How To Become A Mechanical Engineer (Comprehensive)

The steps you need to take to figure out how to become a mechanical engineer start from how old you are. If you’re between 11-14 years old, you’re likely in middle school. 15-18 in high school, then 19-22 in college. If you’re a parent reading this and you want your kid to become an engineer, show them this page immediately!

I’ll cover how to become a mechanical engineer starting from middle school. If you’re in middle school and you’re reading this, consider yourself lucky. I wish I had a comprehensive guide on how to become a mechanical engineer when I was younger.

This guide assumes you live in the United States and you come from a lower income household.

If you come from a higher income household, life gets easier for you.

For those of us that grew up lower income, it’s a little unfair, but this guide will level out the playing field.

February 29, 2024 by Kazu Fujimoto

How To Become A Mechanical Engineer Starting From Middle School

Grades 6-8

Classes:

You’re likely taking basic classes such as English, Math, Social Studies, and Science. Pay a lot of attention in your science class, as a lot of the knowledge you learn carries over in the next grades onward.

Outside of Class:

Participate in a sport – basketball, little league baseball, swimming, martial arts. What you pick doesn’t matter, as it can be whatever you want. The importance here is that you’re building skills outside of the classroom. When you play sports, you have a chance to make friends and to develop skills. These skills carry on to the rest of your life, so it’s important to set a good foundation.

How To Become A Mechanical Engineer Starting From High School

Grades 9-12

Classes:

Starting as early as possible, take as many honors and AP classes as you can. This will boost your GPA and make you competitive when you start applying for colleges. Pay attention in your math and science classes as much as you can. In the rest of your classes such as English and History, just do the bare minimum to get an A and nothing more. Make sure you take Calculus and Physics AP and take good notes throughout the classes.

I know I’m making this sound easy, but it is not. I’m just giving a general overview on what to do in each grade. Contact me for questions on specifics, I’m more than happy to help.

Outside of Classes:

Get on a sports team that is a part of your high school. The sports teams usually consist of basketball, baseball, soccer, track, and swimming. Pick the sport you’re best at and get on that team. The goal here is to make yourself competitive in college applications and develop skills.

If you can spare the time and it won’t affect your studies, get a part time job. Highly recommended to get a part time job as a server so you can earn hundreds of dollars a night on tips at a restaurant. As a high schools student, this is a lot of money. You’re going to save this money to pay for college, books, and for fun.

As a high schooler, you have the most free time in your life you ever will outside of school. Your free time should be spent making sure you have good grades and setting yourself up for the future.

Applying to colleges:

This is the part where you evaluate how well you did in school, and pick where you think you can get in. If you did the following correctly, you should have no issues getting into a good school.

Scholarships:

Apply to as many scholarships as you can. This is going to be free money. You have nothing to lose except a few hours of your time filling out applications, but so much more to gain.

**Financial Aid**

If you come from a lower income household, you must apply for financial aid. This is also free money and it will benefit immensely. Paying for college will be so much easier with thousands of dollars in grants, scholarships, and income from your part time job.

How To Become A Mechanical Engineer Starting From College

Congratulations! If you’ve followed the above outline, you’re in good shape! If you’ve made it into a state school, good job! Getting into a state school should not be looked down upon. You will still have opportunities to succeed even going to a state school, as I know I did.

General Education Classes:

Use online tools such as Ratemyprofessor to find the easiest classes. You will work to keep your GPA as high as possible. Classes like women’s studies, humanities, history, and English should be easy. Spend summers taking community college courses for another means to boost your GPA. You will need to try different methods regarding studying and figure out what works best for you so that you can get the highest grade possible.

Engineering Classes:

This is where the meat comes in. I will come up with a more comprehensive guide on how to do well in these classes in the future. You must do well in these classes. Make sure you pick up as much as you can in your CAD and programming classes, as those skills are what you will be responsible for as an engineer.

Internships:

Start applying for internships as early as you can, most likely starting from the summer before your Sophomore year. Attend all career fairs at your school and learn about networking. Practice Interview Questions and learn how to write a solid resume for mechanical engineers. You will likely have to apply to hundreds of internships, but don’t let this discourage you. It becomes a numbers game. Make sure you get a paid internship as well.

Memberships:

As mentioned in my resume guide, join the following clubs:

• Society of Automotive Engineers
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society

The memberships above are more than enough to participate in, as you’ll have plenty of networking opportunities and employers will know what these organizations are.

All of the above is a rough comprehensive guide. You are going to have late nights, fail, and have set backs. It’s all part of the process. I have laid out how to become a mechanical engineer starting from middle, high school, then college.

Still need more guidance?

Book a career advice session with me and get on track.