<p>So I've heard of many people that get a bachelor's degree in Engineering then move on to get their MBA at a graduate school? Can anyone explain to me how that works and why people do it?</p>
<p>i think it is common for accomplished eng students to go pursue a MBA</p>
<p>im just a HS student, but from what i know, eng students who try that path take some extra econ and accounting classes (and stats) during their undergrad years so they can be ready</p>
<p>You can see that about 30% of the entering class at Stanford Business School, the best business school in the country, have engineering backgrounds:</p>
<p>[Admission:</a> MBA Program: Stanford GSB](<a href=“http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/]Admission:”>Admission to the Stanford MBA Program)</p>
<p>Well, it’s pretty simple actually.</p>
<p>After four or five years of grueling classes and labs, a lot of people discover they really don’t actually LIKE engineering, but they do like money. So they go on to work in finance firms, or consulting, or do their MBAs to transition industries. Engineering graduates are often sought after in these fields due to their quantitative skills (and technical knowledge).</p>
<p>Alternatively, some work for a few years and decide they want to move into a management position. The MBA allows them to better fit that role. </p>
<p>I don’t think you need to take stats and econ classes (beyond what’s required for your Eng degree) if you plan on doing an MBA. The MBA will be a breeze by comparison. Also, the best idea is to get your company to pay/sponsor your MBA. They’re usually pretty expensive since they are professional degrees. </p>
<p>I say don’t worry about it until you finish your Bachelor’s, and then see what’s what.</p>
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<p>an important distinction to be made here. 36% engineering MAJORS but only 6% with high-tech engineering WORK EXPERIENCE. getting in as a practicing engineer is relatively tough, due to intense competition and stereotypes. </p>
<p>the best path is top u-grad –> engineering major –> prestigious business employer (that likes engineering major actually) –> top mba</p>
<p>i believe many of the 36% took that path</p>
<p>Hm … what do you mean by prestigious business employer? Would that be before or after I go to grad school?</p>
<p>“After four or five years of grueling classes and labs, a lot of people discover they really don’t actually LIKE engineering, but they do like money.”</p>
<p>I think I figured that one out before day 1 of undergrad. </p>
<p>I was told to take Intermediate Micro+Macro Econ, and Econometrics, because that opens up a lot of options employment-wise and/or grad-school wise. I was told the same about theoretical statistics, probability theory, real analysis, and stochastic processes. I’m going to try to take some or all of that. I don’t know how useful that actually will be for non-super-technical jobs, but I was told by a couple of people that classes like those are useful and important.</p>
<p>I heard there are so many people getting an MBA now that it’s not helpful unless you get it from a top 20 school. Is this true?</p>
<p>@yg7s7:</p>
<p>The same thing is being said about nursing, engineering, physics, etc. It’s all nonsense. A degree is not even the most important factor in obtaining a job. Solid connections and experience are; hell, you can get the job with just the solid connection. All a degree says about you is that you managed to successfully complete a university program, not much else. How you apply what you learn, is up to you.</p>
<p>@OP:</p>
<p>Just like other types of professionals, engineers distribute their time performing different tasks not directly related to their engineering specialty; in addition to technical matters, engineers also deal with financial matters, personnel matters, administrative matters, etc. Many of them probably become interested in those other aspects to get more money, fix problems, stabler schedule, get tired of their engineering duties, etc.</p>
<p>The advantage for an engineer is that she or he becomes acquainted with the administrative side of the business while bringing technical knowledge from the engineering side of the business.</p>
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<p>i mean fresh out of undergrad, before MBA. if you look at stanford’s stats closely, you see that over 50% are from financial services or consulting (as an example). those jobs are pretty hard to get, but are of the approximate quality needed for admission.</p>
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<p>it is true, depending on your aspirations. if your intention is to use the MBA as leverage to transfer into a business field like trading on wall street, IT MATTERS. in fact, even T20 is somewhat generous if this is your intention. career changing is tough, and it is particularly tough outside the elite programs (h,s,w,kellogg,booth,columbia,mit). </p>
<p>if you are getting the mba as a rubber stamp for promotion in your company (some places have this policy) then it doesn’t matter at all, and a local cheap part-time program is probably sufficient.</p>
<p>I still think that the description of the reason for an MBA in this thread is only covering the minority of engineers. If we are only talking about the engineers that try to get their MBA at Stanford, then yes, I guess many of them may be trying to get onto Wall Street or something like that.</p>
