<p>If you had enough money to retire, would you still go back to school to earn an EE?</p>
<p>WHY??? If I were rich I wouldn't even go to college in the first place lol</p>
<p>so it seems most people go for eng. or other major for just money.
money only matters ..eh</p>
<p>I go back to school to study engineering ~70% for fun, ~30% for money.</p>
<p>How about this then, say you are already working at a job where you make ~100K a year. Would you save enough to support yourself to go back to school to become an engineer?</p>
<p>It's a simple question, professor. Would you eat the moon if it were made of barbecued spare ribs?</p>
<p>Neeeeed moooore conteeeext... Do you enjoy your job? Does your job have anything to do with electrical engineering? Are you doing this just for intellectual advancement? What's your motivation? Do you have financial obligations that you can step away from? Where do you live? Do you have a mortgage and quadruplets at MIT with no financial aid, or are you single and live in your parents' basement and don't have a ton of bills that you have to tend to? How old are you? Would you be completely starting over? Has it been your lifelong dream to pursue electrical engineering? Why did you decide not to pursue it when you were first starting out? If you're married, how does your spouse feel about this?</p>
<p>It's a question with a ton of answers... And the answer I'd give would depend on my having a whole lot more information to base the decision on.</p>
<p>I know I would. Then I'd wash it down with a nice cool bud ;)</p>
<p>OK, here's my situation: in high school I was bright but unmotivated and had no direction or goals. I wasted a couple years after HS then joined the Air Force. During the 5 years I was in the military I traveled and completed a Computer and Info B.S. through the UMUC (mostly correspondence courses because of all the traveling I had to do.) </p>
<p>I just separated from the service a couple of months ago. Because of my job experience and security clearance, I am currently working overseas as a contractor for the US military making over 100K per year. Taking the high paying job out here seemed like the obvious choice, I'm 25 with no kids or wife, and all our accomdations are taken care of, so the income is all pocketed. I'm currently workig as a LAN/WAN/crypto administrator. </p>
<p>The reason I'm asking about an EE is that it seems like something I should have gotten into a long time ago. It hasn't really been a lifelong dream, I've only been contemplating it for a few months. The intellectual challenges it presents seems appealing to me. I suppose I would be starting over again as a freshman at a uni back in the states, but that is kind of also what I feel like I missed out on, that college experience.</p>
<p>I thinking about working overseas until I save a million dollars (7-10 years). Then I'll go back to the states and finance my way through a BSEE and MSEE. After that, who knows, mabey keep working, mabey retire. Probably goto work somewhere where I can have satisfying work, just to keep me occupied. </p>
<p>Does I sound nuts?</p>
<p>"Does I sound nuts?"</p>
<p>yes you does. It seems like you have a good thing going with your current job why go back and start over from scratch... It seems like you just want to go to college because you missed the "college experience" the first time around. That doesn't seem like a very good reason to go back to school...</p>
<p>silentbob: you seem to have two main reasons to go back to school to earn an EE degree: 1. you want to have college experience; 2. you want to challenge yourself that's why you pick engineering.
It sounds enough(not abundant) reasons to me. I have the same two reasons plus three more: 1. I've always been very interested in engineering; 2. I'm a married woman who wants to be mentally and financially independent from my husband; 3. I'm relatively good at science so I'm very confident that not only I want to do it but also I can do it.
why I didn't do it at the first place was a long, long story. I prefer not to describe it.</p>
<p>Glad you caught the reference. ;)</p>
<p>Having missed the college experience sounds like a <em>great</em> reason to go back to college, in my opinion. It's a fantastic experience.</p>
<p>I'd wait for a few more months before I decided anything. If this has been something that you've only considered for a few months, it may turn out to be just a fleeting thing... If the desire to go back sticks around for longer than that, then I'd say that if you've got the means and the motivation, and if your financial and social situations don't change, then go for it!</p>
<p>"Having missed the college experience sounds like a <em>great</em> reason to go back to college, in my opinion. It's a fantastic experience."</p>
<p>...idk but this sounds like a horrible reason to me. keep in mind that i haven't gone to college yet so idk about this whole "experience" but if i had a job making 100K/year it seems highly unpractical to just leave this high paying job and go back to school just because i missed out on the "college experience"...</p>
<p>i'm not sure what the OP finds attractive about the college experience... is it the learning? likely a very small part of his reason and he could likely go back to school part time if he just wants to learn or just take a few classes at a community college, or even buy a few basic texts and guide himself through those with the help of a tutor even... the partying? he has enough money to throw parties if he wants them... the friendships? idk he probably made enough friends through his time in the Air Force... </p>
<p>i have no idea what is so appealing to the OP about the college experience when he already has that type of a job/money... if i were him i'd be trying to find the right girl to marry and start a family with at that point...</p>
<p>My M.S. in Engineering did not gain me THAT much more money. I pretty much went back to school (70% for love, 30% for extra money). </p>
<p>To be honest, my graduate engineering degree was more of a void because I did NOT get into the engineering program as a junior while an undergrad (majored in math) so I wanted that damn engineering degree...lol.</p>
<p>There's a lot more to college than learning, partying, and friendships. To me, college was a time to try anything and experience everything.</p>
<p>When I was in high school, I was like, "College, grad school, career, marry, kids..." Lather, rinse, repeat. I knew 100% how my life was gonna go.</p>
<p>One thing I knew: way too many people have the mentality, "Get money." Money will make them happy. Everything will be great when they have money.</p>
<p>So. Not. True.</p>
<p>Life is about experiences. If you want the experience of college, if you don't have obligatory bills to pay and if you have more than enough money to support yourself to do whatever you want, then for the love of pete, go to college!</p>
<p>Plus...
Heck, where better to find a nice gal to settle down with, than college?</p>
<p>I'm mostly interested in the material and learning experience. Since I won't be able to go back for at least the next 5 years, I've looked into EE currciculum and various syllabuses and have thought about buying the texts and self-learning. MIT Open Courseware offeres lots of support for this. Those of you who have gone through EE programs, do you think I would be able to learn as much from just reading the texts you would in a traditional EE program?</p>