Re: Re: OT Question for Eng, Mechanical, Electrical, etc...
 

I'd like to have a degree and the education. Even with my networking experience there are many jobs that want someone with a 4 year degree, so it would be useful even if I stay in networking. I think that once I have a degree I probably will actually change careers to work with it. I learned a bunch of stuff the first time I went to college, but there is so much more that I can learn.

Ultimately college will turn out cheaper than hobbies/Porsches, and will pay me back in the long run. Besides, it's a lot easier to get the wife to let go of a couple of grand for school than for a couple of Recaros. Besides, I do find learning and Physics and math interesting.

But your opinion is welcome, thank you.

Steve - Rice is a near-top quality school - I assume you don't want to move....

masraum, my "original" degree is a BFA in photography. i had huge dreams of kickinA images i was gonna sell to the masses. well, i made good money, but my last gig was shooting a photos for a streetsweeper brochure. it was lame. so at 29, i found myself hanging with a bunch of younger folks with better studying skills than myself. trying to remember the trig-identities was a rude awakening. all in all, i wouldnt change a thing. best decision of my life. i signed on to a project to bore a huge tunnel thru some of the most beautiful real estate in the world (devil's slide). right on highway 1. i will have my leica with me 100% of the time, and at the end i hope to have those kickinA images. no decision to keep learning is ever bad.

cliff
my pecking order.
chem E
EE
ME
civil
industrial E...and ME bumps civil, just because of that damn kinematics class!

soh cah toa

School wont mean Sh...#@ unless its MIT or something. I would think if you stay in that area and that state school has a decent rep. then it will show well on a resume'. I am a CE and PE. I think if I had it to do over again I would do something in Business. I love business/finance and those guys can make some bucks if they are sharp at all. I wish I had gone back for an MBA before the family.

There is tons of work in Civil, I am in sales now and call on Eng. firms and get constant job offers. But civil is bottom of the barrel and they cant charge large fees for design so they cant pay the CEs that much. They wish they could, there is a terrible shortage in the Atlanta area.

Sounds like you would enjoy ME it definitely covers all the basis. Most MEs dont get a profesional license (no reason too) and they plateau out pretty hard unless they can make it into management. Just higher plateau than CEs. I think Chem Es make good money but that is hard work to learn all that chemistry.

I think the forrestry engineers were below the CEs in the heirarchy and I thought the Materials too, but I could be wrong.:-))

As long as the school you go to has a solid program you'll be fully challenged. I am an ME also. I have done very little work as an engineer though. If the school you goes to matters a little, that totally evaporates once you've passed the PE exam. I'd say go with ME. I have always thought of it as practical physics. You study mechanics (statics, dynamics, strength of materials...) and flow (thermodynamics, fluids, compressible fluids, heat transfer...). You also get to touch on electronics, materials, processes, programming, etc. The fact that you don't get hyper specialized as an undergrad is why I went with ME. You're always getting something new. I loved the flow classes and did pretty well, but controls, and numerical methods were also really fun. I had an evil, slave-driving, cruel taskmaster for controls and barely got a C. But, over the summer break I found myself thinking about everything in terms of feedback loops and stability. I realized that I had really learned. So I signed up for the advanced controls class with the same professor. It was 3x as hard and I loved it. Got an A. The guy was brilliant at teaching systems modeling. He was famous for his 48hour tests. He'd hand out an exam and it would be due 48hours later. You'd take it home and work on it until bedtime. Wake up and work on it all day, all night, and right up until it was due. He got canned a few years later which was too bad since he was the best teacher there (despite being an evil slavedriving SOB). If I were doing it again I'd still go with ME but I would emphasize materials. It seems like every practical design issue I have ever dealt with boils down to materials issues.

Definately go back to school, and do it because you want to learn! I'm almost envious (but that is because I have forgotten how much I hated homework!).

I guess I would add .....follow your heart.

Too many go in to this line of work because of the peripheral issues...( "good pay"...etc) and never truly ask themselves if they "like" what they do.

