What things can you do in high school to prepare to be a mechanical engineer in the future

Hi Kayna,

In High School, you will want to take math and science classes. Ideally, you would want your math skills to be at a point where you can immediately take a calculus class upon entering college, so you would want to take pre-calculus in high school. For science, you will want to take chemistry and physics classes, with emphasis on physics. Do not take biology classes or anything like that. If you can take advanced placement courses in both the math and science areas to earn college credits, DO IT, and take as many advanced math and physics courses as possible. Basically, every year in high school you should be taking a math and science course along with your other courses.

In addition to math and science, if your high school offers the courses, take a 3D modelling course and a drafting course. These might both be combined into one course where you will learn to make 3D models of objects and create manufacturing drawings. You will take this course in college, but the more exposure you get in high school will only help you.

Third, if your high school offers it, you will want to take classes where you work with hand tools. Example classes include wood shop, metal shop, and automobile repair. My high school offered these courses. What you are trying to do is familiarize yourself with hand tools and how to properly use them. The one tool you will want to know how to use is a Dremel 4000 Rotary Tool with the Flex Shaft Attachment. If your high school does not offer courses like this, you can gain familiarity by buying the tools yourself (they're not terrible expensive) and using them on things like home projects and whatnot.

Fourth, you will want to have some basic computer skills, such as knowing how to use Microsoft Office (Word and Excel, and to a lesser extent PowerPoint). If you want to go a step farther with computers, which isn't really needed but I think it helps me, I would recommend you learn how to build computers and learn about computer/internet security (keeping your files safe and avoiding viruses). Most likely when you get a job, you will be working for a big company that will have an IT group, but having this knowledge yourself can help you avoid problems. Probably there won't be a high school class for this, but the information is freely available online.

Lastly, you need to know how to find information. Finding information, aka research, is important for a mechanical engineer (or any engineer) if you want to work in a development job. Fortunately, Google helps greatly.

I wish you well in the future!!

Sam

I am going to answer this question in general first:
1) Write down why you like Mechanical field in Engineering. Believe me, being clear on why you like it gives you more probability of finding the right opportunities in the form of mentors/information.
2) Write down your role models in that field?. Try to learn more about them to know how they are where they are step by step. If not try to search in "linked in" what best mechanical engineering people have in their profiles. What they did, how they did it. I don't want you to do what they exactly did, but get a big picture if you do work in your field with passion you will be very successful. And you will also understand more about the degrees, subjects, companies related to the mechanical engineering.

:::Focus more on these subjects in high school:::
(Note: If you don't have the below in your curriculum try studying from internet. And also don't forget to start some hubby projects from high school, practical knowledge of applying what you learnt makes you best Mechanical Engineer. Start with these projects if you like : 'http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/search.shtml?v=ia&ia=ApMech'. Or Ask your teachers to prepare a project for you which can be done in 3 days - Week time.)
Mathematics (in particular, calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra)
Basic physical sciences (including physics and chemistry)
Statics and dynamics
Strength of materials and solid mechanics
Materials Engineering, Composites
Thermodynamics, heat transfer, energy conversion, and HVAC
Fuels, combustion, Internal combustion engine
Fluid mechanics (including fluid statics and fluid dynamics)
Mechanism and Machine design (including kinematics and dynamics)
Instrumentation and measurement
Manufacturing engineering, technology, or processes
Vibration, control theory and control engineering
Hydraulics, and pneumatics
Mechatronics, and robotics
Engineering design and product design
Drafting, computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM)

:::Some more information related to Mechanical Engineering::::

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  Subdisciplines : Mechanics, Mechatronics & Robotics, Structural Analysis, Thermodynamics & Thermo-Science, Design & Drafting.

  
  


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  Areas of research: Micro electr-mechanical systems (MEMS), Friction stir welding (FSW), Composites, Mechatronics, Nanotechnology, Finite element analysis, Biomechanics, Computational fluid dynamics, Acoustal Engineering etc.

  
  


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  Related Fields: Manufacturing Engineering. Aerospace Engineering, Automotive engineering etc.

  
  

::: Websites you can use for searching about anything :::

Wikipedia.com, Quora.com, Google.com,

:::::::::::::::::::: ALL THE BEST :::::::::::::::::::::

Take all the math, physics, chemistry, and calculus courses that you can. I went to a small high school that did not offer calculus, and it made life a lot harder while in school. I caught up to my classmates that went to better schools by doing extra problems. If the teacher assigned 5 problems, I did an extra 3 or 4. Once you learn how to solve the problems, you can spend less time on trying to figure out how to set them up for solution.