Master's in Engineering Management or MBA?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>What is the difference between a master's degree in engineering management and an MBA? For example, Columbia offers an "MS in Engineering and Management Systems" and Stanford offers an "MS in Management Science and Engineering". </p>

<p>If I intend to stay in the engineering industry doing business, would I be at a disadvantage if I have an "MS in Engineering Management" rather than an MBA?</p>

2

<p>A masters degree is technically a research degree so itrequires original research and a thesis to complete and is the prerequisite for a PhD program. An MBA is a professional degree and is considered a terminal degree. However, if you get one that doesn’t mean you can’t get another. Engineers with masters degrees do sometimes go on to get MBAs.</p>

3

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<p>Not a professional MS, which is what these programs are.</p>

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<p>Think of it this way: Let’s say that your job is to manage a research department. You have $5 million in funding for this year, and $100 million in potential projects, with varying resource requirements (some take 3 engineers, some 1), timing (some are 6 month projects, some 6 year), and risk. How do you pick what to pursue?</p>

<p>An MBA would calculate the expected net present value of each project, order them from highest to lowest, and start picking starting from the top in a way that fills out the budget with the highest expected value projects.</p>

<p>An Industrial Engineer might develop a stochastic optimization problem with a two dimensional objective function (risk and reward) to maximize portfolio alignment with resource constraints.</p>

<p>The point: an MBA will take a strategy in solving the problem (maybe get you 80% of optimum), an industrial engineer will mathematically optimize the problem.</p>

<p>So where does engineering management fall? Somewhere in the middle. And the school determines exactly where. For example, Columbia and Stanford lean towards Industrial Engineering, while Duke leans towards MBA.</p>

<p>Regardless, engineering management is not an MBA and will not be viewed the same. That can be good and bad. </p>

<p>Good:<br>

  • It only takes a year to complete at most schools
  • It’s cheaper, usually
  • It puts you on a very defined career path (technical management)</p>

<p>Bad:

  • You have much fewer career options than an MBA
  • You usually don’t get the same career resources as an MBA
  • You don’t get the same graduate network as an MBA
  • You frequently don’t get the non-technical MBA courses (finance, accounting, marketing, etc.) which become important when you’re promoted past first level management and have to communicate with non-technical managers.</p>

<p>Engineering management students are usually people with BS engineering degrees, 5-7 years of experience, and an existing job (from which they are taking leave). It’s otherwise difficult to get into engineering management, as most companies tend to promote from within for first level technical managers.</p>

4

<p>I am a masters student in the civil department university of ottawa. My interest has always been in management side of the trade, and am seriously considering of changing my majors to engineering management. It will be really great if you can guide me about the program and job scopes thereafter. i am really confused rather i should stick with the meng in civil or meng in engineering management.</p>