<p>wondering if most engineers get bs+ ms right after high school or if they leave after bs and get ms later in life.</p>
<p>There’s a saying: “You can only bend iron when it’s hot”. Basically, if you’re already in “school mode”, it might be easier to complete your MS and do well. But the flip side is that you’ll be forgoing industry experience and potential income during the time you’re pursuing your MS. There are pros and cons for both routes.</p>
<p>im asking what the most common route is</p>
<p>Going to industry is more common, but getting a masters is more beneficial imho</p>
<p>I would guess going into the work place is more common. A lot of people do go into engineering, so they can get a technical-job right out of college, without the exact need to get graduate level education. </p>
<p>You might sway when you get to that point. Get some internships, but don’t base the working world purely off of that, since chances are, you could always end up with a boring one 
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<p>Both are viable options</p>
<p>Depends on the major and school, although going to the workforce at the bachelor’s degree level is more common in most cases.</p>
<p>Top level research universities are more likely to have students who want to go to graduate school.</p>
<p>Majors with ample job opportunities are more likely to have students attracted to the workforce at the bachelor’s degree level.</p>
<p>Most engineers in US actually don’t get an MS. Many that do, go to MS a few years after working, as their employers pay for it (during the good economy days anyway :-)</p>
<p>In my experience, industry after BS is more common, with an MS following for most within a decade (I should note that something like 70% of the engineers at my very large company have their MS). That having been said, certain specialties prefer graduate degrees, and those interested in said specialties tend to go from BS straight to MS. As an example from EE, antenna design positions often require an MS, and very few are hired direct to those positions with just a BS.</p>
<p>Among my friends and coworkers, I think there are slightly more people who went to grad school immediately after they finished their undergrad degrees. Certainly, all of the guys who were set on phds did their master’s immediately or applied directly to the phd program, although a few of them decided to quit their phd programs and left with just a master’s. I went to work immediately after I finished my BS and I’m back in school now, 5 years later.</p>
<p>Quite a few schools now offer distance master’s programs (USC, Case Western, Purdue, etc.) so it’s getting easier for working professionals to pursue their master’s, even if they don’t live within the proximity of a top ranked university. I have to admit, however, that I’m a little skeptical of these online master’s programs, even if they are offered at reputable schools. I know a guy who is doing the MS in Software Engineering online through USC, and he told me he’s learning things like “how to write requirements documents” and things like that. To me, that doesn’t seem like computer science, much less science.</p>
<p>My H originally planned to work a couple years, then return to grad school full-time. Instead, he started grad school part-time, with his employer paying, after a year and completed his PhD in seven years. It was a lot of work, but he avoided returning to starving student status. My S will be finishing a combined BS/MS program in the spring.</p>
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<p>Software Engineering is NOT Computer Science. Yes, Requirements Engineering (or Definition) is one of the most important aspects of software engineering and writing requirements documents is an essential aspect of developing any GOOD software.</p>
<p>Any software engineering program (online or brick-and-mortar) has a Requirements course.</p>
<p>Fair enough. I’ve never taken a formal software engineering course so I guess I’m ignorant about what’s taught in them. I have, however, worked with many requirements documents at work and they’ve always seemed rather arbitrarily written, so I’m surprised to learn that there’s a formal science behind it.</p>
<p>Software engineering should be part of CS and learning to write requirements should be part of an undergrad program. In any case it illustrates that clear writing ability is as important as coding is in CS and the two really go hand-in-hand which also demonstrates that CS is not just “math oriented” as people think but more focused on language and thinking abilities.</p>
<p>At the companies I’ve worked at so far, the requirements documents were written by the Systems Engineer. Writing and critical thinking are supposed to be part of every college student’s general education.</p>
<p>If you are in a field where a P.E. is important (Civil, and some Mechanical or Electrical specialties) an MS will sometimes shorten the in-job time required prior to taking the P.E. exam. I was able to get my MS part time evenings while working right out of school. Don’t wait too long. My husband who is four years older than me started his, but quickly determined he was past the stage of his life where he could tolerate the “Hoop Jumping” required for an advanced degree. Ultimately, in Civil, a P.E. is usually more important than a M.S.</p>