EE Job with BS in Physics: Towson Student Self-Taught in Electronics

[vgplayer]

I am currently a dual degree major in Physics and Electrical Engineering at Towson University. Well I really should say Physics because my dual degree adviser has been telling me the wrong information about how the program works but that is another story. This is my 5th year and will be graduating Spring 10 with my BS in Physics. My plan was to transfer University of Maryland and complete my EE degree but that is going to be a 2 or possibly more years of school according to advisers there. 7 years of school and I won't even have a MS.

I currently have a job awaiting my EE degree that will be fairly good paying. I spoke with them and they can't convert me to full time unless I have an EE degree. It doesn't make much sense because I mostly do software development there and I have self taught myself for that. I have also been learning about developing PIC microcontrollers in C on my own. I stil have a lot to learn but I can eventually get the job done. I love working with electronics but didn't discover that until the end of my sophomore year. The electronics expert at Towson thinks I could just use my Physics degree to get a EE job and teach myself as I go along.

I am curious if anyone has done anything like this? I support myself through school so avoiding more years of school would be great.

 

[Locrian]

I wish I could help, but you're in a sticky situation.

The EE degree may have additional value in that to become a PE requires (in most states) an engineering degree, and even those that allow other degrees often make it difficult to get. You need to take that very serious, as being a part of a professional organization gives engineers a huge advantage over people with a BS in physics.

Is it really going to take two more years? Supporting yourself through that is really painful.

 

[vgplayer]

Thanks for that info. No one has ever mentioned that before to me.

Well I am still working out the credit transfers but it is looking to be around 50 or so credits. Problem is I may have to complete some prerequisites which could add a semester. I don't know how Maryland is about requiring prerequisites to be completed before I take a higher level course but at Towson I took things in a random order.