Scenario one: Bachelors from Florida Tech and masters from a similar calibre university
Scenario two: Bachelors from a very prestigious university, although not an Ivy League . For example GaTech, NYU, UW Madison etc.
Scenario 3: Bachelors from a very low-ranked university and Masters from a prestigious university like the ones mentioned above.
Money is not the criteria here; I just want to know your perspectives and your opinions about what employers would prefer.
Thanks
Bump
If you are planning to go to get your master anyways, I don’t think your undergraduate study means very much. I am about to graduate college and I can tell you that unless you plan to work on Wall Street, the university you go to means very little. I am graduating from Virginia Tech, which is an okay school, but the people who interviewed me, who also currently has the position I am interviewed for, graduated from Cornell and Georgetown. I was hired and will make the same money as they are. Also, your undergrad means little to graduate school as well. I got accepted into Johns Hopkins graduate program but I deferred my acceptance to next year (I plan to get my master part time so I can work and go to school at the same time).
I am not an engineer major, but 99% of my friends are. Most of them got job offers from great companies like Lockheed Martin, Toyota/BMW, etc. It is not the school that you go to, but the experience and internship that you got while you were in school are what matter. Sound cliche, but true.
Scenario #3 (in a heartbeat): momentarily putting aside networking and the like (which has some enduring importance), the advanced degree is a significant hiring and advancement catalyst at major engineering enterprises.
It’s hard to set costs aside, though. They’re a MAJOR part of any decision.
Do employers care much more about Master’s degree?
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Absolutely, because most large, highly-respected employers want ever-more-expert knowledge, which really does not occur at the Bachelor’s-level (the BA/BS is really intended to make an individual a successful entry-level professional, not an aspirant, nationally-recognized specialist).
Oh okay. I guess that’s why it’s all about graduate school(that’s how my mom puts it)
On the contrary, in Korea, we only go to 4 year school, and that’s it. Graduate schools are still a bit new things.
What about doctors in medicine fields? Since ALL med schools are good in US, does it still matter if you got MD from Harvard, OHSU, or from Alpert med school of Brown?
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@paul2752 (re #7): In the US, individuals generally do not practice immediately after receiving their MDs. Rather, they enter multi-year (three or additional years isn’t too unusual) residencies at “teaching hospitals” (many university-affiliated) to become Board certified specialists (in areas including orthoptics, pediatrics, oncology, radiation, and MANY more). Only after they are Board certified specialists do they really enter daily, unsupervised medical practice. Therefore, the key issue becomes how to be admitted to “a best,” most-prestigious, and -well recognized residency program for the particular (sub)specialty. Graduation from a top medical school absolutely is not required to be accepted in a “best” residency program, but it might be somewhat helpful.
One problem with option number 3 is that it may be the plan but not the end result - a very low tier university may not have the resources and information necessary to help you get to the grad school of your choice (compare resources dedicated to premeds at Texas State, where almost no one makes it to med school, and Duke or Macalester or Trinity TX…) It’s possible tobe an awesome student at a 4th tier university but the experience may also be lonely - I’ve met enough students to did that for the scholarship and regretted it because of their classmates’ lack of drive/interest in academics or current events or much of anything (having no common interests and common goals). Kids with 1200 CR+M+W and a 2.5 may be sweet, generous, fun… but they’re not going to provide one with the stimulus to challenge yourself if one is a 1300 CR+M kid with a 3.5, and if you don’t challenge yourself, your goal of grad school may become a distant dream.