<p>I’m a HS senior planning on going into engineering (most likely chemical engineering). A couple questions:</p>
<li><p>How important is it to get your master’s to pursue an engineering career? My parents tell me that a bachelor’s just doesn’t get you nearly as good of a job nowadays as a master’s, particularly in the engineering field.</p></li>
<li><p>Do employers care more about the prestige of your undergraduate school or graduate school? I have been accepted to Minnesota-Twin Cities and Wisconsin-Madison (both good engineering schools, and top 5 chemical engineering schools) and have been deferred by MIT (probably won’t get in). Theoretically, if I went to Minnesota-Twin Cities for undergrad and MIT for graduate work, would that be more impressive than MIT for undergrad and Minnesota-Twin Cities for graduate work?</p></li>
<li><p>How important is the prestige of your undergraduate school in getting into a good graduate school? If I attended Minnesota-Twin Cities and majored in a different type of engineering (where it’s not top 5, or possibly even top-20) would I have much of a chance of getting into a top graduate school (like MIT)? </p></li>
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<p>Thanks for all the help. Just trying to sketch some plans for my future, and I’m confused.</p>
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<li><p>Your parents are misinformed. An advanced degree is not vital in engineering as it is in other fields (there are exceptions, of course). There are some instances when a graduate degree could make it harder for you to find a job, since you are more "specialized" which means that there are less jobs available in that area. However, the upside is that those speacialized jobs generally pay better. But in engineering you generally get an advanced degree because you want to be more involved in the research side of things and NOT because you could'nt find a job without one.</p></li>
<li><p>Trick questions. Employers will probably only care about your graduate institution. However, the graduate school will consider the quality of your undergraduate school when considering admissions,</p></li>
<li><p>It's important, but its generally only one of a whole bunch of things, i.e. GRE scores, research experience, GPA etc.</p></li>
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<p>An engineering BS is easily the most valuable undergrad degree. I have plenty of friends that had 60-70k starting salaries with engineering BS's.</p>
<p>So, with a BS in chemical engineering I can probably get $70k a year...but, if I'm not mistaken (I might be) the truly big bucks come from engineering management. Is a master's much more preferable to "climb the ladder"? And how much can I expect to make with a master's in a more specialized area?</p>
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[quote]
1. How important is it to get your master's to pursue an engineering career? My parents tell me that a bachelor's just doesn't get you nearly as good of a job nowadays as a master's, particularly in the engineering field.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Do employers care more about the prestige of your undergraduate school or graduate school? I have been accepted to Minnesota-Twin Cities and Wisconsin-Madison (both good engineering schools, and top 5 chemical engineering schools) and have been deferred by MIT (probably won't get in). Theoretically, if I went to Minnesota-Twin Cities for undergrad and MIT for graduate work, would that be more impressive than MIT for undergrad and Minnesota-Twin Cities for graduate work?</p></li>
<li><p>How important is the prestige of your undergraduate school in getting into a good graduate school? If I attended Minnesota-Twin Cities and majored in a different type of engineering (where it's not top 5, or possibly even top-20) would I have much of a chance of getting into a top graduate school (like MIT)?
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</p></li>
<li><p>Your parents are wrong. Engineering is one field in particular where you can do just fine with a bachelors. </p></li>
<li><p>Once you have a graduate degree nobody is really going to care where you went for undergrad. So to answer your question, going to MIT as a undergrad then to Twin Cities for graduate is almost like a downgrade. Go to MIT as a graduate if you can or better yet go to MIT for undergrad AND graduate!</p></li>
<li><p>They really won't care where you went to undergrad. There are a few things they will look at. Your major (engineering), grades, research experience, and job (or internship) experience. I'm not sure if MIT is more difficult to enter as an undergrad or graduate student.</p></li>
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<p>That all depends on how much you pay for your masters and what job opportunities you give up to get your masters. If you lose two years of full time income plus two years of tuition it will take you a long time to make up for that. </p>
<p>If you work while going for your masters and your company pays for it then it is definitely worth it.</p>