I’m having a battle between wanting to go back to school and getting an engineering degree or to continue working. Financially I would be okay. Using up some saved money would hurt the most. With a family, house payment and any other kind of bill one could think of, saving up takes some time. Our house is the only debt I have. I have kids in middle school and the thought of finishing my schooling when one starts theirs, feels… My current field of work, as for pay is good and has I very good chance of being 10x better. I grew up in a family owned construction business. Before anyone begins to think of how I had everything handed to me, just stop. Far from the truth. In fact at a young age I remember working all summer to only earn a whopping $300.00. 3 months give or take a week. I believe my grandpa was teaching me what it would be like to work through the great depression and one should value the money they earned. Its hard for me to put a number of years on the experience I have in my field. Years I guess. I’ve went from the bottom to where I am today. At this point there is no more room for growth in the company. Theres basically 3 levels. Laborer, Foreman, Owner. I do realize if I stayed I could continue on with this type of work and possibly run a business some day. Its just waiting for the owner to hang it up. I’ve asked myself over and over again why I stay. Best I can come up with is, Guilt of leaving a family business, and money. Although there really is no guarantee of riches. Just good opportunities. Some would say I would be foolish to leave an opportunity. My problem is I have very little interest in the work. My true interests are in mechanics. Not mechanic work but in how things are built and how they work. My high school education consisted of mechanical drafting and architectural drafting. I attended 1 year at a CC in mechanical drafting with a scholarship and enjoyed it. I never completed the program and regret it. If anyone has ever been raised by a business owner, chances are the talk of money is a usual conversation topic. Making money, saving money and so on… Back then being tight on money was enough to make me quit and go to work. I guess I was influenced by dollar signs and possibly am today. I want to make the right choice or at least a good choice not only for me but my family. My wife is a great supporter, and I know she is stands behind me in whatever I choose.
If I went to school I would aiming for a mechanical engineering degree. From there I would hope to go into Automotive engineering. Engines of any kind are interesting to me. This is one thing I know for certain beginning from a young age. I have had plenty of interests but this is one that has never left.
Chances are great. You like it, when you have done it you have done well at it, and your family is supportive. Will it be easy? of course not. But it is very do-able.
Fwiw, I did my PhD while my kids were in late primary school/middle school. One of them is now doing a PhD herself, and I overheard her telling someone that she knew she could do it- because she had seen me do it (also she liked the really cool swishy scarlet & gold robes at my graduation…).
As for your ‘guilt at leaving a family business’: if they aren’t family enough that they are leaving you the business, you are not responsible for them. I do know the feeling- my husband reluctantly left a job at a family business after 20+ years, b/c there was no where for him to go (the younger family members were coming up). At the end of the day, every.single.job is a balance between what you give and what you get. It is your responsibility to make sure that the balance works for you- and when the balance changes, you have to change also. Showing your kids that you don’t have to pick a fight with your old life to choose a new one helps prepare them for when they will have to make hard choices.
So make a plan: look at the local universities around you for an ABET accredited engineering program? then go to your local CC and tell them you want to do a MechEng degree at the university, and how can they help you get there. If the first advisor isn’t good, find another (don’t give up!). Lay out the courses you need to take and a timeline for taking it. Doing the CC courses then transferring to the uni if likely to be the most cost effective way to do it).
Be prepared for it to take 6 or even 7 years (assuming you are doing it part time). Sure, what else were you going to use the time for anyway? Why not something you love and that gives you a whole new chapter in your life? You and your kids can commiserate about homework and tests and unreasonable teachers- as well as the successes along the way.
I love the idea of automotive engineering… plus, i think it’s cool for kids to see their parents trying new educational and career paths…i would do it!
Are there employers of automotive engineers where you live? If there are not, then consider other fields within mechanical engineering that do exist where you live.
Some fields within ME are very welcoming of “older” career changers. I used to hire “older” entry level engineers for management work at the manufacturing plant where I used to work - they were fantastic, and we loved having them.
If you’re unsure about all this, an idea is to keep your current job, and go to college part time for now. Get the basic classes out of the way, perhaps at a community college, where costs are lower. Do the math and the basic engineering classes there for a term or two, and see how it goes. If it all goes well, transfer to a university, and go full time then if you’d like.
