Philosophy major wants to be an engineer

[Garfeeld]

I'm almost done with my major, but I don't have enough time to pick up another. I have about 5 semesters left. Do I need to be a science major in order to be admitted into a M.Eng program? If not, is there a general list of undergraduate courses that needs to be completed? Maybe someone can give me a link. Thanks.

 

[loseyourname]

Go to the websites of schools you might want to attend and they'll say what the prerequisites for admission are. As far as I know for the schools I know of, if your degree isn't in the engineering field you want a master's degree in, you can still be admitted provisionally but you'll need to completely deficiency requirements before you can start the actual graduate program.

 

[Phyisab****]

What I've seen is that for M.eng. a degree in engineering seems to be pretty important. I've been looking at M.S. EE programs which seem to be much more accepting of non engineering undergrads.

That said, coming from philosophy is a pretty big jump. I could not imagine applying for an M.S. in engineering without having taking linear algebra, ODE's, PDE's, upper level mechanics or statics/dynamics and electromagnetism. So if you are serious you probably would want to take action immediately.

 

[General_Sax]

B.A. philosophy -> M.Eng is impossible in my not so expert opinion.

Do you think I could get into a graduate philosophy program with an undergraduate engineering degree?

 

[kote]

Do you think I could get into a graduate philosophy program with an undergraduate engineering degree?

Yes. Engineering and philosophy require surprisingly similar analytical skills. Philosophy is also a very broad field that can be as math intensive as theoretical physics.

Going from philosophy to engineering can be much more difficult, depending on the courses you've taken, due to the math prerequisites that have been mentioned.

If you can pull it off, employers love having engineers who can argue convincingly and write effectively. Having a philosophy degree can be a huge asset for an engineer - at least that's been my experience as a double major in philosophy and engineering.

I agree with the recommendation of looking at prerequisites for different programs on their websites. Some programs are a lot more open and would value some academic diversity. You'll probably also find that certain types of engineering require fewer prerequisites than others.

 

[sweetpotato]

Boston University has a program for people with degrees in liberal arts who want a Masters in engineering. The link is below:

http://www.bu.edu/eng/leap/

 

[General_Sax]

If you can pull it off, employers love having engineers who can argue convincingly and write effectively. Having a philosophy degree can be a huge asset for an engineer - at least that's been my experience as a double major in philosophy and engineering.

Interesting. Do you think a philosophy minor would be worthwhile?