<p>Is it possible to go onto a master's or PhD program in engineering and get an engineering license if one was a social sciences major at undergrad?</p>
<p>bump 10char</p>
<p>You would need a good introductory course background in math, comp sci or hard science. You could take these courses after you graduated… see the course requirements of each program.</p>
<p>I guess we are wanting to know some real world examples of this. I mean, yeah it’s fine to say, “sure with a science background it’s possible” but that’s not the same as a discussion about how to actually accomplish this transition. Say a student has math through calc II or III, a chemistry series, a physics series, some introductory classes to cs or ee, and a liberal arts or communication degree with lots of tech background. Is that going to be strong enough to put them in a masters or graduate series in engineering at a decent school? ( i mean i know a low ranked school won’t care. )</p>
<p>I really don’t see that happening from my own experience in an engineering program. For one, I would be astonished if any college allowed it. But the biggest issue is that a liberal arts B.S. degree in no way shape or form resembles an engineering B.S. degree as far as classes taken, unless you count the handful of humanities classes that engineers are required to take. Engineering classes tend to build on one another. I think a liberal arts major would find it extremely difficult just jumping to sophomore level engineering classes alone since they are missing the general math/science classes, let alone skipping the entire bachelor’s degree in engineering. It would be an impossibility I would say.</p>
<p>I want to a gander at this question and just say no, it’s not possible.</p>
<p>Like people before me, engineering classes build one on top of another. Without your basic classes, you won’t be able to understand much of the higher level material. Not only that, often times basic engineering classes are different from basic non-engineering classes. For example, engineers take a different Calculus series than humanities majors at my college.</p>
<p>so are we saying basically that if you don’t major in engineering ugrad, you are pretty much screwed out of ever making a career change into this feild? I know a lot of colleges won’t even let you come back for a second bachelors. This subject interests me so much because I was a pre-EECS and switched out into digital media. Now I don’t find the material challenging enough and am only 8 classes away from graduation and at almost the maximum credit hours… which means I can’t switch back :P</p>
<p>You can switch from Engg to almost anything but it’s not possible the other way round. You can consider obtaining a second bachelor’s degree in Engg [atleast some colleges must be allowing that?!] but even for that your basics in math and physics should be pretty solid.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that you have to major in engineering for undergrad. If you majored in math or a hard science that’d probably be fine as well for a some engineering programs.</p>
<p>I guess my biggest problem is that even though I know things like how to measure energy in coulombs, use integrals to determine projected velocities, or program simple instructions into an ic, I have absolutely no way to prove that except for the 30 or so credit hours I have in sciences. But that still doesn’t alleviate the fact that my diploma will say “Electronic Media Communication”.</p>
<p>I’m wondering, if you could somehow manage to get hired at a smaller engineering firm with the limited knowledge and work your way up from there? Eg. changing jobs and just using your experience?</p>
<p>That may be possible, but I suspect that in such a case, your skill classification would be at best equal to someone graduating from a tech school rather than someone with an engineering degree. You would probably be making only a bit better salary than someone with a high school diploma in that position. It’s probably possible to work your way up at a place if you’re very talented, but I doubt you would see engineering level salaries for a good while if that’s mainly why you’re wanting to become an engineer.</p>
<p>In the current job environment (which I suspect will continue to be bad for at least the next few years), it is so competitive that it is hard to fathom. Even folks with a bachelors engineering degree and a 3.0GPA are finding it next to impossible to land a job. If you really want to get into engineering, you could maybe pull off a bachelors in 3 years since you’ve probably already have the credits for the humanities credits. It really depends on the school. Speaking for myself at a hard school, there is no way I could finish in four years if I wasn’t able to sprinkle in some easy humanities classes each semester to take some of the load off.</p>