<p>Just how important is a masters degree in chemical engineering or any other engineering fields in relation to job prospect, etc?
Will staying that extra year or two to attain masters while spending another 100K be worth it?</p>
<p>If you can land a nice job, why not do that and let your employer pay for your master’s degree if you need it?</p>
<p>100k??? Jeez, where are you going to grad school?</p>
<p>$3333.33/credit?</p>
<p>I guess the schools are Stanford, MIT and NYU.</p>
<p>Ok let’s see $100K for student loans and after graduation, you need to buy also house, new car…So, what kind of salary that you need in order to be able to pay all those monthly bills?..dont forget also, you need to buy grocery, gas, going to see movies (Cost of living) etc.</p>
<p>The OP is probably figuring two more years at what undergrad school costs for the $100k figure.</p>
<p>That depends. Are those $100,000 coming out of thin air, or is it just harder to see that you’re paying an exorbitant sum of your money in the form of future debt?</p>
<p>On a $50K/year figure, so two years would be $100K.
This is just straight up tuition, not taking into consideration of scholarships and financial aid, etc.
Let’s rephrase the question this way:
A bachelor degree in engineering from a top engineering school
A masters degree in engineering from a top engineering school
How would the job market for both compares relative to each other? Is it worth it to really go out and stay another year or two for school to gain the advantage that comes with a masters degree?</p>
<p>As far as the job market (and software engineering), there are several factors working TOGETHER that will help you:</p>
<ul>
<li>advanced degrees</li>
<li>certifications</li>
<li>years of work experience</li>
<li>years leading engineering teams</li>
</ul>
<p>Like I said, ALL have to exist for you. An engineer with a M.S./M.Eng degree but very little experience will lose out to an engineer with a B.S. degree and much more experience. You will not manage engineers until you have some years of experience and some years leading teams/projects…regardless if you have a M.S. or not. In some cases, a certification in a certain technology area will help over just having degrees.</p>
<p>A top engineering school only matters with fresh grads or engineers with little experience. Once you are at the 7, 8 or 10 year experience mark, employers don’t really care if your undergrad/grad schools were top or not. Your are basically paid by your past experience and expertise in certain areas…hence why experienced engineers resumes have the education information near the end of the resume.</p>
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<p>There is no financial aid. There’s also generally very few scholarships/fellowships since they’re mostly reserved for PhD students. Your best bet is to either find an employer that will pay for your MS, take night classes while working to get your MS (and finding a cheaper program), or do a combined BS/MS program, so it only takes an extra year and you’ll still be able to keep any financial aid from undergrad.</p>
<p>Assume the BS pays 60K with 3% annual raises
Assume the MS pays 80K with 3% annual raises</p>
<p>It takes about 13 years to make the MS pay off cumulatively, but it does. If the MS only made 75K compounded at the same rate, it would take 17 years. Still less than half of a 40 year career. Of course, the MS might help you get promotions faster, and then it would payoff sooner. Or, getting in would help you get promotions sooner, and then it wouldn’t pay off at all. </p>
<p>I agree with getting your employer to pay for it. The advantage there is that you’ll know that you’ll be studying the topics most worthwhile to them and that will increase your value faster than taking a shot in the dark. </p>
<p>Personally, I prefer to hire a BS and pay for their MS in my field. An MS in a peripheral field is less attractive because I have no mechanism to train them in my field and they still expect an MS salary.</p>
<p>In other words, an MS that I steered through their degree program is worth more to me than an MS who didn’t quite hit my target area.</p>