Hi Guys,

this might be a little bit off-topic, but I hope to get a clearer picture with it because I am in the process of sending out applications to universities.

I've noticed that 99% of the design judges in the FS competition have a mechanical engineering bachelor degree and not an automotive engineering degree.

All of them have been working in the automotive industry all of their life.

Why is that almost nobody has an AE (automotive engineering) degree?

Of course physics are the the same everywhere, at least on this planet, but why havn't these people done a AE degree, when they already knew they will go into the autoindustry?
Is a ME degree more accepted/cherrished as opposed to an AE degree in the autoindustry?

I'd like to know this from some people who have been working in the car industry and have some experiences regarding this.

The reason I ask is, while I am finishing my industrial engineering degree, I feel I miss a lot of the important subjects/courses the ME guys had. We didn't learn such fundamentals like kinematics in length which makes the BA thesis I am doing now a little bit harder as for the people who already worked e.g. with a software like SAM.
In design we stopped at a stamping tool assigment, which nevertheless was quiet large.

I am thinking about following possibilities that would fit me right, right now:
A little bit about my opinion towards IE vs. ME/AE: I want to do engineering work in the future and not be an intersection guy bringing both of two worlds together as the IE degree suggests. I'd rather be one thing full, than two things half.
My aim is to work in an engineering position after university, developing and designing parts:

So here are the choices:

1) Apply for an automotive master and add the courses to the curricullum (I eventually have to do that anyways to be accepted).

2) Apply for a ME master and specify in automotive related courses

3) After graduating this summersemester with an industrial engineering degree, apply for a ME degree, but step in into a higher semester, as I already have more than have of a ME degree.

4) Do the same as in 3 but with automotive engineering.

Lets hear it from experienced people as well as people who are also in the midsts of their ME, AE or IE degree.