Two degrees after college: M.S. Mechanical Engineering/ M.S. Engineering Management

Currently our son has been working in one of those govt contract companies, dealing with planes, etc He is still new with close to two years experience on his belt. The company is sending him to further his education by doing dual degree: MS Mech Eng and MS Engineering Management (Viterbi-USC).

I am just curious if this so called two degrees will improve or take his career to another level and in the long run hopefully will benefit him at all? he is only 19 (I know his is too young as finishing his HS around the age 16/17) and he will start this coming fall 2017 by doing PT basis, perhaps will take him about 3 or 4 yrs of education; one or two classes per semester.

In addition, I am wondering if these two degrees master level are doable and will be tough on him while he is working FT? any infomation is apprciated. gracias, thanks so much.

Please explain “MS”. At first I thought you meant Master of Science, but that takes 5+ years of full time schooling.

An MS does not take 5+ years of schooling. Usually it’s in the range of 3 to 5 semesters.

Colorado_Mom: To make it simple, I have copied the programs from Viterbi-USC Engineering:

Dual Degree Program: M.S. Mechanical Engineering/ M.S. Engineering Management

Program Description

The department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering in conjunction with the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering offers programs leading to the degree of Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering/Master of Science in Engineering Management. This program is designed for graduate mechanical engineers whose career objectives lead to increasing technical management responsibilities.

Also: All applicants must meet the admission requirements of both the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
•A minimum of 48 units is required
A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 is required for graduation

So, total is 48 credits to graduate for both majors. If anyone is taking 9 units per semester or 18 units per year. They should be able to finish in about or less than 3 years.

The link is as follows: https://gapp.usc.edu/graduate-programs/masters/aerospace-and-mechanical-engineering/dual-degree-MSME-MSEMT

Note: our son will do the programs part-time basis. My concerns are the programs doable while our son is also working FT. More importantly, will those things benefit his future career? maybe is it better just to take M.S. Engineering Management since it looks like he is being groomed to be line manager in the future? and he already has Mechanical Engineering degree - undergraduate. any thought? really appreciate it.

@bonehead - I meant total 5 years to get BS+MS (since I assumed that student has been working since high school). I guess I’m still confused about how/when he got his BS (4year undergrad prereq for MS).

Colorado_Mom: Our son has earned his BS in Mech Eng from the Fu Foundation school of Engineering and Applied Science. He walked in graduation two years ago at the age of 18 while he obtained his hs diploma at the age of 15/16. He did the Fu for about 2.5 or 3 yrs.

Anyway, I am here not discussing the age of going to school. However, I believe that I have heard some kids (not a lot) have done high school at the age of 12, 13, 14 etc and I know for sure some kids who have done college and engineering major 2.5 or 3 yrs. This is not news as it has been done.

My truly concerns are: our son is too young and is working Full Time (40 or 50 hours a week as plane designer-engineer) and the company has told him to take those two grad school majors instead of one only. I personally believe he can handle the job (working 40 to 50 hrs a week) however if being given another responsibility aka to take grad school programs on top his job, he will be too stressful. What do you think about it, like the stressful of life, the degree of difficulty of the programs of two majors, etc? muchas gracias, thanks.

His company has probably done this with its employees many times before and knows what is and isn’t too much for their employees. Since they are pushing it, it means they think it’s doable and that it is value added to their company and therefore to your son as well.

Boneh3ad: Appreciate your information. Yes, the company has told him and they will pay for that education under employee benefits. Grad school is mightily expensive in general and if the company is paying then it is an excellent opportunity of such.

Your son sounds very academically talented to have gottten such an early start. If the company is paying for it then I would do it. My dad is a PM for a defense corp as well and said it’s very easy to do both while so early on your career. He did say at least at his company an MBA is worth more than an MS in engineering management. Something to keep in mind as he gets more experience if he wants to move into upper management. The MS in engineering is def helpful but he was mentioning some of his most competent chief engineers he has had on his program had only bachelors. Experience reigns supreme

10s4life: thank you for the information and I absolutely agree with you. I already told our son not to do those two majors - graduate level and said it is better to do MBA only since he already has Mechanical Engineering and by doing MBA, he will be able to manage the team and read the financial statements and its application. I am a firm believer that one major is sufficient enough to build a career. However, the company has told him to do those two (part-time basis) and they will pay for such additional education to elevate his skills and improve his career move. So, perhaps, the company has seen something that I don’t . Do you think in aerospace industry the graduate degree in mechanical engineering will make lots of difference than just one from undergraduate level ? who knows.

Every company is different. The skills taught by an MBA are not all that transferrable to a mid-level engineering manager compared to the more targeted engineering management programs, so some companies prefer that to the MBA. So let me go back to my earlier point. If your son’s company is suggesting to him that he go back and get an engineering management degree, then that means that degree is what they value more, not the MBA.

If anything he could get a small raise and be eligible for more technical positions on paper. It all depends what direction you want to go. If he wants to stay technical a masters can be more valuable than wanting to do more management stuff. He is so young I say go for the two since it’s on his companies dime. All it will take is more effort from your son. Maybe less free time will be his opportunity cost and a few extra gray hairs lol. Then do the mba later on. 3 graduate degrees is pretty impressive. My dad dropped out of a MS in engineering and did ok. He’s now managing a $300+ million dollar defense program.

OP - Your son sounds talented and competent He can likely sort through this decision with minimal parent input, even though younger than most new grads.

DH and I (both Mech Eng) helped our kids (Engineer/Mech-turned-ECE & Engineer-turned-Econ/analyst) with parental advise during college applications, college major/course suggestions, first-job search. However, now that they are both launched we’ve trusted that they can sort through decisions via self-research, peer feedback and advise from employers and mentors, From the outside, we can’t pretend to understand all the variables. We of course do act as sounding boards in the rare occasions that they ask for help.

boneh3ad: wow that is a good point of view. I checked the MS Engineering Management curriculum at Viterbi-USC and yes it is geared towards engineering and just a bit towards the management (business) while the general MBA is too broad and mostly towards business/management aspects and nothing about engineering. Thanks again for your input.