The only concern I would have is not your age - it’s the basic math and science that every engineer needs to have on their transcript before they get to specialize. ME requires a ton of math. I have just gone back to school part-time (I’m 55!) to learn structural engineering. I don’t plan on making a career change, I just want to know about it. I had to go back to pre-calculus to brush up on skills! Calculus is next and I’m quite optimistic but I love math. The science classes will be rougher for me. How did you like math and science when you were in school? Are you okay with taking all the dull pre-requisite classes before you start learning about automotive engineering?
In school Math was my go to subject or the drafting classes. Next was wood working and welding given my experience messing around in a shop building as a young kid. I haven’t made it to college algebra and know it goes far beyond that but I was able to understand the math I had taken. When I was high school the counselor and math teacher tried to get me to take college algebra and then trig but I didn’t. Kinda wish I had since I was already working my way there.
The good news is there are really easy and cheap ways to catch up on math online - I am doing precalculus through U of AZ online - check out Edx.org. You can take the classes for free if you don’t want to get credit and you can take as long as you want to get through each section. I would start with Algebra and then see what the next steps are. If online learning doesn’t work for you, no harm done but most in-class courses will still have you do online math homework so it’s worth getting used to the tool. I hate it because every little careless mistake you make will result in a bad answer and more work but… you learn to be careful with those little careless mistakes, lol.
You could start with part time course work at the local community college (e.g. math) before you make the decision to quit your job and go to school full time.
You can try these math placement tests to see where you stand with math (and if you need to review anything). A community college will likely want you to take its own math placement test before enrolling in a math course. Once you get to calculus 1, you are ready to dive in full time to progress in an engineering program if you want.
Others have mentioned the mathematics skills, and I am going to emphasize it in this post as well. Don’t consider this post as being unsupportive of what you want to do, but rather as highlighting a very common stumbling block along the way.
I did my undergrad in electrical engineering at a state flagship. I estimate that about only about 30% of the students that started in engineering actually got a degree in electrical engineering, with perhaps another 10% in some other form of engineering (usually civil). Some dropped because they didn’t like engineering, but most dropped because they found the math courses too difficult.
Every engineering program you consider should be ABET accredited. Because ABET standardizes engineering requirements to a large extent, you will be required to required to take at least two courses of Calculus and a course in Differential Equations. These are the weed-out classes that caused most students to drop. But that is looking at them the wrong way. Calculus, along with what you have learned along the way in Geometry and Trigonometry are essential to actually doing mechanical engineering. And since you mentioned automotive engineering, differential equations are central to understanding thermodynamics.
My recommendation to you is to take the math courses online through Calculus I as others have suggested, but to make sure that 1) You enjoy them, and 2) You have mastery of them. Once you truly understand Calculus I you have a very good chance of being able to complete the mechanical engineering degree.
I have heard that students usually give in when the math starts to get hard. Looking back at a couple of my attempts of further education, it was classes I had to take that didn’t seem to have anything to do with my area of study that made me quit. My first two years will be full of these so called classes. I wouldn’t have a problem studying math or learning it. But I don’t get a say in the matter. The thing that worries me the most is knowing I’ll have to balance family, finances, and school. Two of these are constant in life no matter what I choose. I have considered finishing a tech certificate in engineering design. Similar to what I originally started with 16 years ago. If I needed to get to work for money. But only two courses would apply to the engineering degree. By the way what is pay for an engineering tech? What’s their day to day like? Also my wife has a bachelors from the same university but in a different field. She currently doesn’t work because she takes care of our youngest. In 1 1/2 to 2 years she could go to work. Which she tells me all the time she wants to work.
Engineering is often a direct admit subject b/c there are so many required courses that you have to start in Y1 or you won’t get through them all in 4 years. That means there are usually fewer Gen Ed / distribution requirements in an engineering program- and you won’t have to take 2 years of them!
This is why working with an advisor at the CC (esp one that is linked to the university that you want to get your MechEng from): they can help you figure out what GenEds you have to take- and help you find options that fulfill the requirements but aren’t ones you will hate taking You can have a say in the matter.
Some general education is required in an ABET-accredited engineering bachelor’s degree program.
For many colleges, courses like economics and sociology that can be helpful in understanding how people behave in business and other areas are allowed general education choices. So you may get some generally useful knowledge out of such courses.
You can have a say in the matter.