<p>“Those saying engineering are just those who dont/cant be one of the above”</p>
<p>No one says engineering has the best salaries for graduate degrees. It does for undergraduate.</p>
<p>Another thing that the OP isn’t considering: Doing what they want. Don’t do whatever just for the money. You’ll end up broke because you hate your job. DO WHAT YOU ENJOY.</p>
<p>And I also agree that graduate school should be considered after a degree is decided upon. Not everyone needs a graduate degree. You may have a doctorate in Spanish, but seriously, you’re still just fluent.</p>
<p>I think more people become broke doing a job they THINK they will love, then get slapped with the reality of the real world.</p>
<p>Powerball winners.</p>
<p>[In</a> Pictures: Best Master’s Degrees For Jobs - No. 2: Computer Science - Forbes.com](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/19/masters-degrees-jobs-leadership-careers-education-best_slide_3.html]In”>In Pictures: Best Master's Degrees For Jobs)</p>
<p>Seems to me there are 3 fields from engineering in there. You also have to take into consideration the amount of money and time it takes to get a degree. You can have a MS in a lot of engineering fields in 5.5 years. Being a lawyer pays well if you find a job. Currently around 30% of people with law degrees have a job as a lawyer.</p>
<p>you make money if you are the best at your business, go to elite grad programs make good grades, and most importantly network as if your life depends on it because in reality it does.</p>
<p>And brett^^, those 70% did either none of the following or 1 of the 3.</p>
<p>Not everyone can be the best</p>
<p>I’ll have a couple of footnotes to add.</p>
<ol>
<li>I doubt that engineers in the field would be less educated or knowledgeable than recent grads 10 years younger than them. If anything, they are learning the new paradigms that are trickling down to how it’s taught in academia.</li>
</ol>
<p>1a. Nevertheless, after several years companies would likely prefer recent college grads to older engineers because ITS CHEAPER TO HIRE THEM. I guess you can say this is true of many fields; I guess it depends on the degree of competency variance in the field (i.e. in sales the variance would be very high) and how much experience becomes valuable ahead of education. If variance and the value of experience are high in the field, this wouldn’t happen.</p>
<ol>
<li>An engineering degree can be a valuable ticket to consulting/ management/ finance type jobs, if that’s your cup of tea.</li>
</ol>
<p>Law school is a completely different beast from most other graduate schools. Law firms only hire the top 10% of the graduating class. So if you went to an elite law school that is going to be a tough chore because your grade is based off of how well everyone else does. Basically you could write an essay that in undergrad would have been an A but you had the 11th best A paper so you get a B+. For instance my sister was a straight A+ student her entire life and then she went to Wash U. Law and finished in the top 25% and can’t even find a job at a DA. The place she interned at just doesn’t have the money to hire her and all of the lawyers our family knows are saying the same thing. There just isn’t money right now. Right now as a lawyer you either need to be top 10% at a top 20 law school, have a MS in engineering or chemistry (be a patent lawyer), or also be a CPA (finance law).</p>
<p>Right now this country graduates almost as many undergrad engineers as it does lawyers every year. Which one do you think has the most potential of landing you a high paying job? </p>
<p>I am in my second week of my MS degree in CS and I have already have 3 job offers for when I graduate ranging from 45K to 130K starting pay. (The 45K is a government job obviously)</p>
<p>“Law school is a completely different beast from most other graduate schools. Law firms only hire the top 10% of the graduating class. So if you went to an elite law school that is going to be a tough chore because your grade is based off of how well everyone else does. Basically you could write an essay that in undergrad would have been an A but you had the 11th best A paper so you get a B+. For instance my sister was a straight A+ student her entire life and then she went to Wash U. Law and finished in the top 25% and can’t even find a job at a DA. The place she interned at just doesn’t have the money to hire her and all of the lawyers our family knows are saying the same thing. There just isn’t money right now. Right now as a lawyer you either need to be top 10% at a top 20 law school, have a MS in engineering or chemistry (be a patent lawyer), or also be a CPA (finance law).”</p>
<p>From what I’m told the elite law schools are ranked as Top-14, and that they will fare significantly better than those from other schools. And Wash U is not one of these.</p>
<p>According to World News it is the highest ranked law school in its region and 19th nationally. I would consider that fairly elite. Especially considering that it is ranked higher than GW and that is normally considered an elite law school. I was also talking to a prof about rankings and he said depending on how you do the formula your school can move up or down about 5 spots so if they used the formula differently Wash U could be 14th or it could be 24th. Either way top 20 is good in my book.</p>
<p>There are a set of schools called top-14, GW is not one either. Also, what does “use the formula differently” mean? </p>
<p>University of California, Boalt School of Law, in Berkeley, CA.
