Grad school?
 

Hey everybody,

If you guys could spare me ten seconds or so, there is somewhat of a personal issue I'm facing now. I don't mean to be an attention whore, but I've given this a lot of thought and I figured other people might have experience in the matter.

I'm a junior right now in undergrad (BS in mechanical engineering) and looking to pursue graduate studies later. As an engineer I would be given a research assistanceship to support my living (and not have to pay tuition) and would offer enormous benefits in professional development further down the road. Right now I'm looking at a program in combustion and propulsion engineering (moreso directed towards aerospace applications) and there have been a few schools that reached the top of my list, two of which are in California (where I'd like to live later on): UC Berkeley and Stanford.

There are, of course, a few drawbacks to pursuing graduate studies. One of which, of course, is being prevented from getting into industry until later on when I'm not entirely sure that this is what I want to do for a living. And another, grad school isn't necessary at all for an engineering student and doesn't really accomplish much in the way of financial reimbursement (there's a $10,000 buffer between BS and MS degrees). I am, however, heavily interested in my field of choice and I'm not using this as a cop-out to stay in school (which is why I want to go somewhere west).

This issue presents all sorts of complex consequences from which my life will most certainly be affected. If anyone has any relevant advice for me I'd be really happy to hear it.

Thanks.

As I think I've mentioned to you before, my wife is an electrical engineer and through her I know quite a few professional engineers. My understanding is that, if you want to pursue a masters in that industry, you are better off getting a few years of experience working before you go for it. Not only will this help you get into a better graduate program but more often than not your employer will pay for your studies.

I don't need to worry about tuition. The assistanceship is integrated into the program so that the research I'm doing is applied to my studies.

I'm in a similar situation. I have a degree in genetics and have been considering graduate school. I went to Purdue, which is known for its engineering, and most of my friends that studied that went straight out to get a job. I think Janszoon is right about working a bit before heading to grad school. Not only will you be able to chip away at your student loan debt (assuming you have some), but you will be in a better situation to get the hell out if you decide you couldn't imagine doing that the rest of your life.

For me, I got kinda stuck...to make any real progress in science you kind of need grad school. But engineers do just fine with a BS.

It's a solid piece of advice, but my advisor told me that relatively few people who get work experience following college ever go back for their masters. And its definitely believable; once you get entrenched in work habits and lifestyles it becomes difficult to separate yourself from that and make the transition back to school. It took my dad ten years to get his masters after he left school for a while and his was an integrated BS/MS program.

I've decided already that I'm not going to try and work and go to school at the same time (which is usually the principal requirement for companies to pay for tuition). It's just...too much. Full time employment plus graduate studies would put my workload somewhere between 70 and 80 hours of shit a week.

Unfortunately advisors are not the most knowledgeable people about the working world though. This is just anecdotal evidence on my part, but I will say that all people I know who have gone to grad school have done so after working for a while. I literally don't know a single person who went directly from undergrad to grad.

I suppose so. That's when it gets to be financially available for a lot of people. I'll ask around but I don't think I've known any older graduate students during my time here.

I wonder what Tore's experience has been like so far...

This is an important point that shouldn't fall on the wayside. I am a computer engineering dropout, so I have a little insight into the matter :)...

I had multiple professors who said they got masters degrees before entering the industry, then had trouble finding work! Companies told them they were too qualified for any of the positions they were looking to fill. Getting a masters actually worked against them in this regard.

It is recommended that engineers get a few years of experience under their belt in the industry before going for a masters. It helps further your career, it helps you in your eventual masters program, and you can stock away some money to comfortably afford your school life. Plus, it you'll get a better picture of how you like the work before dedicating a few more years to studies- especially crucial if you're unsure if you want to do this stuff [my reason for leaving].

Berkeley is pretty cool. There are some seedy areas, and from what I understand the rent control makes finding a place pretty hard. Stanford is like it's own city, the campus absolutely blew me away. Both are great choices.

Thing about Stanford is they usually prune undergrad students to pursue doctoral studies (a further three years), which gets so insanely competitive it's almost useless to try.

Other good schools for my program of choice are UC Irvine and UC San Diego, both bucketloads of awesome. Getting away from the six months of winter we get here would be magical. There are some great schools in the east for mechanical engineering, just not my program of choice. Sadly I do not give two shits about robotics.

Move to New Zealand, I've heard they have been trying to get expats to move there. I may be wrong....