<p>Interesting discussion. My son is looking at possibly majoring in physics and then deciding whether he wants to go on to physics grad school or for an engineering masters.</p>
<p>It sounds like many would advise against that and that Masters in engineering are not as marketable as an engineering bachelors? </p>
<p>Not a good idea to be a “late decider”?</p>
<p>You are a professional engineer (have a license) only after you pass the P.E. exam. The prerequisites for sitting for the P.E. exam vary; you need to check your state laws.</p>
<p>so is there no chance for a business major to switch careers to chemical engineering or biochemical engineering? About to graduate in business (bachelors) but fairly certain now that that’s the path I should have gone down.</p>
<p>manoovi - it depends on how you intend to achieve this career switch. A second bachelors would be the slowest and most expensive means but the only one that would eliminate the most problems with the actual switch - please note that I am NOT recommending this. Getting into a ChemE or BioE grad program will be extremely difficult and may still limit you a bit in the future, but is not impossible and will probably be both faster and cheaper than that second bachelors.</p>
<p>Of course, getting in to that grad program will be quite the battle. A given grad position in a particular lab will typically expect 2-4 senior-level courses related to the position. Those courses will typically require several other engineering courses as prerequisites, which will in turn require a bunch of math, physics, and chemistry, and not having your transcript in front of me I am going to guess that you have completed NONE of that.</p>
<p>So realistically you probably need a good couple of semesters worth of classes, spread over 2+ years, just to get to the point where you are even eligible to apply to one narrow slice of one of those fields.</p>
<p>I went that route. Had a BA in Psych. Then after working for a while I went back and got into a BS Industrial Engineering program. I took:</p>
<p>Calc2-3
Physics1-2
C++
DiffEq
Statics
CAD-Solidworks
Manufacturing (Major course)
Solid Mechanics
Material Science
Probability Theory (Prob & Stats 1)
Engineering Economic Analysis
Statistical inference and Regression analysis (Prob & Stats 2)</p>
<p>After taking those I was then accepted into the MS.</p>
<p>You can get into a MS program without the same major. It’s just that you have to take the pre-req’s classes.</p>
<p>Cosmicfish, or whoever, so what if I simply wanted to get involved in the chemical field? Specifically in lab research. I know an engineering degree isn’t absolutely necessary (it is just the most highly regarded). What should my gameplan be in regards to that?</p>
<p>Involved in the chemical field in what way? I worked in a biochem lab having completed a couple of college level chem classes… but in a decidedly non-professional role! If you want the kind of job that doesn’t require a degree, I am not sure I can really help - you are talking factory-floor kind of jobs, because even lab techs have 4-year degrees these days, often more.</p>
<p>So if you want a professional job you are going to require a degree. Whether it is a Chemistry degree or a ChemE degree, the route remains the same, the only things that change are the details. It will be about the same number of years and credits regardless, because you are not currently qualified for either route. The nice thing is, the first 30 credits or so are about the same regardless - you need a lot of chemistry, a fair amount of math and physics, etc. After that, you can decide to steer towards one or the other.</p>
<p>I did my undergrad in CS and math. I’m now pursuing 3 MS degrees. One in CS which is easy for me since I did it undergrad. Another is systems which doesn’t really have much of an undergrad curriculum; strength in math is all that is required.</p>
<p>My other MS is in EE. Obviously this is a different ball park. Before starting I took the regular course on signals and systems as a starting point. (Since my undergrad and grad schools are the same, they were lax about forcing me to take extra intro courses). In terms of course work, I have to work very hard. I’m taking a graduate class on quantitative image processing, which uses the Fourier transform regularly (and has DSP as a prereq which I didn’t take). I have to work hard at the class; I have a Schaums outline guide on DSP to look up and practice topics that I am supposed to know. I also carefully select which courses I take (ie I stay away from power courses, electrodynamics, etc.). I’m sort of focusing on communications, with courses like Information Theory, coding theory, detection and estimation theory, signaling, and routing. So far, I have a 4.0 in my EE courses.</p>
<p>Come job time,I don’t have close to the needed background to get an EE job. I have focused on a specific area which I could work in, but I would consider myself many times weaker than someone with a BS in EE. Graduate courses focus on specific areas, while undergraduate are more fundamental. I’ve taken lots of communications classes, but still haven’t taken the undergrad one where you learn how to change signals to bits through transforms, how to send them, etc. I understand the concepts but not the practice.</p>
<p>Hence for me my MS in EE is more to set me apart from all the others with an MS in CS. I wouldn’t consider myself able to have an EE job without spending a year focusing on the undergrad courses that are really essential.</p>
<p>I would imagine for something like mech e, or cheme there would be a different story, requiring more undergrad courses to catch up.</p>
<p>(Sorry for any typos, getting used to the new CC app)</p>