<p>Hey whats up guys and gals...</p>
<p>So i recently graduated from UCLA with a BA in political science but now I would like to enroll in a systems engineering masters program. I don't have any prior experience in engineering so is this impossible?</p>
<p>lol i meant to write pursuing*</p>
<p>Well… yes. If you don’t know how to do engineering at an undergraduate level, how could you possibly learn how to do it at a postgraduate level?</p>
<p>Like, you don’t always need your degree to be in the specific field you go to grad school for, but you need something. Why did you think that this might be possible?</p>
<p>anything is possible</p>
<p>I mean, no, it’s not. We don’t have four year engineering programs because it’s fun, we have them because most of the things taught in them are necessary to be a competent engineer.</p>
<p>Now, systems engineering is interdisciplinary, so there are fewer specific technical requirements than for, say, mechanical engineering. The major problem is the math; engineers receive a lot of mathematical training that most political science BAs do not, and systems engineering programs use it.</p>
<p>so you have proven my point. With a firm foundation in mathematics one may pursue systems engineering.</p>
<p>You’ll definitely have to take some classes before you can pursue the degree. Not necessarily a full degree, but definitely some classes.</p>
<p>Yes, you point is proven! ALL you have to take is:</p>
<p>Calc 1,2,3
Linear Algebra
Differential Equations</p>
<p>…and for my program (Industrial and Systems Engineering) an additional:</p>
<p>Probability and distribution theory
Statistical inference and regression
Deterministic Modeling
Stochastic Modeling</p>
<p>(Our grad program requires all of that before entrance)</p>
<p>That’s only a couple of years of pre-reqs… </p>
<p>So…This is why I too have a BA and am spending 3 years getting a BSIE. 1.5 down, 1.5 to go…</p>
<p>It was an honest question. Don’t know why people are jumping on the OP for it. Other fields (such as architecture and business) offer graduate programs to students who studied unrelated fields in undergrad, so it’s not something that’s out of this world. It’s a fair question.</p>
<p>Systems engineering is one of the few graduate engineering programs that do not have many technical/engineering requirements. Usually, you just need the core engineering math (noted in Chucktown’s post) and a probability/statistics course. Some programs may also ask for Physics I & II.</p>
<p>My undergraduate degree is in Math/CS and my M.S. is in systems engineering (well called M.S. in Engineering but my emphasis was systems engineering).</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Actually I completely forgot about this: [Boston</a> University College of Engineering Systems Engineering](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/eng/academics/programs/systems/]Boston”>BU BME Systems and Synthetic Bioengineering | College of Engineering) but you would have to move to boston.</p>
<p>Requirements, and not a lot at that:
[Boston</a> University College of Engineering Special Programs Late Entry Accelerated Program](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/eng/academics/special-programs/leap/requirements/]Boston”>Requirements for Incoming ENG Graduate Students | College of Engineering)</p>
<p>A lot of masters programs in systems/industrial engineering will recognize that not all students come from systems/industrial engineering backgrounds and will often not require core undergraduate courses in the field prior to admission, but will require you take them (often for non-credit) to satisfy prerequisites for the degree. Before entry you definitely should have taken at least Calc 1-3, DiffEq, Linear Algebra, Probability, Statistics, and some programming knowledge (either coursework or demonstrated otherwise). That really constitutes the bare minimum, more than that would definitely help.</p>