<p>I will be attending UCSC this fall and majoring in EE. After a BS, I would like to go on with a MS in ME. Is this a good idea or should I just stick with one branch all the way? Also, I've been doing some research on engineering salaries and just about every site gives the same average salaries. I want to hear from an actual engineer that can tell me how much they really started off with. Any ideas?</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.careers.calpoly.edu/search_2007.php[/url]”>https://www.careers.calpoly.edu/search_2007.php</a></p>
<p>This site shows the students’ majors, the companies that hired them, and what they were paid. Note how although the typical engineer seems to start at around $55-65k, a handful start at $40k and some at $85k. It really comes down to your grades, internship, interviewing skills, and probably a bit of luck.</p>
<p>As for your planned ug/grad…I don’t know for sure. I’d assume a mech ungrad with a focus on mechatronics, and then grad as an EE, or vice-versa, could possibly be doable, but I’m in no position to say for sure.</p>
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<p>Why don’t you just go ME all the way to begin with? I mean, if you end up doing an MS in ME then your EE degree will become less important. I think you’ll only be hurting yourself by lacking the undergrad background required for some grad level classes. </p>
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<p>Most engineering fields have about the same average starting salary. If you want to make a lot of money, then engineering is not for you. Maybe you should consider a more recognized engineering school like San Jose State because of their close location to Silicon Valley companies. </p>
<p>[Georgia</a> Tech Salary Survey](<a href=“Georgia Tech | External Redirect Landing Page”>http://www.adors.gatech.edu/assessment/adors/commencement/salary_report.cfm)</p>
<p>Vashydoom
Thanks for the help. The salary and employer info was really helpful.</p>
<p>Grassbandit
It’s true that the EE degree will be less valued over the ME degree, but I was just wondering if it would be benifitial to have a backround in EE with a ME masters. I just thought it might be better to have both under your belt. Then again, the EE degree might go to waste as you said if I get employed as a ME. I’m not sure exactly what is best wich is why I’m asking for opinions. I’ll see what other people think about it.</p>
<p>Having two degrees in different fields will only help you if you work in a job that requires extensive knowledge of both fields. Otherwise it will probably only end up making your life harder because you will need to make up a few ME undergraduate courses before you can start graduate courses which might add another 1-2 semesters onto your studying time.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input guys. I just graduated from high school and don’t know much about college or majors and things like that so sorry if it seems like I lack a little knowledge.</p>
<p>I would do an undergrad major in whichever field you’re most interested in. If your final goal is ME, my gut reaction is to major in ME. You say that you think an EE background might be helpful for your future goals. Why not minor in EE or just take EE courses that you think would be helpful? That’s what I did, and I found that it worked very well. It might be a good idea to let us know what specific specialty you hope to enter (robotics, MEMS, controls, etc.) so that we could have a better idea of why you’ve planned your BS/MS in such a manner.</p>
<p>Choosing an engineering major is hard. Most people don’t have an extremely good idea of what they’d be doing with their degree since most of the specialized coursework starts late Sophomore or early Junior year. My advice is to talk to as many people as possible about what you want to do.</p>
<p>That sounds like a good and reasonable idea. Thanks for the advice. I didn’t know you could do that; taking only certain courses in another field. And I certainly didn’t think of just a minor. Yeah, its true about what you said. I don’t exactly know what I want to do with an engineering degree whether it be ME or EE. </p>
<p>To tell you the truth, I started out wanting to be a Mathematics major and go for a statistician career since my strongest subject is math. It was just within the last 2 months or so that I changed because of my physics class. The end of the year projects in there made me realize that I love to create things that work whether its electrical or mechanical. As a kid, the most memorable toys I played with were mostly put together by me. Anyways, because of the recent change, I don’t know much about engineering yet.</p>
<p>Haha. You sound like an engineer for sure!</p>
<p>And I’m in the exact same boat. I’ve always loved math and science and considered engineering as my top choice, but I spent tons of time in high school with sports and Boy Scouts and have little practical experience in design and construction. I’m a sophomore EE, but I’ve been toeing the line. It’s not that I like ME better, but I’m really not sure what I want to do yet, and ME is definitely a broader field. I’ve heard both stories. Some people tell me to get the EE since it’s ‘harder’ and more abstract and if you can do that then do whatever you want in grad school. Some people tell me it would be much more natural, on the other hand, to take ME undergrad and EE MS. (I’m a math minor btw)</p>
<p>I’ve talked to probably six different professors in different departments, including the Engineering Dean which was pretty sweet. Basically they’ve told me that it helps to have some idea what field you want to end up in. Best way to do this since the cooler classes are late sophomore and junior year is to get in the lab, help seniors out with projects, run projects of your own, do internships, or even just mess around with stuff at home. This summer, I’m just building random electrical devices just for the fun of it. I always thought that I was interested in solar power. I talked with our physics chair about his undergrad experiments, and I might have a spot on his research team next fall. The experiment didn’t sound super exciting, though, so i’m probably going to do it, but i’m leaning more towards communications now. (not the major :))</p>
<p>Right now, I’m planning on taking a few extra physics courses and maybe a materials class in ME. Our dean said the things that EEs miss out on most are strength of materials and related classes, as well as thermodynamics (i have to take one thermo class as a EE). Talk with professors. They’ll help you out. I’ve even met with profs. I didn’t know, but my friends said were helpful.</p>
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<p>Controls may be a path for you, if you are interested. That’s the only path I have seen people take from EE to ME.</p>