Second bachelors or Masters

Applying to College
26

You have a right to do what you want. You asked; people with many years of experience gave advice. You do not like their advice -that is fine.
Several things that I would suggest to think about:

  1. I hope you realize that you are not 20 anymore. Even many upper classmates do not leave on campus.
  2. If you will go back to school you will not get any financial aid. It is available only for the first degree. Who is going to pay? Instate with room and board is around 30k (varies by state) per year. Out of state - 40-80k. That is a lot of money. I guess you will need 2 years to get a second BS in Engineering. Spending 60K+ with questionable ROI may not be the wisest decision.
  3. Why second bachelor is so important? It makes little sence. People may have multiple degrees. There are even career students. Many degrees do not necessarily translate into jobs that would make you happy or big salary.
  4. If you absolutely want to go back to school with being on campus I would suggest the following:
    Go for Master’s. Your 3.3 GPA is respectable.
    Go for internship at least one semester before graduation in the area that makes you at least moderately happy. That is very important.
    Here the problem that you most likely facing- without an Engineering degree it is close to impossible to get into a Master’s Engineering program. However some less prestigous schools may take you if you will take all the necessary prerequisites.
    Since I had BS in Applied Math like you and at some point in my life I was wondering what to do with it -here the list of fields that can be happy to take you for Master’s program:
    Statistics
    Operations Research
    Actuarial science
    Data Analytics - (with CS elements)
    Cyber Security
    and many more.
    There are many places and jobs where people appreciate analytical brains.
    Here are some learned life lessons. Even if you had a dream job after graduation you may end up in the end in very boring job that you had to take because you have financial obligations, family, an opportunity to work remotely part of the week etc…and life is what you make out of it. It is not only about a job.
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