Systems Engineering for Grad school?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I am current in at the business school as an undergrad in my uni. I have no kind of background in engineering. However based on classes I've taken, and things I've heard from my friend (who studies Engineering) and professors, I've given some thought to Systems Engineering. My major is in Management Info. and Comm. Systems. Let me just say that even though I'm in the business school, I hate business as far as the financial and marketing aspects go. I'm more technology oriented and like the mix my major has with information technology and some business principles.</p>

<p>I am by no means sure that I would commit to any graduate school at this point. The reason being that I do not know whether it would make sense for whatever career path I choose to go in. I see graduate school as a means to really focus and specialize in one area and to advance a career in multiple ways. Being that I'm still an undergrad, I haven't figured out what specific career I want to get into yet, but this is a field that has peeked my interest from time to time.</p>

<p>I did some research in this forum and there isn't much on Systems Engineering. I was wondering why is that the case? Is it a very limiting career path? What does systems engineering really entail? What are some programs I can look into that offer Systems Engineering? Would my lack of background in engineering restrict me if I chose to study this in grad school? Any questions regarding my situation would be helpful. Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>My business card has said systems engineer over the years. Actually, my MS is in Operations Research, but at George Mason Univ, where I'm getting my PhD, the department is called SE & OR. </p>

<p>On this board, most of the folks ask questions about Industrial Engineering, and some schools combine IE and SE or IE and OR. They're all different, and I believe they have different job prospects.</p>

<p>I find that in the DC area, where I've made my career, systems engineeing is a superb and high-demand major. It does encompass many separate disciplines: modeling & simulation, system architecture, test & evaluation, system integration, requirements analysis, capability based planning, and many others. Check out the INCOSE website, or the MORS website. And, a systems engineer can usually (depending on the background) take an operations research position. </p>

<p>I've done searches of the Washington Post want ads, and found over 700 vacancies for systems engineers. (I suspect you may have seen that posted if you really did a search of the engineering forum.) </p>

<p>I don't know what your background is, or what schools you might consider, but a university can usually tailor a program to 'recover' the prerequisites. (I would expect this to include courses on probability, statistics, differential equations, linear algebra, computer architecture and computer programming, and design theory.) If you don't actually have any of those, you might need to spend some time as an 'external' student.</p>

<p>Alas, with that, my 300th post, I am no longer a 'junior member'. It was kind of nice having all those low expectations.</p>

3

<p>My roommate is an ISYE student. He takes a lot of statistics.</p>