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<li>Is a M.S. in chemE worth it?</li>
<li>How long should one wait after undergrad to get a M.S. ?</li>
<li>Is a MBA helpful for an engineer ? </li>
<li>how long should an engineer wait after under grad or grad school to get an MBA ?</li>
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<p>i’m not sure about 1 or 2, but I think I can help a bit with 3 and 4</p>
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<li><p>With an MBA and some background in Chemical Engineering disipline, you can work as a product marketer for big drug companies or help companies patent their products. I believe these jobs are in huge demand and pay very well.</p></li>
<li><p>I know some people who minor in business while majoring in Chem or doing some other double-up…but their lives are hell. If this was me (since I’m considering going into ChemEng and then getting an MBA), I would work as whatever jobs chemical engineers usually get and get a few years of background knowledge before I get an MBA. Probably will help with getting a business/managment job and such too if you have more experience.</p></li>
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<p>It depends. Assuming you have a BS in chemical engineering and are considering a non-thesis MS program, you will probably not learn too much, and the salary increase is about the same as 1 year of employment.</p>
<p>There are two cases when an MS really pays off: the first case is when you go to a better school (and by “better”, I mean one with more job opportunities or more visible). The new degree can give you access to new employers, a new alumni network, and new careers that may not have been previously available. The second case is when you graduate with a really low GPA but are able to get into a respectable graduate program. You can basically start over and earn a very high GPA in your MS program and use to convince people to hire you.</p>
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<p>I think it’s best to go get the MS immediately. Some people will have different perspectives, but in my experience, if you leave academia for a few years, it’s hard to get yourself back in (you lose the motivation to study, you find new ways to occupy your time, etc.). Also, many schools offer MS degrees at night or on line and many employers pay for MS degrees. So you can earn a free MS from a top engineering program for free while still getting work experience.</p>
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<p>For an engineer in an engineering capacity: no. For an engineer that wants to work in management, consulting, business analysis, product management, or any other type of business function, yes. In many cases, an MBA is the only way to get into certain careers or positions.</p>
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<p>3-5 years. The value of an MBA program is that you can talk to other students, share experiences, and use your cognitive framework from your employment background to approach problems. As a result, MBA programs want people with diverse backgrounds and favor people with work experience. </p>
<p>If you pursue an MBA without any work experience, you’ll get into a lower ranked program than you would if you had work experience (and in an MBA program, reputation is everything). So you’ll be selling yourself short (unless you can get into HBS with no work experience - but for most mortals, that’s not the case). Also, you won’t learn as much because topics will be discussed and you will have no background in those topics for context. </p>
<p>Waiting longer (longer than 3 to 5 years) is tough because you’ll probably have started a family and won’t have the time or the financial stability to quit employment for 2 years. At that stage, you could consider an executive MBA, but considering the steep price tag ($100,000+), that’s not an option for everyone.</p>
<p>^Thanks for the reply. </p>
<p>Is going to law school with B.S in chemE common?</p>
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<p>Yes. I’ve known many students that have done that. </p>
<p>The benefit of chemical engineering degree (instead of a chemistry degree, for example) is that you have a high paying fall back career in case you decide later that law isn’t your sort of thing. On the other hand, your GPA will be lower in engineering and that does impact your application heavily.</p>
<p>In answer to the chemical engineering and law degree … my brother’s an attorney. He’s been trying (unsucessfully so far) to convince my d who’s majoring in chemical engineering to get a law degree. He says there have been several times that his firm has needed that combination and that it would be sought after by other firms, too. Obviously, anecdotal …</p>
<p>zebes</p>
<p>I think the above can apply to any professional field; in management specifically, there are many students of business school who go into management and end up in their desired positions, and the common complaint of those under them is that they do not even understand the actual work that’s being done (this is very common in big corporations that need software engineering, and probably is in other fields as well). The same can be said about any sort of lawyer who has experience in anything, though clearly some majors could be more helpful than others. As long as you’re good at the combination you’re looking for (and you can prove it), and there is a demand, I say do it.</p>
<p>Though I find law to be very boring, and if it were me, I could maybe get excited about the idea of making 250K +, but learn later that I hate anything to do with law. I also realized this with business, so if you’re like me, you probably wouldn’t be too happy doing something you’re just “meh” about, as opposed to doing something that "wow"s you every day, especially when you know you could’ve been doing the latter. Just my opinion of course.</p>
<p>Engineering is a quantitative discipline. Law is qualitative discipline. There are only a small few that can simultaneously excel at disciplines that are at opposite polarity. Then again, the combination may render the demand for excellence unnecessary.</p>