<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>I graduated last December from Arizona State University’s Graphic Information Technology program and am currently a full time graphic designer. While I love my job and (mostly) the people and environment I work in - I’ve decided that I really don’t want to be a designer for the rest of my life…</p>
<p>My original degree at ASU was Engineering, and I completed the first year of it before deciding to switch. I didn’t switch because I didn’t enjoy the program, I switched because I had almost a full scholarship and was having issues with the course load and keeping my GPA above the 3.5 required at the time…</p>
<p>Fast forward a few years and I’ve decided that my heart is still very much in engineering and I’d like to go back and finish my degree. I’ve already been preparing by taking my Calculus courses at the community college and am doing MUCH better than I was before, as I am more driven and motivated to do this than ever. The problem? As far as I’m aware, I’m no longer eligible for university scholarships as a second degree student. This leaves the burden of paying for the ~2 years of college to complete the degree entirely up to me. Not exactly undoable (~$20k on my part), but still daunting…</p>
<p>My other option is to apply to the Master’s program instead, but considering I still have all the deficiencies in courses, I’d still have to make up the bulk of the undergraduate credits, in addition to finishing my graduate work. Obviously, the Master’s program would be more rewarding and I have no doubt that I could attain a fairly nice fellowship through it (I graduated magna cum laude from my original program), but since fellowships only seem to last 2 years… I’d still be left having to pay for 2 more years out of pocket and be generally in the same boat, either way. The only issue here is that, I’d have to complete all of the work and my graduation date and therefore career change would be ~4 years out, as apposed to 2 years.</p>
<p>Eventually, I think I’d want to attain a Master’s degree anyway, but I’m not sure that choosing one over the undergraduate degree at this point makes much sense financially? Admittedly, I don’t know a ton about Master’s programs, so maybe there’s a way to still attain scholarships throughout all 4 years?</p>
<p>Any help in the decision would be great! I was hoping to start either program in Fall 2014!</p>
<p>You never said what sort of engineering you are hoping to study, which may play a big role in whether or not you have any prayer of getting into and completing a master’s program. I don’t imagine there is much overlap between the degree you have and many engineering fields, so you may be out of luck in terms of jumping straight to a master’s degree, but again, it is hard to say, especially without knowing what type of engineering interests you.</p>
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<p>Don’t be so sure here. Most fellowships are very competitive and they aren’t usually like undergraduate scholarships where you simply apply and win based on your GPA and test scores. In engineering, they typically involve a research proposal of some kind outlining what you are planning to do in the lab. The ones that are more straightforwardly based on GPA and scores will still heavily weight the awards towards those who have taken coursework relevant to the desired field of study, so until you make up the courses you are deficient in, you would likely have a rough go of it trying to get a fellowship.</p>
<p>There are lots of fellowships that are designed to last longer than 2 years, but they may or may not only be offered for longer for PhD students. You would have to check with the specific program guidelines for each fellowship to check into that.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d contact the engineering department in question and explain your situation and see if they are even willing to admit a student to a master’s program with a background such as yours knowing full well it may take 4 years instead of 2 to complete the program. They may be willing to do it, in which case that is probably your best option. It wouldn’t be out of the question for them to want you to finish a few engineering courses on a trial basis first either before formally admitting you to the program, which wouldn’t be a bad outcome either. Otherwise you may be stuck finishing up another bachelor’s degree, and that can get pricey. There is no guarantee that any of the credits you had the first time around would even be applicable to a second degree, either, unfortunately.</p>
<p>Oops - I had originally written the type of engineering in there, but must’ve deleted the sentence somewhere in my rambling! :P</p>
<p>Originally, my major was just plain “Engineering” at the ASU Polytechnic campus, you choose a specialization in your 3rd year, but the program allows you to have a more general education in engineering, with a background in a little of everything, the first two years, so you can develop your interests, rather than switching majors. Because of the way this degree works, it would take me longer to complete my undergraduate program, because all of the courses are project-based and sequential, so I’d be making up 3 years of project courses (since I completed the first year already). I’m interested in studying mechanical engineering, so I was planning on applying to the main campus’s Mechanical Engineering program, as it’s a more excellerated program and according to my credit audit for the degree, I can complete the remaining coursework in a lesser amount of time.</p>
<p>I’ve already talked to several advisors, who have assured me that I’m qualified to apply for the MS program, with deficiencies. The main problems seems to be that the advisors for the college are specialized in either undergraduate or graduate programs and neither seems to be able to answer questions about the other, which makes making a decision tough, as I have to rely on information given from me from two different sources. Hell - Not even the scholarship office can tell me if I’m actually non-eligible for a university scholarship as an undergrad student or not, and the people who WOULD know are seemingly impossible to get a hold of.</p>