How would I benefit from a Masters in EE?

[Ian_Brooks]

Being an undergrad in EE - I'm heavily leaning towards the MBA/MS finance route for future career options. Yet does this mean i should give up on EE henceforth after I graduate? What added career benefits do I get in the future with an Masters in EE?


P.S - If I was told again on choosing what 'i truly want to do' i'd hang up my tie for a post as a guitar teacher - or study medical science. So that's outta the question.

Any help?

 

[wildman]

If you like it, why not study medicine? Are your grades high enough? I had a doctor that got a math degree as his BS.

 

[user101]

I have the same question. I just logged today to post this, but I found it here :)

Any other responses would be great!

 

[Ian_Brooks]

Frankly, my interests in medicine grew from hanging out with a number of Med school students. it is hectic and demanding but so much more rewarding. I doubt I could put that big a financial strain on my parents so i plan on working for a bit and may be take medical science in conjucntion with bio medical engineering. It would remove the interpersonal skills of a doctore but again I can study what I want and have my EE material to supplement what I already know.

- still I'm debating whether I want do a Master's in EE or not. Undergrad was hell but fuzzy logic and neural netorks sounds interesting as hell as a post grad option.

I don't think I answered anything in this post but I now realize I need to put more thought into my future academic choices.

 

[Poop-Loops]

Get a student loan. The only financial aid my parents are supplying is letting me live at home and eat their food. That's still a lot, but there's no way they'd be able to afford paying for my school, too.

 

[TMFKAN64]

There is nothing worse than having to do something you don't particularly like for 40 years or so.

While I can't quite recommend teaching the guitar with a straight face, if you are interested in medicine and have the grades for it, get out of EE now while you have the chance! As the previous poster said, get a student loan... if you become a doctor, you should even be able to pay it off!

 

[FredGarvin]

Personally, I always recommend that people get some real world experience in engineering before getting a masters, especially an MBA. To tell you the truth, there is no one more useless than an MBA with an engineering degree that has zero engineering experience. Honestly, you have no idea what a real working company will be like.

If you entered EE because you are interested in electrical engineering (which I certainly hope is the case), then I would definitely say give it a chance. Take a couple of years and work. Make some money and get some experience. You may find that you really like a particular area that you barely touched in school. You will get exposed to a lot of things in the work environment. After that you at least have some data to make the decision if you are ready to give up the technical side to work in the business side or not. That is the main question you need to answer for yourself: Do you want to be a technical person, i.e. an engineer that does engineering work, or do you want to be an engineering manager that really has very little to do with all of the technical details and is more of a people manager?

 

[Poop-Loops]

You will get exposed to a lot of things in the work environment.

I thought they gave you hazard suits if you ever had to do that?

 

[stewartcs]

Being an undergrad in EE - I'm heavily leaning towards the MBA/MS finance route for future career options. Yet does this mean i should give up on EE henceforth after I graduate? What added career benefits do I get in the future with an Masters in EE?

Depends on what you actually want to do for a living. If you want to take a management path then an MBA would be the way to go. If you want to design or analyze the MSEE would be more beneficial.

I do agree with Fred on getting some work experience first though (most of the good MBA programs usually recommend - and sometime require - this). If you gain some work experience first, you should be able to determine which path you should take.

 

[Ian_Brooks]

Depends on what you actually want to do for a living. If you want to take a management path then an MBA would be the way to go. If you want to design or analyze the MSEE would be more beneficial.

I do agree with Fred on getting some work experience first though (most of the good MBA programs usually recommend - and sometime require - this). If you gain some work experience first, you should be able to determine which path you should take.

thanks to all those that replied -

Thats intially my plan. After my honors thesis i plan on working for a bit and at least save up some money at the very least before jumping back into school.

I'm currently on a governemnt loan so university is free at the moment until I start working - then I pay back the loan with an increased tax over a number of years (usually an added % depending on my income bracket - and its my choice on which months i decide to pay it back depending on pay and other issues) - this is known as the hecs system in australia.

However I'm not sure if this is still applicable after I'm 25, so either way if I work and return to college then I'm sure I won't fall under the criteria.

I was interested in EE, but I need real work experience to drive it home. I had horrible memories from college on extended sleepless nights, heavy workloads, unresponsive professors, prelabs that would take a week to do etc etc. Instead of it being an enjoyable learning experience (which is a term used by friends in medicine, marketting, psychology) - it was rather a hurdle after another. Most of my holidays were and still are spent preparing for the next semester/year.

So EE has become lacklustre over the years to me.
I'll see how I fare with work as I'm more driven towards social interactions, written and outgoing skills. Thats why i was looking towards an MBA or even Medicine. A post grad in biomedical with an emphasis in EE sounds very interesting - its just finding a suitable program now.

Should I worry about this after I graduate?