Schools Engineering Technology to Engineering graduate school?

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Switching from an engineering technology degree to a graduate program in engineering poses significant challenges, primarily due to the differences in curriculum focus. Engineering technology programs typically emphasize hands-on skills and practical applications, often resulting in less rigorous mathematical training compared to traditional engineering degrees. This lack of theoretical grounding, particularly in advanced mathematics like differential equations, can severely impact a student's preparedness for graduate-level engineering studies. Admissions committees may view applicants from technology backgrounds as less qualified, potentially disqualifying them without additional math coursework or extenuating circumstances. Therefore, prospective students should carefully consider these factors before making a decision.
CaptainAtom1996
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Hello all, a friend of mine is considering switching to an engineering technology degree but still plans to attend graduate school for engineering. This just got me thinking, what would the draw backs be? How easy or hard would it be for someone in a engineering technology program to go to graduate school for engineering? Since the technology programs tend to be more focused on "hands on, rather than theoretical", how would this lack of theoretical backing effect your preparedness for graduate school? Are the undergraduate degrees usually that different in material covered from one another, other than one perhaps being more "cut and dry" than the other? For example: met vs me or eet vs ee, and etc etc. I am not very familiar with the technology programs, so I apologize if my notions are incorrect. Thanks!
 
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Well for one, the technology programs generally have a lot less math, and their versions of core courses therefore feature far less math. This is going to negatively impact preparedness for engineering graduate programs, and pretty substantially, at that. I would imagine that at most programs it would be disqualifying as well without some kind of extenuating circumstances and/or additional math background.
 
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boneh3ad said:
Well for one, the technology programs generally have a lot less math, and their versions of core courses therefore feature far less math. This is going to negatively impact preparedness for engineering graduate programs, and pretty substantially, at that. I would imagine that at most programs it would be disqualifying as well without some kind of extenuating circumstances and/or additional math background.
So in most cases they wouldn't even be able to get into the program to begin with? Something my friend definitely needs to look into then.
 
I mean, I don't make admissions decisions, but if I am looking to hire a graduate student as a professor, someone who never had to take differential equations and whose core classes didn't rely on differential equations is not going to be very high on my list.
 
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