<p>Research and working in industry are, in most cases, two very different things. My best advice is: Before you graduate, get experience with both and see which you seem to prefer.</p>
<p>Your questions are kind of haphazard-ish, so I’ll address what I have discovered in pursuit of deciding what I’m going to do after B.S. myself. I have found many people will work prior to M.S., then get M.S. and Ph.D., as well as the other way around (get M.S. right after, work, then get Ph.D.) There is also the route of going directly to Ph.D. after undergrad that seems to be becoming more popular, but I’d only recommend this route if you know for sure that research is your thing.</p>
<p>A LOR for an industry rep could work if this individual has a graduate degree. I’ve heard that in most cases it’s good to limit industry LORs to one per application. Graduate schools are trying to look and see if you’d be a good fit for research, and because of this professor LORs are the best fit. This is entirely different if you are pursuing a terminal M.S. (likely without a thesis).</p>
<p>There are many companies out there that will fund an M.S. for you, but this is going to be different than a thesis/research-based M.S. You will have to work while getting this M.S., and your M.S./M.Eng. will be composed of just taking classes and doing projects instead of writing a thesis and doing research. Each type of M.S. has its place, you just need to weigh your options and think about where you ultimately want to end up to decide which is your best fit.</p>
<p>In my experience, all research-based M.S. students do not have the freedom to pursue internships over the summer… their research does not have temporary pauses. From the current and past Ph.D. students I know, their income with pretty substantial grants and research assistantships has been in the 30-40k range with tuition paid for. You shouldn’t expect this as a M.S. student though. Your salary as an ME in industry is going to heavily depend upon what type of company it is and where you work.</p>