University of Chicago Law School, University of Chicago, in Chicago, IL.
Columbia Law School, Columbia University, in New York, NY.
Cornell Law School, Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY.
Duke University School of Law, Duke University, in Durham, NC.
Georgetown University Law Center, Georgetown University, in Washington, DC.
Harvard Law School, Harvard University, in Cambridge, MA.
University of Michigan Law School, University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, MI.
New York University School of Law, New York University, in New York, NY.
Northwestern University School of Law, Northwestern University, in Chicago, IL.
University of Pennsylvania Law School, University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, PA.
Stanford Law School, Stanford University, in Palo Alto, CA.
University of Virginia School of Law, University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, VA.
Yale Law School, Yale University, in New Haven, CT.</p>
<p>“Scoring. To arrive at a school’s rank, we examined the data for each quality indicator. Where appropriate, we adjusted the indicators in which low values suggest higher quality, such as acceptance rates. We then standardized the value of each indicator about its mean. [PAY ATTENTION HERE]The weights applied to the indicators reflect our judgment about their relative importance[PAY ATTENTION HERE], as determined in consultation with experts in each field. The final scores were rescaled: The highest-scoring school was assigned 100, and the other schools’ scores were recalculated as a percentage of that top score. The scores were then rounded to the nearest whole number and schools placed in descending order. Every school’s performance is presented relative to the other schools with which it is being compared. A school with an overall score of 100 did not necessarily top out on every indicator; rather, it accumulated the highest composite score.”</p>
<p>If they all the sudden decide to change a weight, even a minor change, a school can move up or down about 5 spots. Which they occasionally do change weights. It isn’t scientific in the end is my point.</p>
<p>[News</a> Headlines](<a href=“http://www.cnbc.com/id/30644766/Highest_Paying_Jobs_2010?slide=1]News”>http://www.cnbc.com/id/30644766/Highest_Paying_Jobs_2010?slide=1)</p>
<p>20 highest paying jobs (according to cnbc). Sounds like the medical field is doing pretty well.</p>
<p>I decided against medicine on account that the degree does not ‘travel’ very well. Engineering is easier to take across borders.</p>
<p>Despite what some are saying here, I would advise against going into the medical field. With med school and the residency and the malpractice insurance rates, it’s being outdone by most other jobs. Sure, Doctors earn the highest at one amount. Like 500k a year. But when you factor in all the years in residency/med school and they debt they accumulate along with the Mal practice insurance and the fact that they must pay higher taxes… a ups driver out earns them.</p>
<p>[A</a> Novel Look at Physician Income: Why a medical career is the wrong career if money is one of your primary motives](<a href=“http://www.er-doctor.com/doctor_income.html]A”>A Novel Look at Physician Income: Why a medical career is the wrong career if money is one of your primary motives)</p>
<p>interesting read on Doctor incomes.</p>
<p>“But when you factor in all the years in residency/med school and they debt they accumulate along with the Mal practice insurance and the fact that they must pay higher taxes… a ups driver out earns them.”</p>
<p>A UPS driver does not out earn a doctor. No.</p>
<p>^You see that long blue thing? Click it…</p>
<p>You see that long blue thing, read it and spend 15 seconds thinking about it. If you can’t see though the nonsense, you’re dumb.</p>
<p>I love your complex rebuttal to all of the facts pointed out on that page. If I’m dumb… enlighten me. What about the website is so hard to believe?</p>
<p>Ignoring the actual numbers they gave for income which I believe are overestimates in the case of UPS drivers, and underestimates in the case of doctors:</p>
<p>It actually shows the UPS driver making less, and in order to compensate for that creates a fake set of data in the middle, and tries to compare that data.</p>
<p>It has both the doctor and UPS driver retiring at age 45.</p>