Engineering Management Master w/o Engineering BS?

<p>Hi all, I just completed my BS in management with a concentration in marketing and an A&S major in economics and minor in math at Boston College and just could not come close to finding a job. My two friends had success with the job hunt with their engineering degree and I have always wanted to study it so now I was giving some thought to trying to get a masters in it. Cornell has this Engineering management degree that they offer (details here: <a href="http://www.cee.cornell.edu/uploads/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&pageid=45938%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cee.cornell.edu/uploads/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&pageid=45938&lt;/a&gt;). The reason I mention Cornell is that it is the highest ranked engineering school that makes sense location wise for me (and my best friend is going there for grad school). So my question is, would it be feasible for me to pursue this or am I going to be in way over my head? Would this BS/masters combo be a good one? Any input on this would be tremendous. Thanks in advance guys!</p>

<p>-Erik</p>

<p>The handbook for that particular program on the Cornell website states:</p>

<p>“Applicants must have already earned a baccalaureate degree in engineering, applied science, or equivalent from Cornell or elsewhere.”</p>

<p>In other words, you would have needed to complete the coursework that is very common to engineering and applied science/mathematics programs, namely Calculus I, II, III (CS majors take I & II only), Linear Algebra and either Physics I, II (calculus-based) or the Inorganic/Organic Chemistry sequence. I would also add in a Probability/Statistics For Engineers/Scientist course because most Engineering Management graduate programs (I know because my graduate degree is basically an Engineering Management/Systems Engineering degree) will require “grad stats”.</p>

<p>It’s very rare that a business major (except for a mathematical economics or quantitative finance major) to have taken the higher math courses and more than likely did not take the physics or chemistry courses.</p>

<p>I did Calc 3 and linear algebra in my math minor, got a 5 on the AP physics exam 4 years ago and have taken multiple statistics courses including math statistics, probability along with a 5 on the AP stat exam. So I would probably have to take a physics course since the AP physics test was a while ago? Would that be enough? Thanks for the help man.</p>

<p>No. </p>

<p>Unless you own the company because you invented the dohickey they are selling, or have the “engineer by training” degree (which means years of experience as working as an engineer), you probably will not be able to manage technical engineers or the technical work they do without that technical degree. I don’t care how many AP courses you took.</p>

<p>In fact, thinking that you would be a good engineering manager because you took an AP course in some math or science is rather insulting as an engineering manager myself.</p>

<p>I’m not saying I want to be a manager of engineers, I just am saying I have a background in physics (that admittedly needs work) to attempt to go for this masters degree. Believe it or not there is a much nicer way to put what you are trying to say. For instance you could just say, “well this masters degree won’t do much for you since you will never be able to land a job as an engineer manager” , no need to be a dick.</p>

<p>“Applicants must have already earned a baccalaureate degree in ENGINEERING, APPLIED SCIENCE, or equivalent from Cornell or elsewhere.”</p>

<p>The above requirement will pretty much be consistent with admission into engineering graduate programs…AND THAT’S for the schools who will allow non-engineering majors (like hard sciences and math).</p>

<p>The rest of the programs with require an ENGINEERING degree ONLY.</p>

<p>Just get a second BS in engineering. I haven’t met an engineering manager who doesn’t have years of experience doing technical engineering work. </p>

<p>Sadly I have met chiefs of engineering companies who has no engineering degree… LOL</p>