<p>However, in my experience, the vast majority of practicing engineers that get MBA’s (and there are a lot of them) are getting them in order to facilitate getting promoted into management at whatever company they work at or are applying to, as alluded to by BostonEng in the end of his last post.</p>
<p>At Stanford Business School, many of the Engineers that get their MBA do it, not necessarily for the Wall Street job, but for obtaining the knowledge to:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Work at a consulting firm that requires both the technical engineering background of the engineer and the marketing, finance, accounting, organizational behavior knowledge of an MBA (Arthur D. Little, McKinsey, Bain, etc)</p></li>
<li><p>Work at a large corporation in areas such as Corporate Planning that requires the same as #1. (Large Energy and Chemical companies, GE, etc)</p></li>
<li><p>Work at a startup company that requires the same as #1. (Silicon Valley here we come)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The Engineer is essentially broadening his knowledge of business to be able to combine it with his engineering background to work in an area that was either not reachable with just an engineering degree or an area that would make him more efficient than just having an engineering degree.</p>
<p>I got my MBA for the reasons JohnAdams mentions. It has made me a interest to start-up companies who need someone to not only develop and understand the technology but will also need them to market it. It’s no good if the technology works but has no worth/value to the industry.</p>
<p>@Enginox</p>
<p>it DOES matter. Getting an MBA from a no name, for-profit, or low ranked college is a bad bad investment. For the first job, employers want to make sure that the MBA you get is from a trusted and good rep school. It becomes less of an issue as you get more experience. </p>
<p>But in no way can you just get an MBA at XYZ college and be on the same level of competition with someone who got an MBA from columbia/stanford for a consulting job.</p>
<p>Jesus christ peoples, don’t just swallow whatever anyone says on here. You don’t want people thinking they can just skate through some low quality MBA program and think they can make it to wall street.</p>
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<p>Says the guy who isn’t even in college yet…</p>
<p>The school matters for some jobs, not for others.</p>
<p>right, because it takes a college student to know that this is a good idea to follow this guy’s advice that the college that you graduate from has absolutely no effect on how well you get your first job.</p>
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<p>**** Goldman and **** Wall Street. </p>
<p>Outside of VC access the relative worth of a top MBA is primarily to get to one of the **** places I previously mentioned, and to some thats worthless. However, if you dont need VC access and youre not one of those **** people trying to get to one of those **** places, pretty much any MBA will do.</p>
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<p>And what out of your vast life experiences leads you to believe that you can only get anywhere in life with an MBA from Harvard, Wharton, Stanford and the like?</p>
<p>The fact is that except for in a handful of cases, you don’t need an MBA from an ultra-high-ranking school. If you want Wall Street or some high level consulting jobs then sure, a high-ranking school is going to help quite a bit. If you are just trying to get a leg up on getting a management job in company X that isn’t one of those big consulting firms, than just having the MBA plus your experience in that company is easily enough.</p>
<p>When did I ever say you needed a harvard MBA to be successful in life? Stop putting words into my mouth. </p>
<p>I’m only concerned that people are going to follow this person who implies that you can half-ass a low-quality MBA program and get any kind of management job as long as you have “the right connections”. And like you said about how brand name colleges are better for getting wall street jobs…thats what I was referring to in my original post anyways, not other jobs.</p>
<p>collegebound_guy,</p>
<p>You said something to the Wall Street end at the end of your post, but the entire first paragraph in your post was aimed at MBA’s in general.</p>
<p>Now, I am not going to make a statement one way or another about for-profit universities, as it quickly becomes a sticky subject for a lot of people. However, I can tell you right now that getting an MBA from a low-ranked or no name school is not necessarily a “bad bad investment” when it comes to anything other than those highly selective, financial sector jobs. I know plenty of people who have gotten MBA’s at places like University of Missouri - St. Louis, a relatively unknown school, and used it to get into management at Boeing. Same goes for IUPUI in Indianapolis and Rolls-Royce. Plain and simple, the no name, low ranked schools are only a bad investment if you are trying to compete directly with one of those top school grads getting one of those top positions right out of school. For anything else, your experience within your company and connections within your company will oftentimes trump all.</p>
<p>The fact is, most people are not getting a first job with an MBA. Many MBA programs now won’t hardly admit people anymore without prior work experience. It happens, but is it far more common to get into MBA programs through your employer or at least after you have a year or two of experience.</p>