so for engineering it is said that you should have research experience with a professor if you want to go to a top eng grad school (top 5) . I guess be involved in “a project” Even get published if possible.
Does a summer internship at a respected research lab have value? It would involve modeling, design, 3D printing. In fact, a respected corporation offered an internship with similar duties.
Which would look better on a resume for getting into a top grad school?
Research is always going to be better for grad school purposes than an internship. A research-oriented internship is better than an ordinary internship, but it’s still not the same as academic research.
Just work with a professor in his or her lab during the semester and do the internship over the summer. Also, the more semesters you stay with the same professor’s lab, the better the quality of your research experience is likely to be, so try to really get into whatever lab you hopefully join.
I’ll play devil’s advocate. How will you know that you want to grad school if you haven’t had some campus research experience?
DS got some research under his belt fairly early (summer/campus, 2semesters/cross-campus). That helped him realize that he did NOT want to go to grad school. Well, at least not yet. That was good because it allowed him to just focus on job search senior year.
For you it could be the opposite, with focus on grad school apps… IF you know for sure it’s your kind of gig.
major is mechanical but would like to be more specific with an aeronautical/aerospace degree so thought that would be good for grad school. not sure of emphasize within that. already had internship at a large aeronautical co.
I see there are grad degrees that are one yr for those wanting to go into industry vs 2 yrs with research. are those respected?
I’ve never heard of a 1 year graduate degree except in the case of students who take some graduate courses as undergraduates and stay at the same school.
What’s your motivation for graduate school? You said you want to get into aerospace edit you’ve already interned in the aerospace business and you are majoring in a field that is still sought by aerospace companies. Meanwhile, you have no particular specialty in mind for yor graduate studies. It honestly sounds like graduate school might not be for you just yet.
Cornell has a 1 yr. MIT also in some engineering but not aerospace.
The 1 yr. is a Master of Engineering degree. It is not a research degree, it is a practice degree. Students do a year-long design project and take courses.
After that the expectation is you will go to industry.
The extra value added you bring then, vs BS grads, will depend on what you’ve accomplished, before and in your M Eng year. Industry experience is most helpful beforehand in order to craft a great design project.If you don’t have your own project in mind, they will come up with things for you to do that meet their priorities. But it is possibly better for you if you have your own project.
I would say the degree is respected as a degree from that engineering school. But in general, master’s degrees are kind of murky in engineering for people not doing research. Because what you do in that extra year is not identical to what you would have learned practicing in that same year. I don’t think that in engineering practice a master’s from anywhere is necessarily given more respect than a bachelor’s from that same place. It’s really what you do/know that counts. Just my personal opinion.
thanks so much. btw…I don’t want to mislead…but I am the parent trying to help. I know engineers but mostly CS and wish he had a mentor in the aviation industry to ask questions to. maybe he doesn’t need grad school know but most co he worked at or interviewed for internship tend to bring it up.
Have him check with campus career center. Maybe they can give him some advise and/or contacts.
In what context do they bring it up? Is it like “so why did you want to get an ME degree for aerospace?” or is it more like “we need these skills, does your ME degree cover them?”
They may just be trying to make sure his interests actually lie in aerospace.
from internships after sophomore to now (he is a jr) asked if he thought about grad school. just generic…not stating a particular degree or school. He didn’t think of grad school till just recently after so many asked.
another son is an engineer (computers with cs minor but not in aviation) and told to go to grad school if he wants to move up. Only been out of school 1.5 yrs.
So I read on CC that eng don’t necessarily need grad school but not what we are hearing or feeling…
Having a Master can be a competitive advantage, but you have to weight it against against the cost in time and money(including lost salary).
A very popular option, for those students looking to go into industry, is a combined BS/MS degree program (4/1 Program). These program allows you to double-count graduate courses toward both degrees, thus reducing the time it would normally take to graduate by a semester or more.
Determine if this is an option at his current school. As a junior, he would need to apply to the program. Then in his senior year, he likely will need to take the GRE test and apply to grad school.
“Having a Master can be a competitive advantage”,
It wasn’t really, in my particular practice area. They cared mostly about what you knew, and what you can do. The actual work the engineers did there on-the job did not relate perfectly to school course work, so more academic-type course work did not help them all that much more, compared to real work experience. Maybe it depends on the particular field.
“…but you have to weight it against against the cost in time and money(including lost salary).”
That’s for sure. In my practice area, at time, an engineer with one year of actual work experience made the same or more than somebody coming out of school with a Master’s degree and no work experience.
Lake Jr.'s experience is similar to that of Colorado Mom’s son; Lake Jr. was fortunate to get a research internship as an underclassman, and then joined a professor’s lab for nearly the entire academic year. He enjoys research very much and like a lot of students has speculated (daydreamed?) about graduate school. He begins a co-op rotation this spring, therefore he’ll have a taste of the working world. Naturally it’s always good for students to keep their options open, and ultimately follow their favored career activity.