As I said, even if you don't apply the engineering principles directlly, you will still find yourself approachuing issues more clearly and with a structured approach. Works for any management position you might hold or aspire to someday, too.

A related concern , however, is the penchant for US business going overseas to get to a qualified brain trust "cheaper" , if you end up working for a large multi-national. Russian ex-pats and people from India are hightly trained, qualified and work cheaply "over there". Tends to keep you "in check" if you start feeling too big for your britches. Even as many of thes people come here to the States, it also serves to drive salaries down, in some industries.

I would probably dual-degree if I had to do all over again. Technical / Business or Technical / Finance maybe.....

Wil

he was the best teacher there [because he was] an evil slavedriving SOB.....


nobody ever says this about coaches, do they?

SoH Cah Toa..... LOL !

I thought only I did that in school to remember trig relationships....brings back memories

Wil

Wil - I learned that from my geometry teacher in 10th grade. :) Almost 20 years ago now.

As an aerospace engineer I would have to say our curriculum trumps ME. :D

We get most of the ME curriculum + advanced mathmatics, + advanced phyics & thermo + fluid dynamics + electronics & instumentation.

The wide variety of skills served me well. The computer programming skills I learned allowed me to make some good money for several years as a programmer and project manager during the dot com boom which was great since the aerospace sector was in a bad shaoe when I graduated.

When the 930 project is complete I will probably start looking around for some fun engineering work again. I love my current machinist job but its not quite the money I have become accustomed to.

Do you remember FOIL? Quadratics rule the engineering calculation world.

Oh now.now we are turning onto geeks again :)

Wil, I'm probably 1/2 your age, and I learned of our favorite chief SoH CaH ToA .. and of course FOIL too Tony :D

Thanks guys. Yes, I'm thinking ME because the curriculum sounds more interesting on the whole than for Elec (zzz) or Chem (Aaahhh). I find myself getting really excited by most of the technical threads that have popped up here regarding physics, aero, acceleration on wet grass, etc.... When I got laid off and was out of work I actually started reading my old physics book just cuz.

I know that unless I enjoy what I'm doing (like I do now) I'll be miserable. One of the reasons I quit going to college the first time. It would have been great if I had been driven, knew what I wanted to do, and actually applied myself to get good grades and finish, but the past is the past.

Thanks for all of the input. It's been educational and motivating.

Nope, not my thing, like you said, "what I want to do" is the key
Yep, for a few years I worked on the Cisco TAC (technical assistance center). We took trouble calls telling people how to fix their network. Many, many friends got laid off when Cisco started outsourcing and off-shoring their stuff to India, Mexico, Costa Rica, Manila, etc...

Randy, since the whole family is in school, and my current job is paying for everything including school for 4 (minus financial aid), we are hesitant to move. Rice or A&M seem like the best choice to me, but I am wondering once you get done how much difference it really makes.

Vash, I'd also love to be a photographer. Or even better yet, independently wealthy and able to travel the globe taking pics for no reason! ;)

I think I'd get mighty bored with Weddings and print ad stuff. I think I'll do the engineering thing and keep the photo stuff as a hobby.

They'll never outsource CEO's or CFO's......

No wonder I never rocketed-up the advancement ladder....I keep asking questions like, "....how come it's OK to get cheap engineers from India....but all our CEO's are all stateside? I'm *sure* we can find a CEO from Calcutta that'll work for only 40X an engineer's salary instead of the US-average of 200X.."

Then the meeting gets quiet......

Steve..have fun...good luck

- - Wil

Hopefully this won't get lost since this thread is getting older, but...

Is a BS enough for engineering, or do you need a Masters?

depends on the field. bs should do for most.

I would vote for BS as long as you stay within the options presented by the current company you work for. An ME helps if you shift to other companies frequently. Again, this can be very dependent on the industry. IMO....once you get the core BS degree, what matters next is on-the-job performance.

Wil