<p>First, I want to apologize if the title is a bit too exaggerating :-) </p>
<p>Basically I got my employer sponsored fellowship for the Software Systems Engineering (M.Eng) program @ Cornell. All tuition been paid for, plus full salary while at Cornell, the total package is slightly more than 100K combined.</p>
<p>So of course there's a catch: sign a contract and work for three years after I come back. Now that's a problem... The place I work is a major defense contractor and I disapprove everything we do over here. Company politics + bad location also didn't help either. I've tried to get out whenever possible, but economic downturn makes getting a new job impossible. Anyways just for the heck of it I applied for fellowship (heard it was competitive) but somehow I got in, now I need to make this very difficult choice.</p>
<p>If I decline the fellowship I'll have to quit and pay everything out of my own pocket for grad school, but I get to choose more ORIE classes (Finance, optimization etc), and potentially land a much better job to switch from my current boring engineering career. On the other hand, with employer fellowship I'm stuck with Software Systems Engineering classes (yep they will check my transcript), but I get to go to school for free with salary support...</p>
<p>I know it's a tough choice... any suggestions or insights?</p>
<p>Take out loans brother. No need to sacrifice your morals and future for a 1 year venture. With a ME from Cornell, you'll earn back the 100k in no time.</p>
<p>An education is a good time to change ur career path (or an employer), seems u will further be bound with ur current employer where u are not entirely satisfied, so I would recommed you to take this up on your own. But 100k is a big amount and 3 years is not that long a time either.</p>
<p>If it were me, I wouldn't take the offer. It's a great offer, but can you see yourself happy for the next 5-6 years of your life? (2-3yrs M.Eng degree, 3 yrs contract). Life's short. Don't waste it just because something comes easy.</p>
<p>Look at it this way, if they were to offer you free pizza each meal every day for the next year, would you take it? Or would you rather work a bit, earn some money, and buy yourself some decent food, and FREEDOM?</p>
<p>apply to other M.Eng programs elsewhere, and look for other fellowships that don't make you sign your soul away.</p>
<p>How about this? Defer your current admission for a year. Work on improving ur credentials (retake the GRE or do some independent research), save a lot of money and try to get into a funded program. If you dont make it go in for your current offer.</p>
<p>lol, nothing wrong with it, but it's just one of those things that you know is junk food and it's bad for you...but whenever there's a meeting and there's "free pizza" you gatta have some, just because it tastes good and it's "free"....(hello, grad student mentality!)</p>