Confused where to go: Cornell (MEng) Northwestern (MS)

Graduate School
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Hi, I’m an international student planning on getting my Master’s in Embedded Systems (Electrical and Computer Engineering) When I was applying I didn’t think I’d get into Cornell so I didn’t put much thought into MEng vs MS (Cornell ECE doesn’t offer an MS) but now that I’ve been accepted I’m seriously considering going but I have some major concerns. Before voicing my concerns, a little bit about me: I did my undergrad from a private institute in India. I did a 6 month internship in my undergrad I don’t know if that counts as experience. I took a year break after that. No internships or projects to show for the break year, just did a bit of programming at home (again, nothing to show for it)

Concerns 1. I was introduced to Embedded System only pre final year of undergrad so I feel like one year of graduate study won’t be enough to get me a job. (I’ve been working on improving my coding but I’m still not great at it and Embedded is a lot of coding.) 2. It’s a one year course so there isn’t even scope for internship (I’ll have to pay the tuition again if I want to extend my stay to 1.5 years) 3. As of now I don’t want to get a PhD but if I do someday then is it impossible (or super hard) 4. Will my year break look bad on my CV? Some people (my age) scared me about how employers see that as a big minus and paired with just one year of grad school. Am I screwed? 5. I also got into UMass Amherst, ASU and Northeastern and hopefully will get into NCSU. Should I consider going to any of these over Cornell and Northwestern? (All MS) 6. Does going to an Ivy League school really live up to Rory’s college experience? :stuck_out_tongue: I went to a ■■■■■■ college here, and so campus and college life are huge factors for me.

Cost and weather aren’t really a problem. Everything’s expensive :stuck_out_tongue: I’m only worried about whether or not I’ll get a job after.

TL;DR MEng at Cornell or MS at Northwestern. Don’t want to get a PhD any time soon.

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I received an M Eng degree there, well before you were born. And I don’t even know what “embedded systems” is. so take this for what it is worth:

It was definitely not a research degree. One took courses and a design project.
The quality of the endeavor is influenced by the quality of the design project, so it would be good if you had some ideas about that, coming in. Otherwise the profs have their own ideas/ projects and you will have to take one. Which is not necessarily bad. Some other guys in the program were working and sponsored by their companies, and they did projects their companies gave them.

I don’t know of anybody who didn’t get a job afterwards.
I partnered with a guy from India, he went back there afterwards to work, I believe. Which was his plan all along.

I would imagine that for a future PhD, showing that you completed a master’s thesis before would be very helpful. You won’t have that with the M.Eng. You might have a good design project to talk about though.

The other thing I should point out is, as a grad student how you experience campus life is very different than as an undergraduate there. You will see a lot of the undergrads trotting around doing stuff, but you won’t be doing those things with them. Mostly. You are not one of them. You can get some housing arrangements where you can mix with some undergrads. But still it is not the same. And graduate students are not as social, overall. I’m not saying you’ll be bored, you won’t be. But don’t expect to live the full “Rory”, either. You’re too late for that, unfortunately.