<p>I was just wondering how long you would need to go to school for engineering, i know 4 years for a bachelor and you can go out in the workforce, but will you be able to advance far in the field without graduate training? my dad is a chemE but he has a PhD and he gets to do a lot of research. If you don't have a graduate degree, is it harder to get research projects, or does it not really matter (is it different for the different engineering fields?). would it be helpful to pursue a mba if you want to advance corporately, or will just a 4-year education suffice?</p>
<p>If by “advance far” you mean promotion up to a c-level executive, no you do not need a graduate degree in engineering. If by “advance far” you mean research, then yes, a graduate degree is helpful.</p>
<p>The most research someone with a BS will likely see is a pilot plant, unless he has 20+ years of experience. An MS gets you a little further, but to do real research, a PhD will be very helpful.</p>
<p>How high-paying is research?</p>
<p>do companies generally pay for your phd? what about mba?</p>
<p>I worked with a guy that got his MBA part time paid for by the company. He later left to become a management consultant.</p>
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<p>It depends. For Chemical Engineering it caps off in the $110,000 - $150,000 range.</p>
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<p>Most companies these days will pay for degrees that you earn while working, as long as they’re related to your job (so a night MBA or a night MS). Some companies will pay for a full-time degree (like a day-time MBA or PhD), but it’s rare, and you often have to guarantee a few years (usually 2 or 3) to the company after graduation. Often, only the top employees are offered programs like that.</p>
<p>PhD’s normally can’t be done while working. I saw someone do it once, but it took him 10 years. He started by taking classes at night, then periodically throughout the day (take an hour off here and there). Eventually, he finished his comps, the company moved him to R&D, then his dissertation research was done in the company lab working on a company project.</p>
<p>Obviously, the company and the school have to be very flexible for this to work, so you’re going to need a lot of support from the company, and you’ll probably have to attend a lower tier engineering school for your degree.</p>
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<p>Yeah, while I was an undergrad I knew this Russian dude that was probably around 40 or so that was working on his PhD. He split his time around 75/25 between his company’s labs and ours. It don’t know if it’s so much of a tier thing, as it probably relies more upon who your supervisors know at nearby universities and how strong of a working relationship they have.</p>
<p>i couldn’t imagine working at my phd for 10 years, 4 seems quite enough as it is. my parents were telling me that graduate school is pretty much free for science research or something along the line (but then again this was in the 80s). is this still true?</p>
<p>also, if I like math, find science reasonably interesting, is engineering a good idea? The only thing is, I like humanities better, only job oppurtunites aren’t as good. When it comes down to it, I wouldn’t mind doing a science career, just its not my #1 passion (but I would love to invent something lol).
but considering that, would I be stupid to pursue going to a top, all-engineering school like harvey mudd? will students at engineering schools be math and science crazed (and geniuses at those subjects as well?</p>
<p>Describing engineering as “math and science” only captures one aspect of the discipline. </p>
<p>Don’t pick a major on what you percieve to have good job opportunities. IF our little recession has taught us anything, it should be that nothing is certain. Believe me, in order to finish college, you need to enjoy what you are doing. It will make studying all those long nights tolerable.</p>
<p>The best thing for you to do is go to college with an open mind. Pick your major as undeclared (or, depending on how difficult it is to transfer into engineering, you might want to pick engineering as your major). Then take freshman introduction classes in the humanities and in engineering (which would include calc and physics, etc) and then pick the major whose material you enjoy. It’s better to loose a few classes “trying out” differerent majors at the begining of your college career, then to get to Junior year and change majors.</p>
<p>Remember, sucess is defined more broadly than just finanically. Also, if money is important to you, you can find it with or without engineering. Life is too short to have a career that is just “tolerable”; you should find something that makes you excited to get up in the morning. “Love the life you live and live the life you love” – Bob Marley.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’ll go into college undeclared since I’m so indecisive. The thing is , I don’t know if I’ll like engineering or not, so right now I’m trying to figure out as much as possible about it.
A good salary is something that is important to me, but I’m learning that definately should not be the most important factor in deciding a career. But the thing is, next to nobody really knows what they want to do as a career when they’re in high school (including me), and so many people change their majors when they’re in college, and I’ve been hearing a lot of people’s careers don’t even relate to what they majored in.
Without knowing that much about engineering, I’m hoping I really enjoy it, so I have another career option to consider. As of now, I really don’t know, and the bad thing about that is it makes it even harder to choose a college.</p>
<p>"…would I be stupid to pursue going to a top, all-engineering school like harvey mudd? "</p>
<p>Mudd is not an all engineering school. Engineering composes about 40% of our majors, though. (All others are science/math)</p>
<p>I really think a good idea is to try and get a internship with a career you find interesting. Your young so tell them you will work as a volunteer. Experiencing the real enviroment will give you the best perspective. If you like it, try a different employer in the same field, no one company will give the same feel. </p>
<p>I’m 34 and back in school. I went into the millitary after HS, then to college for an engineering degree, then dropped out and moved to a new state, went back to school for architecture, started working in the construction industry, then started my own construction corporation, then the economy tanked, so I’m back in school to finish my degree in civil. Oh, and I’m going back in the military, national guard OCS program. </p>
<p>As long as you head somewhere you wind up somewhere. But, diffinitely try internships. When I started in construction I would tell an employer I didn’t care what he payed me I just wantd to learn. I had about 30 different jobs in six years, but learned pretty much every trade well. I am able to do all phases of building myself, except the engineering stamp. Soon though.</p>
<p>You know it takes 4-5 years after the engineering degree to get the stamp, right?</p>
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2 in the state of CA</p>