Math Degree to Electrical Engineering: 4 Years Ahead

[kramer733]

Let's say in 4 years i have a math degree and i decide that i want to do electrical engineering with my math degree. How difficult is the transitioning from a math or statistics degree?

 

[lurky]

Into the field? Depends on where you live. Where I live, it's illegal because you need a license and that requires an engineering degree.

 

[kramer733]

I think it's illegal everywhere to do that but I'm talking about getting a bachelor's degree or masters degree in engineering.

 

[physiker_192]

If you have a bare bachelor degree in Math, and you would like to pursue a master in EE, I would say this is rather difficult and probably unfeasible.
In the EE bachelor, so many topics of which most are applied (including labs) are covered.

Admission wise, with a bare math (i.e. not covering any EE courses) degree it would be difficult to get admitted since one would expect that there is a substantial numbers of engineers whom are applying where they will be given priority.

If you want to make up for the different in courses between Math and EE, basically you would have to make up for most technical courses except probably Engineering Mathematics and computer programming. You can see for yourself by checking any EE bachelor degree curricula.

If what you meant, was going for a bachelor of EE after a bachelor in Math, it should be smooth since you would be comfortable with all the mathematics that are typically new to other undergrad students.

 

[kramer733]

Hm I've heard that doing 2 bachelor's degree was a waste. But if i must do this and I'm still interested in engineering later on, then i guess that's the route i'll take. I'll also be minoring in computer science so surely that must knock off more courses that i got to take.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

I don't see why there should a problem for you to enroll in an Msc in EE after graduating with a Bsc in math. Obviously you we'll need to take some courses from EE UG to compensate for lack of knoweldge in EE, but other than that I don't see why there should be a problem.

Doing another Bsc does seem to me to be a waste of time though. (saying someone who is one exam before finishing his Bsc).

 

[Shackleford]

I'm a math major, physics minor. I've looked into graduate engineering. Depending on the classes you took, you'll have to take "leveling" or "competency" courses to get you up to speed in the respective engineering discipline. This could be anywhere from three to seven classes.

 

[AstroZombie]

I have a Bachelor's in math and have decided to return for engineering.

I am going to get a second B.S. first then move on to a master's if everything works out. I feel like there is too much to be covered in an undergraduate engineering program and by the amount of "competency" courses you will probably have to take, just taking a few more to get the B.S. couldn't hurt.

This seem wasteful to some but in a competitive job environment I believe having a strong background in the fundamentals will be important, as well as going for the graduate degree.

AZ

 

[Shaun_W]

I don't know how things work in America but here it's perfectly feasible for a maths graduate to work in engineering as an engineer provided that they can get through the door, which is undoubtedly much harder if their degree says MMath rather than MEng. It's a much rarer occurrence for a mathematician to become an engineer than a physicist, I have empirically observed.

 

[sweetpotato]

It depends what area of EE you want to concentrate in. Signal processing is an area of EE that overlaps pretty heavily with math. If you wanted to go from math to, say, microelectronics, there would be little overlap.