High School Tips to Prepare for Material Engineering Major

Material Engineering is a field broadly based on chemistry, physics, and the engineering sciences. The field is concerned with the design, manufacture, and use of all classes of materials, and with energy, environmental, health, economic, and manufacturing issues relating to materials. Materials engineering is a field critical to our future economic and environmental well-being.

Following are the general preparation ways and means for pursuing Materials engineering:

High School Courses

Students interested in studying materials engineering should take high school courses in mathematics, such as algebra, trigonometry, and calculus; and in science, such as biology, chemistry, and physics. It is highly recommended that while in high school you take the maximum amount of college preparatory mathematics, laboratory sciences, and English offered. The courses that are highly dependent upon knowledge and reasoning should take precedence over courses in which the emphasis is on manual skill. Students should try to take all the physical sciences and mathematics courses offered at their school. In addition, students should take advantage of all available opportunities to develop their communication skills. Study of a language other than English is desirable.

Computers are also essential to materials engineers. Materials engineering make use of computers to simulate and test operations, generate part specifications, monitor quality, control efficiency and produce and analyze designs.

Vital Skills to be worked on during high school for future

With solid technical foundation, vital skills required are:

• Communication Skills: Materials engineers must be able to communicate the results of their work - to their peers, supervisors, upper management, subordinates, and the outside world. So, students must develop their communication skills right from high school.
  
  
• Project Management and Teamwork: Must possess ability to work with others in the team. Team work spirit must be there. Also, students must possess the ability to persuade others to approach things differently and must be able to handle different situations and projects in a fluent manner.
  
  
• Time Management Skills: Time management is chiefly about conditioning your environment, rather than allowing your environment to condition you. If you study and practice time management you take your life in your own hands. It's the cornerstone to begin living a successful life. Therefore, students should learn this skill to make their dream come true.
  
  
• Computing Skills: The students must be computer literates. They must be aware of computer-aided design technology for designing and research work.  High school Materials engineering aspirants can take classes like introduction to computer science or advanced placement computer science to develop their computer literacy and design skills.
  

Extracurriculars

Extracurricular activities can showcase your unique talents and help make you stand out from the rest. You can add an Extracurriculars, listing all of your after school activities. Include sections for school activities, awards and honors- both academic and extracurricular, community service, and work experience (if any). College admissions are likely to be impressed if you demonstrate that you have a deep involvement in sports since you were a kid, or that you volunteered at the local hospital or community every weekend for a year, just to name a few. Having at least one club or activity related to your grad school major will make your application much more appealing.

High school Transcripts

Your high school transcript, which demonstrates your high school grades, classes and GPA, will most likely be the first piece of information a college admissions officer will go over. This complete record of your coursework, grades and credits provides concrete evidence of whether you're prepared to go to a particular college or not. When planning for college, you must keep this in mind as you take classes, study and later get grades -- the work you put into it will directly impact your ability to get into colleges. So, focus on high school courses and make your base strong.

Standardized Testing

The applicants must take standardized test to enter undergrad and graduate courses in the USA. Standardized tests act as a yardstick for educators to evaluate students and their performance. So, its preparation must be started from the junior year of your high school. Standardized test scores of ACT or SAT are vital for assessing an applicant to Materials Engineering. IELTS/TOEFL is required for international students and all other aspirants whose native language is not English.

Materials engineering is a buoyant sector for opportunities. If you follow these prerequisites, then you surely will find yourself a money-spinning job.