<p>Dear Readers,
I am considering the University of Wisconsin-Madison or Purdue University for their Online MS programs in Electrical Engineering. I am a recent graduate from UIC with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering with an overall GPA of 3.71. I am only considering the Online programs because I am employed in the Chicago area and I won't be able to take any on-campus courses. </p>
<p>Is anybody familiar with the Online MS program for ECE at Wisconsin or Purdue? I am just concerned that it won't be regarded as an actual EE degree simply because it's an Online program, but I am not sure and I want to make the right decision. </p>
<p>Your feedback and comments would be highly appreciated.</p>
<p>The whole thing about how an online degree is regarded will come down to the indidvidual that interviews you and the climate of your industry. I am not in EE, so I could not tell you but my M.S. Engineering is through the Univ of Wisconsin System and it has not hurt me a bit.</p>
<p>Granted, in my niche industry of federal government contracting, a masters degree is really a “check off the box” item to determine how much salary and/or how much you can be billed at.</p>
<p>GLOBAL TRAVELER, thanks for your input! was your MS degree online? And how is the lab work handled if there is any? </p>
<p>One of the reasons why I am interested in the MS in EE is because I know far down the road I would want to teach at a community college or a university while keeping my current full time job, and I am hoping that having an online degree will not hurt my chances.</p>
<p>Yes, my M.S. degree was online. Since the “emphasis” was more of systems engineering/engineering management, there were no real “labs”. What we did have were a lot of group scenario projects that required us to conference-call each other and deliver a finished solution to a problem.</p>
<p>I will say this. I started off taking a classroom course (which I later transferred to my M.S. degree) and can say that the online course gave more work. I am not saying that online was harder than a classroom or vice-versa but the online course had more assignments…when you add up required discussions, quizzes, projects and exams.</p>
<p>From my research, a lot of schools (there are more than a few) with online degrees give the same degree as on campus students. So there would be no way to distinguish them unless you told a future employer. </p>
<p>Good schools have online MS degrees even in EE. They are geared towards working engineers. USC, ASU, Stanford, UCLA, Purdue… </p>
<p>Enjoy that salary bump after you are finished.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I will apply to UWisconsin-Madison and I am hoping that I will get in.
I have been doing some research about the online MSECE degree and it turned out that it is the same exact degree that the school grants to on-campus students, so I am more confident about the program now. </p>
<p>Lookin4ward, all of the schools you mentioned do have an online program, but I haven’t checked USC. I was a little surprised actually when I learned that Northwestern, UIllinois-Urbana and UMichigan do not offer an online program in ECE, but it is ok because I am certain that UWisconsin-Madison will provide no less of an education.
Please feel free to add anything you would like to say</p>
<p>All,
Am I making a mistake by not applying to Purdue’s online program for MS-Electrical Engineering? It is ranked higher that UW-Madison on US-News (for Engineering), but I am not certain if that should be a deciding factor. I have also noticed that Stanford and UCLA offer online programs in ECE, but the programs’ concentrations are not of an interest to me. I am interested in control and power systems. </p>
<p>Please feel free to share your thoughts, and it would be great to hear from current, former and/or future students from any school. Thanks.</p>
<p>The ones I listed are more traditional signals and systems, VLSI, and digital communications. USC site is down so I can’t look up the program there. </p>
<p>I would look at price and time to finish. Going part time some programs are longer than others. If about the same, spring for Purdue…pretty well known everywhere.</p>