<p>This post will probably make me sound naive or ignorant, but Im just being honest.</p>
<p>I am probably going to transfer to VT in the fall for ME or AE. I just cant shake this feeling of envy when I look at starting salary numbers with CompE’s and CompSci’s earning nearly 20k more than ME’s and AE’s. Does anyone else feel this way?</p>
<p>For undergrad, I am pretty much set on ME or AE, since those fields interest me the most, but I think PetroE is a better fit for me. Better pay, and I like the idea of not having to work in an office all day everyday. Would it be possible to break into this field with an MS in PetroE/ BS in ME?</p>
<p>What about financial engineering? I know a couple of schools offer this as an MS. Does this usually lead to a job in investment banking/wall street?</p>
<p>Why do you want to get an MS so bad? If money is your man goal you should want to get out of school and start earning it asap. You can compete for the same jobs as a PE with a ME degree, so the masters would be unnecessary there. My advice is get as high a GPA as possible in ME and go from there.</p>
<p>If money is your main goal, you need a new goal. Do what you like, what you are good at what you enjoy and the money will come. I know it sounds cliche, but it’s true.</p>
<p>What if you choose a career, get 5 years into it and decide that you hate it? Your life will be miserable and money quickly becomes less important. This happens a lot. Life is too short to do things you hate.</p>
<p>If it’s money you’re after go into finance, or Engr with an MBA. Marketing people with tech skills make more than engineers. Engineers are and expense, Sales and Marketing people bring money in, companies tend to treat money makers much better than money spenders. Yes of course engineers make money by creating new products, but it an indirect, longer term thing.</p>
<p>Engineers start out high, but there is more of a ceiling. Around here (silicon valley) engineers start around $65k and top out around $120-140K (of course there are exceptions). Sales, Marketing, Finance people can make quite a bit more if they have the skills and are in the right industry.</p>