<p>What are the pros and cons of doing graduate school? And are you able to do graduate school in a major you didn't get a bachelor's in?</p>
<p>The pros and cons depend at least slightly on the field you are wanting to pursue your degree in, and largely on the degree you want to pursue (PhD, thesis Masters, non-thesis Masters). In other words, what field are you looking at and what degree do you want to pursue?</p>
<p>And yes, you can do graduate school in a major you didn’t do your undergrad in, though it usually has to be reasonably similar. I know plenty of aerospace grad students who majored in mechanical engineering, a few that graduated from chemical, and a couple of physics majors. On the other hand, you aren’t going to go to chemical engineering grad school with a degree in history. A slightly less ridiculous example would be that it would be difficult to get a graduate degree in civil engineering if you were an electrical engineering undergrad.</p>
<p>No p.H.D. What are thesis and non thesis? And I was planning on double majoring undergrad in aerospace/mechanical and then do grad in one of those or industrial.</p>
<p>That plan is certainly possible. Aerospace and Mechanical are largely interchangeable, and industrial could be done with an undergrad degree in either.</p>
<p>As far as thesis and non-thesis go, the traditional route for getting an MS is to do a thesis. You get into a research group and do research, and then you write a thesis summarizing your research. That thesis is the basis for your degree on top of all your coursework, similar to how a senior design project works in undergrad. It is sort of like a miniature version of a PhD dissertation. There are also Masters degrees offered that are based solely on coursework. I don’t know as much about them other than they typically require more credits than the their thesis counterparts.</p>
<p>Do job options change after grad school? And in what way?</p>
<p>boneh3ad/
In a different thread I think you commented going to grad school results in specialization and thus can make you less marketable unless you get a job in that area. Does that apply to non-thesis MS or ME as well? I’m a chemistry major trying to get into chemical engineering because I think it suits me better. I don’t wanna do research but don’t know which field I want to work in either.</p>
<p>Well, like I said, I don’t know everything about how the non-thesis options work, but it seems from what I have seen that they generally don’t specialize you as much. For that matter, and MS in general isn’t going to really close many doors for you. There will be a few, e.g. if you get an MS in one area, you will have fewer opportunities for your job to branch into other areas as part of its primary function, but for the most part, you still have lots of options.</p>
<p>Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but a non-thesis MS would have even less of this effect because it doesn’t involve that specialized research. From everything I have heard, it really gets treated almost like just a couple of years of experience. The non-thesis version would be less useful for getting into a research position since you don’t have that research and thesis under your belt, but it should leave open other opportunities to make up for that that a traditional MS would potentially get rid of.</p>
<p>The PhD is what really closes a lot of doors and perhaps even more than it opens.</p>
<p>First of all I wouldn’t give too much weight to the idea that getting an MS or ME will make you less marketable. In the vast majority of cases I see a Master’s as a significant advantage. If an individual with a Master’s feels limited, it may be self-imposed, i.e., the individual has gotten into an area of advanced work and feels inclined to emphasize that area in his/her job search. In reality, the person with the MS really has all of the BS knowledge under his belt, plus a significant amount of advanced coursework that is usually relevant in a number of areas, plus proof of ability to work independently on an original project and communicate results- hardly drawbacks.
Regarding thesis vs.non-thesis Master’s degrees, I believe the differences are slight in both industrial and academic contexts. Both types get jobs in industry as well as go into PhD programs. Be aware also that many non-thesis Master’s programs still require a significant research assignment in addition to 2 or 3 more courses to complete.</p>
<p>An MS makes you more marketable in areas related to your specialization area but less marketable in other areas that you might otherwise have done with only a more broad BS. This is almost never a problem because people generally want to stay in their specialty area for the most part. That is why I was trying to play down the fact that it still does make you a little less marketable overall because it sort og pigeonholes you out of some of the other areas.</p>
<p>Most of my comments about grad degrees decreasing useful marketability (even in your specialty area) have been in regards to PhD’s, which tend to leave you overqualified for quite a few jobs that can be done by cheaper hires.</p>
<p>You basically don’t get a PhD unless you want to do research in industry, academia or government.</p>
<p>Governmet?</p>
<p>Government as in, working for NASA, Sandia, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, Argonne, etc.</p>