<p>I'm gonna make this short and simple. I wrote a wall of text and the site automatically logged me off so I lost it all. Anyway, I'm currently a final year MET major at RIT. It's a 5 year course and my current GPA is approx 3.4. I'm looking at the prospects of taking up a MS/ME in Mech Engineering after I'm done to improve my knowledge/resume and earn me the credentials as an engineer (I'm not too happy with the limitations I might have to face down the road with my current degree). I asked a similar question on Linkedin and most of my connections in the industry said it was better to switch, if I could, but It's too late at the moment. I've been lucky to have my parents pay my tuition fees but they are only going to support me through my masters and then I'm on my own.
So, is there anyone out there that was/is in a similar dilemma or situation as this? Any input is appreciated. I'm sure a lot of the feedback won't be new stuff but I'll be looking forward to it.</p>
<p>Get masters in Mechanical. At all the job fairs I’ve been too, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering dominate locally. At the national job conventions, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering dominate.</p>
<p>It’s bad enough Mechanicals have to compete with Electricals, it’s worse that they have to compete with each other! Your MET degree will just get shoved aside. No offense, but a MET degree doesn’t stand a chance against these people.</p>
<p>Your MET degree will probably lead you to more administrative and business jobs where they need a technical person with some kind of engineering background to do consulting. Your odds are really against you if you want to be a REAL engineer with a MET.</p>
<p>One of the problems with getting an ET degree is that there is a large overlap in the job market for those with a BS and those with an AS, whereas an AS in engineering is seen as relatively useless.</p>
<p>I’ve worked with some ET grads, including from RIT, and I never saw a significant deficit in their capabilities. That may be that I work in rather low tech manfacturing. Nevertheless, they always felt they were disadvantaged in the job market with the perceived “lower” credentials. </p>
<p>If your desire is to work and get paid, then the BSMET is probably enough. If you want to be a high level design engineer, then the MSME would take you much closer to that goal.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback guys. Most of what both of you said are very true but I must disagree with peterhax a bit. I’ve gotten 2 co-ops while here at RIT with my MET degree. The positions were also open to engineering students and I’m pretty sure a good number of them were interviewed. Anyway, the main reason I’m doing this is to secure my future. It’d suck if I was interested in a particular position and was denied because of a degree that I received a couple years back even though I possess the necessary skills and have experience in that line of work.</p>
<p>Back to the main point, I finally decided to find out from the Mech engineering department. There’s this long list of extra classes I have to take as bridge courses before I will be allowed into the Masters in Engineering program ( I’m literally going to have to get a second degree in ME) and this is specifically tailored to students with MET degrees. </p>
<p>I find it annoying because a fair amount of the courses I’ll have to take have the same names with the ones I have taken while in MET but are slightly different. They are more calc oriented says the student coordinator. </p>
<p>Hopefully, I won’t be required to start from calc I and University Physics I since I’ve already completed college physics III and Calc I all the way up to Diff Eq for Eng Tech of which I got all A’s in, apart from physics III. Maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll get to skip the first or second iterations of these classes. </p>
<p>I should be meeting with the chair of the master of Eng program on Monday so I can have a good idea of what I’ll need to take. I hope it goes as expected.</p>
<p>Why not go for a Masters at another university where there might not be so many “remedial” courses to be taken?</p>
<p>A buddy of mine said the same thing. I’ll look into that and see if it’s possible.</p>
<p>I will offer another option - consider getting a job with an employer that would help you with the masters degree. A lot of companies will provide tuition reimbursement.</p>