<p>Did you try applying as a transfer student?</p>
<p>Please read:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065125624-post6.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065125624-post6.html</a></p>
<p>My question: For a Chemistry major grad, would it be a better idea to get second Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering by applying as a transfer student like Andrewsky said or to get into Master’s in Chemical Engineering, which might require a few undergrad courses before starting it?</p>
<p>I am bringing up this old thread because I am curious if you get an undergrad degree in industrial design but decide you want to then have a degree in mechanical engineering too, is it better to get it as a second bachelors or can you get a masters? </p>
<p>Doing it the other way (engineering first) might be easier but maybe not, a masters in industrial design if one does not have studio experience takes 3 years.</p>
<p>Most if not all engineer associations do not recognize graduate engineering degrees without a bachelors.</p>
<p>Just a food for thought…</p>
<p>What exactly do you mean by “engineer associations?” What exactly do you mean by “recognize?”</p>
<p>BEngineer, so you would vote that one would need to do it as a second bachelors.</p>
<p>Well…the thread I pointed to in my post is no longer there, so I will post my thoughts again.</p>
<p>My undergraduate degree is in Computational Mathematics (read: Math major, CS emphasis) and my graduate degree is in Engineering…so it CAN be done. It really depends on the graduate engineering program one selects. Something like a masters in EE is kind of hard to do without a bachelors in either EE or CompE…because the circuits sequence is needed.</p>
<p>Now a graduate computer science degree (if you all WANT to consider CS as “engineering”) is easier for a math major to accomplish…especially a computational math major because of the required core CS courses. Some graduate industrial engineering degrees are basically advanced math degrees so a MSIE degree can also be done by non-IE undergraduates.</p>
<p>If you have an undergrad science degree, you obviously have taken some classes that will help. If however your undergrad degree is not in science but in design or anything else for that matter, which is the best path to take to get an engineering degree?</p>
<p>I actually know someone whose son has a landscape architecture degree who is going back to get an engineering degree. I don’t know if he getting it as a bachelors or masters though.</p>
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<p>Ken285, I actually think the better question is: 'Why should you care about ‘recognition’ from any ‘engineer association’ anyway? With the exception of civil/structural engineering and the ABET accreditation process due to the importance of licensing within those fields, how many ‘engineering associations’ actually provide crucial benefits that are exclusive to only its membership and no others?</p>
<p>sakky, none that I can think of, which is why the previous statement has me curious.</p>
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<p>I actually know a guy who graduated with a bachelors in biology, then earned an MS in civil engineering at MIT. Nor did he have to take a single engineering prereq. </p>
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<p>I know a girl who got a degree in, of all things, English, and yet later earned a master’s degree in engineering at MIT without ever having to take a single undergrad engineering course.</p>
<p>Re: post#32</p>
<p>While it’s certainly possible, it does sound like those are exceptions rather than the rule. Would an average student majoring in English going to an average school be able to get a master’s in electrical engineering?</p>
<p>Ken285, I think that’s a rather unfair question, for after all, anybody earning a master’s degree in any subject is an exceptional person, regardless of discipline or alignment with their undergraduate studies. Put another way, how many average undergrads majoring in engineering can actually obtain a master’s in engineering (at a decent grad school)?</p>
<p>I think that’s a pretty good attempt at muddying what “exceptional” entails. There’s being one standard deviation above the average, and then there’s being an outlier.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the point is that average people don’t earn master’s degrees, regardless of how aligned their undergraduate studies may be with the master’s program in question.</p>
<p>Besides, let’s face it, the readership of this discussion board skews high. Many, almost certainly the overwhelming majority, of Americans do not really care about academics. But the readership of CC does; for after all, why would you spend time on this board if you didn’t? Elite colleges are amongst the most heavily discussed topics within this board, yet the fact is, every student who has any chance of attending an elite school is not merely one standard deviation above the average but is clearly an outlier, as the vast majority of Americans attend average, no-name colleges if they even attend college at all. Outliers are therefore relatively commonplace on this board. I therefore see no problem with posts that cater to those outliers.</p>
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<p>Which is why my angle on MANY of my posts are more about “just do this and not worry so much about a damn ranking”. The number of folks with a M.S./M.Eng is so small that many employers (well the ones I have worked with and that number is near 10 with many more from interviews) really do not care. They cannot find folks.</p>
<p>I don’t see the point of spitting hairs between Purdue vs. Illinois…or Virginia Tech vs. Rutgers…other than folks wanting to determine their worth/comparison to another person by some damn US News ranking.</p>
<p>At the end of the day…us EXPERIENCED engineers (usually from some lesser-known school) are going TELL you to go sit down until we give you a task or some code to test. Then we are gonna snicker to ourselves and make “rookie” jokes…and won’t care if the grad is from Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p>(I actually remember a lot of my friends that went and worked at steel companies for summer internships getting hassled a ton by older engineers as to why they hadn’t already memorized the Fe-C phase diagram.)</p>
<p>Fine, I’ll rephrase it. What percentage of average engineering graduate students (as opposed to undergrad students) would have been able to get into their program had they majored in something besides engineering?</p>
<p>Better yet, how would an above average to high above average English major go about getting into a master’s of engineering program anywhere? </p>
<p>Top engineering programs, such as MIT’s, focus heavily on theory, moreso than other engineering master’s programs. When you get that advanced, the lines between fields get blurred.</p>
<p>Hey sakky, I’m curious, was the English major from Caltech or MIT? I’m just wondering since I’ve heard of a few stories dealing with people here majoring in English, and taking most of their classes in other departments, getting pretty much everything but the piece of paper required for the more technical degree.</p>