Materials Engineering

What you'll do in college

Materials Engineering is about why stuff behaves the way it does—why steel bends, glass shatters, batteries die, and silicon conducts. The major sits between physics, chemistry, and engineering. You'll study crystal structures, thermodynamics, electronic properties, and how materials are processed.

Labs are a highlight: you'll use electron microscopes, melt and reshape metals, fabricate semiconductors, and break things on purpose to see how they fail. Senior projects often involve designing or improving a material for a specific application.

What you'll do after college

Grads work in semiconductors (think Intel, TSMC, Applied Materials), aerospace, biomedical implants, batteries, solar panels, and advanced manufacturing. The job often mixes lab experiments with computer simulations of atoms and microstructures.

Many roles favor a master's or PhD because the work is so research-driven. Demand is rising fast as countries invest in chip manufacturing and clean-energy materials.

Famous graduates

• Yet-Ming Chiang — MIT professor and founder of A123 Systems; B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT
• John A. Swanson — Founder of ANSYS; B.S. in Mechanical and Metallurgical Engineering from Cornell University

Selectivity vs. earnings