Hello all,
I’m a current 5th year senior at Clemson University majoring in Management with an emphasis in Supply Chain Management, and a minor in Packaging Science. I have a 3.76 GPA and have had 3 great internships. I was able to intern with BMW for 9 months and gained a lot of experience. This summer I’m interning at a small manufacturing company doing something similar to what I did at BMW.
Anyways, studying Supply Chain and being around Industrial Engineering at BMW made me want to purse my Masters in Industrial Engineering. I’ve already been in contact with the program director at Clemson and he said I won’t have to take any prerequisites even though I have business undergraduate degree.
What worries me is that I won’t be able to land a job after graduation. I am guaranteed an interview with BMW after I graduate but it’s very competitive and don’t expect to get it. I believe having a MSIE will open up even more opportunities for me in the future as well as earn more. The problem is, is that I’ll graduate with 30K in student loan debt.
Do you think I should study for my GRE and apply to graduate school, or should I try and find a job in Supply Chain before pursuing graduate studies? The median salary for my degree is 42K starting out. The median salary for an MSIE from Clemson is 71K. There is definitely an incentive to pursue it. Should I pay off debt before I pursue it? Help, I’m lost! I’ll be graduating in December of 2015.
How much more debt will you be taking on if you continue? Graduate school will be there for you in a couple of years and your employer might be willing to pay for your Masters degree. Plus you might find that your career takes you in a different direction. it might be worth it to take the GRE now while you are stillin the academic mode though. The scores are valid for 5 years and you can use them later.
You don’t need to make a decision right away, you are pretty sure that you will be admitted on short notice and so you can afford to look for a job before making a committment to graduate school.
10,000. I have some money saved from my internships.
The program director told me that the program was very competitive and admission is not a certainty, but that I would make a good canidate because of my GPA and internship at BMW.
That kinda worries me. I’ll most likely be the only business major applying to the program and will be competing with engineers and people who majored in hard sciences in undergrad. I’m wondering if it’s even worth my time study for the GRE and applying.
I’m currently interning so when I get home from work I’m pretty tired. But I have would have to start studying for it this weekend and take the test early October. The admissions deadline is November 1st if I want to start in the Spring. Normally they don’t let people start in the Spring but they said they would make a special case for me since I’m already a Clemson student.
What do you think my chances are of getting in if I score decent on the GRE? They average a 165 on the quantitate section. I don’t know if I can hit that high. The recommend you have a 160.
I just don’t want to waste my time studying for it if I can’t get in. I asked if I needed to take any prereqs for the program and he said typically they like students with 2-3 semesters of calculus and a background in stats and programming. So I told him I’ve taken business calc and two semesters of stats courses and he said that would be sufficient. I won’t have to take any prereqs.
@ctaylo9 - I think that it you are willing to put the time into preparing for the GRE it is worth applying and giving yourself options. In the meantime, you definitely should look for jobs and see what your options are. The GRE cost is mimimal compard to the effort.
I think it’s very common for college students to worry about not getting a job after college. But you have a degree with an emphasis in an in-demand field (supply chain management) and you’ve already had 3 internships and are preparing for a 4th. You have exactly the kind of experience that employers like to see in brand-new college students. I’m not going to say that you absolutely won’t have any trouble getting a job, but I think you should try first - you might be surprised.
Your desire for an MS seems to be motivated primarily by fear of not getting a job - rather than a genuine desire to study IE more deeply and do those kinds of jobs. I wouldn’t do an MS for that reason; but moreover, I think you should try to look for positions first before you worry too much.
Sure, the median salary for your degree ms lower than for an MSIE. But you also have to remember that you are sacrificing two years of salary to go to the MS program, plus adding debt. Even if you did make exactly the median, two years of salary is $82K plus an additional $10K - so that’s a cost of $92K. It’d only take a couple of years of working with an MSIE to make that up, BUT there’s also this intangible quality about graduate school that costs. Quite frankly, it’s really nice to just work!