<p>So I like to plan ahead and I feel like I have two options..</p>
<p>1) Do coop every other semester for 3 semesters and graduate in 5 years, while making a good amount of money in the meantime and gaining valuable work experience.
2)Do undergrad and then grad school, either at current school or somewhere else.</p>
<p>I can't decide, mainly because most of it is just theoretical...but I figure coop=short term payoff and I could just get a good job and the employer might even pay for my grad school, but grad school would be safer route and longer-term payoff.</p>
<p>The best part of life is, IMO, that life simply doesn’t work out the way you always planned. Having an early plan is great, but I wouldn’t close on any of your possibilities. You might get a co-op of your dreams… or you might not really like the co-op programs. Maybe there are other options like ken285’s post on internships.</p>
<p>Work experience is much more important than a master’s degree for a new college hire. These days, it’s average to have 2-3 semesters of co-op work. I honestly wouldn’t interview a 4.0 student with no work experience - it’s that important to build a track record of experience and success.</p>
<p>Master’s degrees in engineering aren’t that valuable outside of R&D. Besides, as you mentioned, most employers will pay for one anyway (and while you’re at it, an MBA will be more valuable than an MS).</p>
<p>Since I’m graduating from georgia tech I expect to get at the very least one job offer, so that’s not the problem (or so I hear).</p>
<p>What I <em>want</em> to do right now is the co-op…mainly because it’s something I can do soon- and get some nice money out of it.</p>
<p>But I feel that they payoff might be better in the long run by skipping the co-op and heading straight for the masters since most get that anyways.</p>
<p>I guess the big question is whether to do grad school right out of college…</p>
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<p>school doesn’t require co-op…but it is a nationally known program with good pay so kind of hard to refuse.</p>
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<p>It would be in CS. My dad said he wouldn’t have gotten the job he has without his masters (he’s in engineering), and his company paid for him to go get his masters while in school about 10 years ago. I just figure why not just get it over with you know.</p>
<p>“Since I’m graduating from georgia tech I expect to get at the very least one job offer, so that’s not the problem (or so I hear).”</p>
<p>no one is going to spoonfeed you an offer, even at wharton or harvard. Dont feel entitled to anything.</p>
<p>"Work experience is much more important than a master’s degree for a new college hire. "
I think it really depends. An MS Financial Engineering add a lot of value to any BS in engineering degrees and is pretty much the ticket for entering the quant field without a PHD.</p>
<p>If you were truly restricted to just those two options, I’d say to take the co-op option, but since you aren’t, I’d say take the coop option, then take a grad program in the evening. Of course, I’m assuming you’ll be working close to an engineering school. </p>
<p>Your employer will pay for your grad school, anyway.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t make that assumption. I can introduce you to plenty of unemployed Georgia Tech graduates right now. The common theme? Lack of work experience.</p>
<p>At Tech, you can earn a BS in 4 years with summer co-op/internships. In fact, the co-op program is retooling to only require 3 semesters of co-op to allow students to graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>I also would advice the Co-op over MS route. IMO, for most engineers a masters is a way to advance your career, and since you don’t have one what would you get a MS?</p>
<p>I remember my first job hunt after graduating, not only was the lack of work experience difficult to overcome but my references were tentative at best. Once I got into a position it was much easier to find work and prove myself to the hiring managers at other companies.</p>
<p>You need work experience so that you even know if the job you want to end up with will require a masters, and if so what sort of masters you want to get. Do the co-op if you have the opportunity, no questions asked. Worry about the masters later.</p>
<p>Why not do a co-op or intership and then go to grad school too? Just about every engineer in my son’s class worked in the engineering field as a student, one way or the other. Then a notable proportion of them went on to graduate study. Those who didn’t go to grad school had no problems getting jobs.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I think I will just do co-op and then come back for my masters later (can get a salary at the same time, have employer pay for it, and I’ll have a better feel for what I want to do).</p>
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<p>I realize there’s a chance that I wouldn’t be able to find a job but since the average is 3 job offers for computer science undergrads I’ll just take my chances with probability and while some good grades.</p>
<p>Maybe, but there are students with 20+ offers. For every student like that, there are 6 with no offers. </p>
<p>The biggest mistake students make at Georgia Tech is coming in too smug. You were probably a top student at your high school with an impressive GPA and SAT score. The problem is that every student at Georgia Tech was a top student in their high school with an impressive GPA and SAT score, and most of them have GPAs below 3.0. </p>
<p>When you show up at Tech, don’t overestimate yourself. Take it a little bit at a time, and make to do everything you can to give yourself a leg up.</p>
<p>+1 on G.P.'s post. I received a full fellowship to get my Master’s at UT Austin. My overall GPA was 3.8. And I was a female, so much in demand (I thought!). But the economy sucked when I finished. My new husband was also an engineer, so we needed jobs in the same area. It took over 270 resumes and a move of 2,500 miles to get reasonable jobs! And our starting salaries were less than we expected. So don’t take anything for granted, and be thankful for what you get!</p>
<p>I, too, overestimated myself when I got to UT. My high school unweighted GPA was almost 99 and I was valedictorian. My first college exam score, in honors physics, was a 45! Talk about a wake-up call!</p>
<p>Do the co-op. It’s the kind of experience that employers love…and a great opportunity to make money that will drastically change life as a student. I’m doing 8 straight months of co-op right now…I’ll return to school having earned a ridiculous amount of money for a 21 year old. Not to mention a great starting salary if I stay with the company.</p>
<p>“I, too, overestimated myself when I got to UT. My high school unweighted GPA was almost 99 and I was valedictorian. My first college exam score, in honors physics, was a 45! Talk about a wake-up call!”</p>
<p>lol. I on the other hand have a much higher gpa than I did in high school, and found college easier. I worked maybe even less than I did in high school.</p>
<p>We’re looking at 6 years in BME at Marquette. Five years for BS with coop, but can go straight into masters and do it in one more year.</p>
<p>I strongly advise getting your masters right away. It is so hard to go back to school after you’re out in the working world, earning money, and raising a family.</p>
<p>H and I have always regretted not getting a masters, but we were so burned out by the time we graduated, we wanted to get out in the working world and make money.
Now working for “kids” over ten years younger than us that went to grad school right after college, and making twice what we had to work 20 years to get to.</p>
<p>Montegut, that must be frustrating. I have a similar situation but it is more related to the job type. May I ask if the kids with grad degrees had those credentials in business or engineering?</p>
<p>I believe their grad degrees are MBA for these younger kids. Back in the early 80s, when husband worked for an oil related business, his boss did have an MS in engineering, and he survived the oil crisis. Back then, the early 80s, very rare to find someone with a masters down here in the south. Nowadays, kids are willing to spend the extra time, money, usually on the company’s ticket, to get that advanced degree. Maybe because they watched their parents go through what we’re going through now.</p>