<p>I heard that an engineering bachelors is not enough to support a good income these days and that obtaining a MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree would help a lot.
My question is, how many years would a typical public American university require as to finish Engineering with a bachelors degree AND a MBA degree?</p>
<p>I doubt about it, as a student.
4 years of B.S. and maybe 1-2 years M.S.</p>
<p>“I heard that an engineering bachelors is not enough to support a good income these days”</p>
<p>You heard wrong. Simple as that. Engineering is known for being one of those majors that are considered well respected for just being a 4 year diploma and a great starting salary out of college.</p>
<p>Getting an MBA right after your bachelors I believe will not benefit you, and will probably hurt you. It is advised you get some work experience first before going for your MBA.</p>
<p>Well technically you need 6 years (4 years Undergrad and 2 Years MBA) but if you want an MBA worth a damn you need 4 years undergrad, 2-4+ years work experience (2 is pretty much the minimum for top MBA schools), and then 2 years for an MBA.</p>
<p>And you don’t get an MBA just for the hell of it to get more money. If you want to work management or to re-brand yourself, and pursue other fields like banking, and alike.</p>
<p>The average STARTING engineering salary is higher than the median HOUSEHOLD income in the United States.</p>
<p>For the 1,000,005th time…</p>
<p>Unless, you are getting a job as a CIO (Chief Information Officer) or CTO (Chief Technology Officer) a MBA is a waste of time.</p>
<p>If you are gonna do grad school, do a M.S. or MEng.</p>
<p>I know that my area of top-secret/INTEL pays more because of the security clearances, but still Lead JAVA Developers are getting hired for $175,000/year…AS A COMPANY EMPLOYEE!!</p>
<p>I won’t even mention if someone with the same skills go indy!</p>
<p>Globaltraveler,</p>
<p>You must be pretty cool with your top-secret code red job there lol. But what if the Engineer doesn’t wish to do technical engineering work anymore and would like a career change. I think an MBA is a good start.</p>
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<p>That is fine and would be a good start, but not for the reasons that were stated in the first post. Having an MBA does not equal more money than engineering UNLESS you are at UPPER management. In just about any company, there is only one CIO or CTO.</p>
<p>I do know that the average starting salary for MBA graduates from UMich is much higher than the average engineering salary (last I checked it was like ~120Kish), and from what I understand, UMich is considered a solid but not top school for MBA. I think based on that, it’s fair to say that MBA is a good choice if you are trying to make more.</p>
<p>Now, they don’t make 175K a year right out of their MBA program, but that’s also not what most engineering majors make.</p>
<p>The undergrad degree will take about 4 years. The MBA I believe takes about 1 year generally if you’re doing just the MBA, and 2 years if you’re working in addition. You probably want 4 or so years intermediate between the bachelors degree and MBA. So in total, it should take about 9 or 10 years.</p>
<p>Globaltraveler - Why do you think an MBA is a waste of time? If you dont want to retype it, do you have a post I can reference where you’ve already outlined your points?</p>
<p>Qwerty - I think your average salaries are a little off. Even Harvard MBA class of 2009 median salaries are only 114k, mechanical median was 112k, tech 110k. That’s pretty good money for someone coming straight from college into an MBA (or into an MBA with only a few years of experience). For someone with more years of experience, I dont think it’s worth it to take two years off from work and pay tuition to make marginally more.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.hbs.edu/recruiting/mba/resources/career.html[/url]”>http://www.hbs.edu/recruiting/mba/resources/career.html</a></p>
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<p>I probably went overboard with calling an MBA a waste of time but many posts that I see on here, you get the impression that folks think that a) tech employers are going to bump you up into management immediately after a MBA and b) a pile of cash will come with it.</p>
<p>That is not true. At least with the employers that I have worked with most of the lower/middle engineering management positions are filled with either a) engineers with 10-12 years of experience and a B.S. or b) engineers with slightly less experience with a M.S./MEng.</p>
<p>I just don’t want these folks thinking that they will get a MBA and you are automatically into management. Furthermore, senior tech folks make near, the same or in some cases more than the lower/middle management because they are actually billing to clients and bringing in the money.</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>Totally off-topic but I’ve wondered what kind of majors enter your kind of work GlobalTraveler. It seems to me the majority of everyone is Computer Science graduates, but would CpE be just as good?</p>
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<p>Ummmm…any technical (read science,math,engineering) major that has knowledge in certain areas would get hired. We have EE’s, ME’s, SysE’s, CompE’s, CS and Math (like myself).</p>
<p>Global makes a good point here. I have also seen many people with the the misconception that a MBA is a golden ticket straight to management. The engineering managers that I know are very good technically and none that I know have MBAs. The other point I wanted to make is that comparing top MBA schools starting salaries to engineering starting salary makes no sense. At a top business school, many of the MBA graduates will have 5 or 10 or even more years of work experience so it is not surprising that their starting salaries seem high, granted some go to Wall St. etc. but the comparison should then be with engineers with 5 or 10 years experience. Then the margin wouldn’t seem nearly as drastic.</p>
<p>Global - I agree, the MBA isn’t a golden ticket, but combined with experience in the industry it can be be a very valuable credential. Unfortunately, business schools are trying to get 'em young, which I think dilutes the degree. The worst thing you can do is teach someone who’s never been in a business how to be a manager. If someone’s got say 5 years of experience first, then that gives some real world perspective prior to going in and learning the utopia of the business world.</p>
<p>To the best of my understanding, an MBA takes 2 years full-time, or 3+ years part-time. “Typical” MBA graduates have 4-5 years of post-baccaleureate experience before they start the program. Most MBA programs WILL take as many as a third of their students with little or no experience, but I have heard from some senior execs that this is more for the edification of the experienced students than for any benefit to the juniors. Those who graduate without experience will have a hard time finding any job, much less a 6-figure salary.</p>
<p>I forgot where I read it, but HBS is trying to get them younger. You can see the stats on their website and it is definitely trending lower. That’s not to say that everyone in an MBA class is fresh out of school, but these students are going to get their MBAs well before they actually need them or know for sure what they want to do in their professions. I personally think 5 years should be the bare minimum before you even think about doing an MBA. By the 5 year point you’re just now done with your junior man grunt job and starting to see what other options there are.</p>