College Life

Private Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• Northwestern University
• University of Chicago
• Harvard University
• Stanford University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

State Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• University of California—Los Angeles (UCLA)
• University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign
• University of California—Berkeley
• University of Wisconsin—Madison
• University of Michigan—Ann Arbor

Classes in the Major

Thermodynamics. It all comes down to heat. That's a distressingly simple but accurate view of the universe. When the universe loses the last of its heat, that's all she wrote. Fortunately, unless anyone out there is immortal, we won't be there to see it. If you are immortal, just sit tight until Sean Connery arrives to teach you to swordfight. Until then, thermodynamics is a branch of physics all about how temperature relates to energy and work. You likely already know how metal changes when you heat it up and hit it with a hammer. This is like that, but with more science.

Metallurgy. If you're going to engineer metal, it's probably a good idea to know about metal. Metallurgy is another name for the major, after all. You're not getting out of it without this class. The three branches you're going to be studying are extractive, physical, and mechanical.

Extractive metallurgy focuses on the act of mining: Why we do it, what we want out of it, and what to do when you uncover a subterranean vault of unspeakable horrors. You know, the standard stuff. Physical metallurgy is all about the properties of the metals themselves: how you make alloys, how they melt, if they really enjoy long walks on the beach or just say that on their dating profiles. And mechanical metallurgy examines how metals work as building materials. How easily do they break? How can you screw up welding them? And why won't metal beach balls ever take the world by storm?

Manufacturing Processes. Manufacturing is all about the metal. Seriously, when was the last time you saw an origami factory? Granted, that would be cool. (Gone the first time it rained, though.) Until that magical, whimsical time, you're stuck learning about the importance of all different kinds of metal, both for making products and the products themselves.

Chemistry. Look at a periodic table. You're going to find a lot of metals on there. They're usually hidden under non-intuitive symbols, like Fe, Hg, and Au. Still, they're metals, and you're studying them. Learning about metals on a molecular level is the first step toward getting the full story. "How many protons do you have, iron?" you'll ask, and iron won't answer because metal can't talk. You should know that before college.

Engineering. If chemistry is the theoretical side of the discipline, engineering is the practical side. Most engineering works with metals anyway. You're just taking it one step farther. Maybe one step too far. Maybe you're an engineer, bent on vengeance, and only your...sorry, that got away from us. You're going to learn how to solve problems with machines. Machines you make. If that doesn't sound useful, we don't know what does.