<p>-Graduated last month in economics with very good grades
-Moved to Houston b/c of my wife's job, family, and the labor market in general
-Am working at a big oil company but insanely underemployed with no growth prospects
-Thinking about going back to school to get a BSc in PetE or ME (leaning toward PetE)
-Live rent free
-25 year old white male with no debt</p>
<p>Why I need advice:</p>
<p>-I'd probably have to do the entire 4 years (including general ed classes I'm guessing)
-Geographically, it'd be easier to stay in the Houston area so my wife could support us. That means I'm pretty much limited to A&M, Rice, and U of Houston. Maybe UT.
-What are the chances of getting into these schools as a post-bacc and how does it work?
-Would PetE at U of Houston be viewed in a negative light?
-Is the marginal benefit of going back to school greater than the marginal cost?
-What are my options?</p>
<p>You graduated last month and you are already thinking of throwing in the towel on your economics degree? Have you considered finding a job with a different company? What about a different business degree with better prospects? It would be easier to get another business degree than start from scratch with engineering.</p>
<p>Before you even consider getting an engineering degree make sure you have the aptitude and interest in the subject. I’ll let the more knowledgeable posters comment on the schools and degree options.</p>
<p>Why do you think you would need to start from scratch? In general, you should be able to get a second bachelors by transferring your gen ed courses and focusing on the requirements of the major and possible related prereqs if you are missing any. Have you tried talking to anyone at any of these schools?</p>
<p>Like you, I have a B.S. in Econ, I started a second B.S in Industrial Engineering last semester and Iowa State accepted about 40 credits- I will be done in about 2.5 to 3 years.</p>
<p>I have absolutely no regrets about what I am doing, I love Econ but I also love Engineering. Econ had a huge impact on how I see things today, it literally changed the way I look at the world, so it was a very useful degree overall.</p>
<p>If you liked Econ, I think you are going to enjoy Petroleum Engineering. I know very few Engineers who are able to analyze things systematically in terms of cost-benefit like we learn in Econ, and there is a lot of cost-benefit analysis involved in Petroleum Engineering.</p>
<p>I think a Petroleum Engineer with a solid background in Econ will be a valuable asset to any company</p>
<p>Awesome thank you, bschoolwiz. I love Econ also and kinda feel like I’d be turning my back on it but completely overlooked the potential overlap you mentioned. </p>
<p>I guess I didn’t realize I could simply have my general Ed classes transfer - it would be nice not having to start from scratch. </p>
<p>No problem! I also considered Petroleum Engineering for a while, it is a very interesting area but just a bit too specialized for my taste. If you ever decide to consider a 2nd choice for major, look into Industrial Engineering.</p>
<p>I think IE is a lot closer to Econ because it deals with optimization and improvement of processes-a lot people don’t much about IE but it is basically systems engineering- obviously broader in scope but also very interesting.</p>