Should I get a second BS or go for MS?

Engineer80
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 12:59:26 +0000

@eyemgh - Understood, and that is perfectly fine, but again I would encourage the OP to exercise his/her due diligence and caveat emptor with respect to the opportunities and the type of work done by ET graduates as opposed to engineering graduates, and I hope (unlike the school I used to teach for) his/her school is honest with respect to the difference between ET and engineering with respect to capability and career opportunities. In my experience, the marketing of ET programs by some schools that “ET is more ‘applied’ or ‘practically oriented’” compared with engineering is really a euphemism for attracting students who can’t shoulder the math, physics, and proof-based theory of the coursework in a standard engineering program. Also in my experience, more than just a few students who choose ET over engineering (or transfer to ET from engineering) are looking for an easy way out. One gets out of school what they put into it, you cannot expect to have the same opportunity not having put in the same work and effort to acquire the analytical tools in order to be able to do high level design work that an engineering student had, obviously.

There is a very good reason why engineering is hard. The math and physics explain why natural phenomena occur. One cannot design an airplane, bridge, automobile engine, medical device, et al without a knowledge and understanding of the underlying physics, chemistry, mechanics, statics, dynamics, et al and the math which is the language that describes all of them. If a physician or surgeon for example makes a mistake, a person can die. If an engineer makes a mistake, hundreds or thousands of people can die. There really aren’t any shortcuts in this regard.