering math and simulation program)
The two languages engineering work is actually done in.
A pilot's license
Not required at all, but it changes how you think about flight testing.
Defense and government work is stable, clearance gated and funded on long contracts: fighter aircraft, satellites, missiles, NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) programs. Commercial space is faster, younger and harder on your hours, with launch companies iterating hardware in months. The skills are the same and people move between them, but the cultures are not alike. NASA hires through the federal jobs site and runs a Pathways internship program that leads directly to full time jobs.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Most of it is at a computer: running simulations, checking someone else's analysis, updating a model after a test result came back wrong. Then design reviews, where you defend your numbers in front of people who will find the weak part. A few weeks a year you are at a test stand or a wind tunnel instead, watching hardware do what the model said it would, or not. Documentation is constant, because everything that flies has to be traceable.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
ABET (the accrediting body for engineering degrees in the United States) has accredited 4,863 programs at 950 institutions across 42 countries, and more than 200,000 students graduate from them every year. If a degree is not accredited, licensing boards may not count it.
There is no national engineering license. The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying coordinates 68 separate state and territory licensing boards, which is why the exams are national but the license is not.
The NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Pathways Internship Program takes students for multiple semesters and is described by the agency as a direct pipeline to full time employment after graduation. Applications go through the federal jobs site.
At Embry-Riddle you choose between aeronautics, astronautics, jet propulsion and rocket propulsion inside the same 129 credit aerospace degree. You are picking your corner of the field before you graduate.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise.