Hello, I will be finishing up my undergrad degree in the fall, B.S. Resource Conservation, but I don’t feel that my degree has really taught me anything. I have been looking at graduate degrees and have become really interested in engineering specifically Mechanical Engineering. I see that Boston University has the LEAP program that helps people with non-engineering bachelor’s degrees earn a master’s engineering degree. Does anybody know if there are any other programs like this out there?
Do you actually want to work in engineering or are you just looking at engineering because you’re worried about entering the job market with the degree you have?
Unless you’ve actually tried engineering through taking coursework, maybe an internship, and you’re pretty sure you want to enter the field as a career - you should probably just try the job market first with the degree that you do have. A lot of college students feel like they are unprepared for the work world when they graduate, but that’s kind of normal. You learn much of what you need to know on the job anyway. The BA more or less prepares you to take in the information.
The LEAP program page doesn’t have a whole lot of information on it, but from what I see, it basically just seems like a program where you take prerequisite undergraduate coursework and then move into a master’s program. But you can do that anywhere - it doesn’t have to be a formal program. You can take classes as a non-degree student or get a second bachelor’s in engineering.
No, I’m pretty sure that I want to work in engineering. I hate my degree and the coursework is too simple and focused on social sciences instead of figuring out actual problems. Most of the people with my degree go work for the Forest Service or the National Park Service which I do not want to do. The only reason I’m finishing with this degree is that I was undeclared until my junior year when the university told me that I needed to declare a major and since I had most of the coursework done I just picked this degree. I knew I liked learning about environmental problems particularly renewable energy and was going to transfer to another school for Environmental Engineering or Mechanical Engineering but it would’ve cost too much money to transfer. My ultimate goal is to join the Navy as a Civil Engineer Corps Officer, put in my 20 years there, and then go work for Tesla or NASA or something like that.