I’m about to graduate with a double major in electrical and computer engineering. I’ve had a job lined up for months now at a fortune 50 company that will pay for a masters degree. What factors should I take into consideration when picking a masters degree? Does school matter? My current university is unranked and in close proximity to my future job so I was thinking of doing it there again. Will this hurt me having a bachelors & masters from an unranked school? I am considering a M.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering, M.S. in Engineering Management, or a MBA. MBA vs Engineering Management any thoughts here would be appreciated. My company has a program set up with top engineering schools to get a masters degree online from those schools. My concern with this is I haven’t really done online classes and I like interacting with my classmates, but a degree from a top school would be nice. Should I take a break before starting school again? I want to start right away because I don’t want to be behind where I could be. Thanks!
I would suggest working for a year or two and seeing what the company expects from you. That will help you decide whether the online or local option is best.
^What @xraymancs said.
Also, once you’ve worked for a year or two, you’ll have better defined career goals. That will also help you decide which master’s degree you should do.
Also, yes, you like interacting with your classmates because that’s a key component of an undergraduate degree. Graduate school is different - not that interacting with your classmates isn’t important there, too, but, you’ll be working full-time and will have interaction and stimulation there as well. It may end up being more important to you to have an MS from a big-name school than to go to grad school on the ground.
You won’t be. The business world values experience much more than education, and you already have a job. In a few years it may be more important for you to have an MS, but not having one is unlikely to hold you back now.
Thanks for all the info! You make good points about having interactions from work so that helps the big-name school. I think I will take a year or 2 off and see what I want then.
I am in an eerily similar position but a little further ahead so I wanted to add my two cents.
I graduated within the last couple years from a decently ranked state school with a double major in Electrical and Computer Engineering and had the exact same dilemma when I graduated. Since then, I’ve been working for a Fortune 500 company and am now applying to graduate programs for a Master’s in Engineering in Computer Engineering.
My reasoning behind that is that I have no intention of pursuing a PhD or going into hardcore research at any point in my life but I do have an inclination towards management roles somewhere down the line. An MEng degree in most universities is a non-thesis based Master’s program where most of your classes are technical engineering classes, but you have the flexibility to choose your electives to include business/management courses offered at that university. And because they aren’t thesis/research based, I’ve seen some programs that are entirely online if that is what works best for you.
My company has a similar deal where they will pay for my masters but it comes with conditions like maintaining a certain GPA, working for the company for a certain amount of time after completing my degree, and working part-time for a minimum number of hours per week while going to school. So I definitely recommend you check with your HR department about any conditions your company may have.