halfway through undergrad, stumbling through ideas about graduate school

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>As I stated in the title, I just finished my sophomore year. I always thought that if I went to grad school, I would do a 5 years bachelors/masters program through my school. Now, I'm starting to consider the idea of applying somewhere else.</p>

<p>I have a lot of questions....
if I just want to end up working in industry, is a M.Eng degree a better option? are they looked upon the same as MS degrees in industry?
I go to a school with a top 10 ranking in my program's field. Since I have the GPA requirement, and think it'll stay where it is at, if not get higher, to do a 5th year masters, would it be silly of me to not just do this, especially considering the fact I might not get into a graduate program as highly ranked?
This summer I am working as a lab assistant, not doing any of my own research, and although it seems like this will continue through the fall, I'm not certain. If I stay with this lab, I may or may not have an opportunity to do a research project of my own. I have a somewhat decent GPA (3.2) and am heavily involved in campus activities, would I even be a strong MS/MEng applicant at some of the more highly ranked graduate programs?</p>

<p>Thanks for any advice...</p>

2

<p>bump???</p>

3

<p>M.S. vs. M.Eng. depends highly on the job you want and who is doing the hiring. In general, an M.S. holder is qualified for all jobs an M.Eng. holder is qualified for but not vice versa. Of course, this is assuming the M.Eng. is a non-thesis option, which is USUALLY the case in the U.S.</p>

<p>Assuming you are doing a terminal Masters degree, there is not really any reason to change schools unless you just want to. It should be more about where you can get the research you want in the case of a thesis-based degree anyway.</p>

<p>A 3.2 is pretty borderline for a top grad school, though with the appropriate supporting stats (GRE, research and recommendations) you can overcome that. It won’t be easy though.</p>

4

<p>I have a couple of questions regarding graduate school (sorry to hijack the post)</p>

<p>1) What are the GPA ranges usually for top graduate programs, for both masters and Ph.D level (assuming recs and GRE being competitive)?</p>

<p>2) What’s the difference between obtaining a master’s degree via 5-year program like CGUS/SGUS/EGL at umich versus getting a master’s degree elsewhere that may take 2 years at a higher institution after a bachelor’s at umich?</p>