I am currently a rising senior majoring in physics and I am having a hard time deciding between which path to take to engineering. I have been accepted to the 3-2 affiliate, but the school is giving me a hard time about some course credit which may extend the length of the program. This raises a BIG financial concern for me, but also makes me question whether it’s even worth pursuing two BS degrees in that time frame. My other option would be to pursue a master’s in Mech E or Materials Science. I am curious to see if anyone here has any experience with something like this and could offer some insight.
In almost all cases, grad school is the clear winner. An advanced degree is almost always better than a second bachelor’s degree. Having two bachelor’s degrees is rarely useful in the job market. The time spent finishing the second bachelor’s is usually better invested getting a graduate degree, and physics majors generally have a relatively smooth (though not seamless) transition to engineering graduate programs. The more engineering courses you can take alongside the physics courses, the better.
OP I don’t have any useful info but I am interested in your question. I would like to hear from others with experience in this. If I remember a poster once mentioned that the problem with going from physics to engineering for grad school is the extra time and cost for “levelling” classes (to get a student caught up on pre-req’s before starting the grad level courses).
May be too late but…Would it be an option to do a junior year at another institution and binge on engineering? Does your school offer an exchange with other schools that have engineering? For example Dartmouth has 3-2 and 2-1-1-1 programs but they also allow college exchange students to enroll in their engineering school classes.
Stick to a single degree like @AuraObscura suggests. With a physics degree you should be able to get into a materials science MS program with only a few remedial courses to take.