Should I go for my MSEE with current job?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hello all, I have just joined on here and seems like a great place for advice. Well I guess I’ll start by saying that I'm planning to pursue an MSEE degree at City College in Manhattan. First off, let me explain that I do have my BS in Electrical Engineering Technology(not EE) and had no problems getting into to various MSEE programs such as Polytech and NYIT. To explain things a bit better, I went to a college that did not offer a full fledge EE degree and only offered an EET degree, so for those of you that say I should have gotten an EE degree it really wasn't an option at the time. To be honest with you, people on here say that EETs are not engineers. This is complete false and utter nonsense, because here in the state of New York EET's very well are considered a professional engineer once they pass both the FE/EIT(which I have passed already) and PE exam. So if the state recognizes you as an engineer, you are an engineer. Realistically, once you have a PE license, getting just about any engineering position shouldn’t be a problem regardless of EET or EE. And to prove most of the doubters wrong once more, I have a great job working as an Electrical Engineer(not a technician) right in Manhattan for a consulting firm. It’s my first job right out of school and I'm making 45,000/year. I get to design power distribution systems for commercial buildings using software such as ETAP and SKM power tools, as well as autocad of course. I can’t speak for the electronics field but in the Power & utility companies and consulting business it really doesn't make any difference. </p>

<p>With that out of the way, I think that my schools EET degree is very challenging. It is almost the same as many EE degrees out there (especially NYIT). There are some topic areas that were not covered, but I think this varies from school to school. When taking the FE exam I realized that I did not go much into Signal analysis. We did cover Fourier serious and Fourier transforms but not much in convolution and digital signal processing(DSP). The school seemed to focus heavily on programming and control systems. I took 2 control systems classes that really covered everything feedback systems, z-transforms, laplace transforms, bode plots, routh-horwitz, matlab etc. I took Calc 1, Calc 2, differential equations, linear algebra and even engineering economics. For whatever reason, Calc 3 wasn't required but I took it anyways. The only thing that is required for me to get into most MSEE programs is a probability course since I hadn't taken one. I actually found this degree harder for me because I’m very poor at programming and working with computers but excel in math and physics. What I didn't like is that they didn't really require us to take chemistry or a thermodynamics class. That really hurt me on the FE exam. I took a basic chemistry class in my freshman year of community college before transferring but that was a long time ago lol. </p>

<p>Anyways, what I’m trying to figure out is if a MSEE at city college is doable with working a full time job. Do people do it? Also with my educational background not having experience with DSP, convolution and such really hurt me in grad school? Anyone on here experience City college’s graduate EE classes first hand? I really just want a feel for grad school so I understand what I'm getting myself into. I really wish they had an MSEE option dealing with power and power electronics because I know this very well from my job. I was thinking of concentrating on controls as I really loved it. Any advice is greatly appreciated.</p>

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<p>When I was doing this, I found that work, night school, and commutes was way toomuch. Add in the fact that taking one course per semester would take years to complete the degree requirements.</p>

<p>Electronics and technology change very rapidly and the average jobs that I had lasted just 3 years before I had to move on to another company and different electronic technology. The night school degree that I started many years ago could be obsolete, as was my previous job. </p>

<p>The jobs that I did have in technology was for a brief time, leading edge and probably surpassed what could be found in formal education. So I concluded that if I wanted to stay in technology I had to stay in companies that ALWAYS had leading edge awareness and not to be slotted into certain positions. … Very difficult in practice.</p>

<p>I would personally think that you should take classes that interest you. That you should strengthen your knowledge in what you are currently doing. And look towards the next incremental change in your field-stay forward of the curves. </p>

<p>I change carreers. </p>

<p>YMMV</p>

3

<p>Well I might be able to take 2 classes per semester, with a class over the summer so it would probably take me a little over 2 years to complete. Its only 10 classes. Right now I’m working in the field of power and power distribution. Unfortunately, City College doesn’t offer anything in this area. I was very interested in control systems, and would love to take up a career in that. Only problem is there really doesn’t seem to be many jobs in the way of control systems in the New York Metro area. With the way the economy is right now, it was very difficult to get a job especially right out of school and without much experience and no PE. I do enjoy working in my current field and would love to get a job at Con Edison or another utility company designing large scale power distribution substations and transmission lines.</p>