<p>I am an Electrical Engineering undergrad at one of the top 5 schools in my major according to U.S. News and world report. </p>
<p>I am pre-accepted into the 5 year BS/MS program at my own school, but I feel I would have a good chance to get into most 2 year ECE grad programs. Unfortuantely I am having trouble deciding if I should apply to them. Below is my understanding of the situation:</p>
<ul>
<li>= good<br></li>
<li>= bad<br>
? = unsure or depends on each person's interests</li>
</ul>
<p>4+1 BS/MS
+MS takes only one year
?MS is taught, rather than research based
-I don't expand my network and meet a new group of people because I am staying at my undergrad school (How important is this??? Everyone tells me this is a BIG factor in favor of going to a different school for an MS, but honestly I have only taken classes with 2/6 professors in my specialty at my current school!)</p>
<p>+2 MS
-MS takes two years
?MS is research based, and has slightly more taught courses as well (3 classes on average)
+Expand my professional network
?Start over socially</p>
<p>Some Questions:
1) What do you all think in general?
2) Do you have any relevant personal experience?
3) Is there anything I am forgetting to consider?
4) Do people look down on a BS/MS degree? Am I shooting myself in the foot if I later decide to go for a PhD?</p>
<p>Personally, I am leaning towards BS/MS because I dont see myself doing a PhD right now and I don't have a topic that I desperately want to research at the moment. Still I cant help but feel that I am wasting my potential.... The BS/MS people at my school almost flat our told me to apply to a prestigious ECE program elsewhere rather than do the BS/MS. (I have a 3.96 GPA, average 20 hours a semester, strong extracurriculars, 2 minors, award winning undergraduate research, R&D job experience, etc...)</p>
<p>You should apply to schools like MIT/Stanford. They can open a lot of doors for you, even ones you don’t even know exist. You definitely learn a lot more (from what I have seen and personally been through) when you do a research based masters degree. Even if you don’t want to do a PhD, graduating from one of those top programs will require you to do A LOT of work and really work for that degree, but ultimately that will show when you’re successful on the job. Not to mention, it will set up a really strong alumni network if you ever want to do a PhD or switch jobs. Just my $0.02. </p>
<p>The answer to this depends a lot on your goals.</p>
<p>If the school is top 5 in your major then chances are it also is well-ranked for graduate programs (as a matter of fact, that must be what you are talking about because as far as I know USNWR doesn’t rank undergraduate schools for major - they rank graduate programs). That means that your MS from there will mean something both to employers and to PhD programs in the future if you are interested in that. </p>
<p>Remember that what the BS/MS program is essentially doing is counting some of the graduate-level classes you are taking towards your BS. You’ll theoretically have the same knowledge as a person in a 2-year taught master’s because you are taking similar classes; you’re just getting those classes counted towards your BS.</p>
<p>Whether the MS is research-based or not will primarily matter for admission to PhD programs. You say that you don’t see yourself doing one and you don’t have a topic that you want to research, so (and I say this as someone in a PhD program) I see no reason to focus overly much on preparing yourself for research. Personally, I see no reason to take the extra year and spend the extra money going to a different school if you already go to one of the top 5 schools in your field and are into this program.</p>
<p>So to answer your questions more concisely:</p>
<p>1) I think you should go to the BS/MS program.
2) Not with combined programs, no.
3) Cost. If the programs are comparably priced, consider that you are essentially saving a year of tuition, not to mention living expenses. Some schools consider you an undergrad for the entire 5 years of the BS/MS program, which means you would get undergraduate financial aid (much better than graduate level financial aid). This may not be as much of a factor in ECE since a lot of MS programs are funded, but if you don’t plan on research, maybe it does.
4) No. A master’s is a master’s. It doesn’t matter whether you earned it right after your BS or years later. It’d be just the same as you going to get an MS right after a BS.</p>
<p>I’m not in engineering so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I also think that research-based master’s (as opposed to taught master’s) aren’t necessarily the key unless you definitely want a PhD, or want to keep the possibility open. Yes, employers will want to know that you can do research, but you can demonstrate that in other ways. And also, some employers won’t care whether you can do research - just whether you can interpret and use it. Taught programs teach you that.</p>