<p>I was wondering if anyone had any info on M. Eng. programs. Are they at all beneficial to someone who wants to eventually pursue a PhD? Does anyone know much about the M. Eng. Programs at Cornell and do they have any opinions on them?</p>
<p>My friend was just accepted for a Masters in engineering at Cornell (computer science). He plans to finish his education (getting his Ph.D.) at either Cornell or Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>I have an Applied and Engineering Physics MENG from Cornell. In general, most MENG programs are Cornell are very easy and quick (1 year, less if you are a Cornell undergrad and can take grad classes senior year).</p>
<p>The beauty of the degreee is that companies and government labs treat them like MS degrees. My starting salary was 20K higher because of the MENG. At Cornell, most people call them "bull-shXX" degrees. The CS MENG has a better reputation though. </p>
<p>If you are going to go straight to grad school after the degree, I would say it is not worth it. Unless you are unsure of what you want to do in grad school or want breadth from the MENG degree, it would be a waste of time. </p>
<p>The one exception is if your undergraduate GPA is not up to par with the average for your top choice Phd programs. In this case, a 4.0 GPA during a MENG would go far to help you application.</p>
<p>I hope this helped.</p>
<p>Thanks so much, that actually does help me a lot. My undergrad GPA is not high enough to enter the PhD programs I hope to go to, so in that way, I'm glad to hear this degree could help if I do well. I am also considering deferring for one year if that is possible to get a research job and then going next year. That way I can try and improve my application as much as possible for when I apply to grad school again.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice!</p>
<p>Oh ya, by the way I am going for the M. Eng. in Biomedical Engineering. I'm not sure what kind of rep that program has, but hopefully it's good enough. Also, I'm did my undergrad at Berkeley, do you think it's still easy enough to complete the degree in one year?</p>
<p>They are designed to be completed in one year. I don't have any experience with the BioMed degree, but I'm sure is reputation is as high, if not higher (considering the recent completion of Duffield Hall).</p>
<p>hi forgradadvice, </p>
<p>You mentioned that:
"The one exception is if your undergraduate GPA is not up to par with the average for your top choice Phd programs. In this case, a 4.0 GPA during a MENG would go far to help you application."</p>
<p>If the program is only one year (say the year 2006-2007) and you intend to enter a PhD program the following year (say the year 2007-2008), then I would expect that no record from the MEng program would be available at time of application (Dec 07~Jan 08) to the PhD program. Is that the correct expectation? </p>
<p>If it is, then would it be correct to say that a good MEng record would only help your PhD application if either you skip a year between the two programs or take more than 1 year to complete the MEng program?</p>
<p>JYEK,
You make a good point. I did take some time off inbetween my MENG and my Undergrad, but that was because of mission time scales. However, that would make this difficult. The workaround would be if you start your MENG during your second semester senior year. Then you can put the current GPA on your resume and in the transcript. </p>
<p>Also, your first semester would most likely be available during the application process. Many graduate schools accept applications until early January. For those that don't, they certainly do not start looking at application until after christmas. So you could send an update with the new grades before they review your application.</p>
<p>The power of the MENG is really in the higher starting salary and not the boost for the graduate application. But for people with lower GPAs, I at least think its a good way to curtail a few freshman year blunders (without taking another 2 years to get an MS).</p>