I am a 23 year old recent college grad with an AAS and BOS in Engineering Technology from a non-ABET accredited program at a large public school in Ohio. I had a 3.4 undergrad GPA which I obtained while working full time and going to school full time, along with running two startup companies in college (one was somewhat successful and the other failed and was dissolved). I am currently working in a continuous improvement type engineering role in the aerospace industry full-time while running my one business on the side, and have about 7 years of full-time work experience in manufacturing from various roles I held working through college.
I would like to attend graduate school next fall and am split between an MBA path or an Industrial Engineering/Product Design & Development path. I really want to attend well known tech-related schools like Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western Reserve, Ohio State, etc. to get my degree. I obviously want to get in the best school as possible but I don’t have any interest in Ivy League schools or Stanford/MIT where I know I would struggle and would be a long shot for admittance anyways.
Short term (5-10 years) I would like to get a good cross-functional education and work experience in engineering and design, while eventually work into an entry-level management position.
Long term I would like to run a startup company someday in the manufacturing industry that helps people design and build products in my prototype lab.
I was wanting some opinions from people from their experiences or knowledge if the non-ABET degree would hurt my chances of acceptance in these schools, and if you think based on my short term and long term goals if you would suggest I go into an MBA program or get a specialized engineering degree.
There are a ton of threads asking this same question, I suggest perusing them first.
Non-ABET degrees can always be a problem, and can be one of those problems that follow you for a while. Grad schools are probably less concerned than industry will be, but their websites may give some indication. For example, Ohio State’s IE grad admissions page says:
“Preference is given to graduates of accredited colleges and universities with undergraduate degrees in any engineering discipline, data analytics, computer science, mathematics, statistics or science with a GPA of 3.2 or greater.”
Which suggests that you are facing an uphill battle.
You did not ask it, but I will also point out that going from a technology degree to grad school is often an uphll battle as well - some departments may outright reject someone with a technology degree as unprepared for grad study, Penn State’s EE department used to have that on their website.
I will also point out that some of the schools you listed don’t offer IE degrees. And I will also point out that with a 3.4 GPA you will probably not be competitive at some of those schools.
As to MBA vs a technical masters, I cannot speak to the long term but an MBA will kill your short term goal dead. The vast majority of engineering managers (including all the ones I’ve ever known) seem to feel that getting an MBA means you no longer want to be an engineer… which means they no longer want to hire you as an engineer. You have to assume that when you get the MBA you will only be hirable in a business function, and it will only be a management role if your actual experience justifies it. So tread carefully, and good luck.
I did do a little more research and found that while most schools may not require the ABET accreditation, they do give preference to applicants who had a more rigorous degrees, and want some pre-requisite coursework in hard math and sciences. I did take some hard math and sciences but did not go past Calc 1, and that course was my worst grade in undergrad. I am starting to think that if I want to pursue the MSIE route that I may want to either take this pre-requisite coursework ahead of time, or go back for a second bachelors degree that is ABET accredited and then apply, with a few more years of engineering exp. under my belt. I think I can get the second bachelors with the ABET accreditation in 2 years.
I do disagree about the GPA though. Each one of those schools I listed has an average at or below 3.4 for their MBA program. I think my silver lining is that I worked full-time and took 15-19 credit hours each semester through college. Though I understand that numbers don’t lie and that my GRE/GMAT scores will determine my aptitude, I have no doubts that my GPA would have been 3.8+ had I only done summer internships like other “traditional” students.
Most engineering grad programs will expect at least math through Calc 3, and grad-level engineering is MORE mathematical than undergrad so you need to be comfortable with the material.
Take some classes as a non-degree student and come up to speed on the material (with good grades, of course), but avoid the second bachelor’s like the plague. It is a huge investment in time and money (with little-to-no student aid!) t correct a deficiency that can be addressed at a small fraction of the costs. Seriously, a second bachelors only makes sense under a few rare circumstances, and yours does not look like one of them.
I was speaking about the MS programs, I cannot speak to MBA GPA requirements at any given schools, nor is that an issue for this forum - there is a separate forum for MBA questions. Regardless, let me restate it: your GPA appears to be on the low side for MS engineering programs at the schools indicated. Your work experience may be an advantage in MBA admissions, although it is my understanding that they look specifically for supervisory or managerial experience, so be prepared to sell that portion of your time in industry.
For the technical degree, the GRE carries a low weight. It is used more as a verification, with a low score calling your application into question but a high score doing little, if anything, to elevate your standing. Generally, your GPA and research experience (reflected in letters of recommendation and, if possible, publications) are the biggest factors in admissions.
I cannot speak to the value of the GMAT or GRE for MBA admissions.
You earned a respectable GPA, but you can only claim what you can demonstrate. If you feel that your GPA does not reflect your true ability level, you need to find a way to demonstrate what that level actually is.
I have no relevant industry involvement but wanted to share that there are concurrent M Engineering / MBA programs. University of Houston has at least one – "MIE/MBA Concurrent Degree Program "
As an observation, there are relatively few jobs that really benefit simultaneously from both degrees. Programs like this are very appealing at first but they mostly mean more work for little (if any) advantage over just taking one of the two degrees. A more usual progression is to take the MS when you are working as an engineer and then take the MBA when and if you are ready to leave engineering behind and move full time to the business side. If you don’t own the company, it is very unlikely that you would be able to perform both functions in one job.
I work in tech but I’m not an engineer, so my commentary is only based on observation and not direct experience. I’m not sure it matters.
At my very large technology company, there seem to be two main ways that people move into management: 1) they start out as an IC here and through experience and knowledge eventually move into a management position; or 2) they come from outside the company (sometimes directly from an MBA program and sometimes from another company) after holding a management position somewhere else.
I’ve seen engineering managers who have a master’s in engineering and engineering managers with an MBA.
I will say that at the higher reaches of our org, most of the senior technical leaders I’ve seen have their advanced degrees in engineering or whatever their technical area is (if they have one at all!). It’s the senior business leaders - in orgs like marketing, HR, finance, etc. - that have MBAs.