Earning a second Master's degree

Graduate School
1

<p>I have come here to ask a question that no one seems to know a definite answer to.</p>

<p>I am currently in college earning my Master’s in Architecture. After I graduate, I plan on earning a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering. My current school does not offer Civil Engineering as a major, so I would have to go elsewhere to earn my degree. I plan on attending a community college that offers the Regents’ Engineering Transfer Program (RETP) that allows you to transfer to Georgia Tech after meeting the requirements. When I attend this other school, I do not wish to transfer ANY credits, and I wish to start over academically when earning my second degree. I will not lie when asked for transcripts, but is it mandatory to transfer credit when going back to school for another degree? Would I be applying using the freshmen application or the transfer application?</p>

2

<p>When you enroll in any undergrad program you always have to submit your transcripts. I don’t believe you get to decide if credits are applied or not, that is up to the institution and I never hear anyone allowed to decide that themselves. Usually a school will post online the requirements to apply as a freshman or transfer. Some colleges have a specification for applying for a 2nd undergraduate degree. I think you should contact them.</p>

3

<p>I just have to ask - why in the world would you want to do that? Or do you just like being a perpetual student? If you like school so much, just go into academia, where at least they pay you to be there rather than you paying them.</p>

4

<p>For personal reasons, I’d just like a fresh start.</p>

5

<p>Do the MS Eng programs that you are looking at specifically require an undergraduate engineering degree? Find that out first. If an undergrad degree is not required, but you have some gaps in your education, you need to find out from each of your target programs just exactly which undergrad coursework you should pick up. Often people can be admitted to a grad program, but required to take a certain number of undergrad courses that are pre-reqs. for the grad level courses. That could be a significantly faster way for you to change careers.</p>

6

<p>An undergrad degree is not required, as it is an undergrad program.</p>

7

<p>First, to answer your question: No, in most cases it’s not mandatory to transfer credit. In most cases you will have to apply as a transfer student (actually, at a lot of schools you will be considered a second bachelor’s student, but that shouldn’t be a problem for the schools you’re attempting for). But that just means that they consider your previous college experience in deciding whether to admit you; it doesn’t mean that you have to use the credits.</p>

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<p>You said you want a master’s in civil engineering. That’s not an undergraduate program; that’s a graduate program. (Perhaps you are referring to the RETP, though, which yes is an undergrad program.)</p>

<p>I am assuming that you have a bachelor’s that is not in engineering nor is in a heavy engineering-related field, like physics or math.</p>

<p>You said that you are planning to do the RETP. First I just want to point out that there’s only one community college in GA that participates in the RETP - Georgia Perimeter College (which I think is transitioning to a four-year college). The rest of the RETP participating institutions are four-year colleges and universities, although some of them (Abraham Baldwin, Middle Georgia, Atlanta Metropolitan) have only recently transitioned to four-year colleges.</p>

<p>Second of all - Georgia Tech takes second bachelor’s degree students.</p>

<p>In order to transfer directly (without the RETP) to Georgia Tech as a civil engineering major, you need to have taken English I and II, calculus I and II, chemistry (usually a two-semester sequence, and physics I. They recommmend, but do not require, linear algebra and physics II. Chances are good that if you already have a BA, you have already taken English I and II, and if you are training for an MA in architecture, there’s a good chance you have already taken calculus I. That would leave two semesters of chemistry, physics I, and calculus II. Four courses - six if you decide to take linear algebra and physics II before transferring. You could knock out four courses in one year, if you took two a semester (chem I and calc II; then chem II and physics I). It might take you 3 semesters if you decided to take all 6. But after that you could transfer directly in as a second bachelor’s degree student at Tech.</p>

<p>That is opposed to the RETP, which is designed to be a two-year transfer program and will probably make you repeat a lot of unrelated general education requirements like history, language, English, and PE. Plus, there are more requirements. Before transferring in from RETP, a civil engineering major must have taken calc I-II, differential equations, linear algebra, chemistry I, and physics I and II at the prior school.</p>

<p>Given this, I don’t see why you would do RETP (which is a program really designed for high school students who know they want to major in engineering, but maybe can’t get admitted to Georgia Tech straight from high school or need to go close to home or somewhere cheaper for the first 2 years) rather than just taking the 4-6 classes you need to transfer in as a second bachelor’s student on the cheap, and then transferring in that way. Then you could do the BS/MS program at Georgia Tech.</p>

8

<p>Thank you so much, Juillet. You’ve helped me the most so far. I am aware that RETP is an undergraduate program and will only land me a bachelor’s. I plan to attend graduate school afterwards, which is what I meant when I said I wanted a master’s. The classes that you’ve named, I’ve already taken, but I have not gotten the best grades in those classes. I wanted a fresh start so that I could retake those classes. I believe if I do the second degree program straight out at Georgia Tech, I won’t be accepted due to my grades. They are Cs and higher, but I still think they ruin my chances.</p>