<p>i recently attended a pre-college program that introduced me to the different sectors of engineering to figure out my future major but now I’m stuck because I fell in love with 3 classes. my favorite was engineering management, followed by compsci and biomedical engineering.</p>
<p>if i went to school for 4 years, which of these majors would land me a job straight out of college with only a BS? which would pay the most? would i need an MS for any of these?</p>
<p>some people said i should major in compsci and get my BS then get my MS in engineering management. what do you guys think? i basically just want a job straight out of college/grad school that pays well. </p>
<p>Engineering management will get you nothing other than you resume laughed all the way to the trash if your education and experience consists only of a BS in that subject.</p>
<p>I’d go for the CS degree first. boneh3ad is right about an Engineering Management degree. Nobody’s going to hire you to manage engineers if you don’t have engineering experience yourself.</p>
<p>If you want to get hired promptly with a Comp Sci degree, try to work on a lot of real projects during your undergrad, and build up a portfolio of programs/apps/experience.</p>
<p>Even if you had a masters in engineering, what makes you think a company would immediately put you in a management position? You have to prove yourself to them and pay dues. Additionally, if you don’t have any experience handling a $10 million budget, then you have no business requesting a management position. Most engineering grads nowadays have their MS’s in the various disciplines because they realize they want more coursework and job stability with a Master’s degree. Management wont exactly give you the big bucks immediately either.</p>
<p>Nowadays, engineering management is a job that starts you off with low-level management-type work (i.e. filing paperwork and doing statistical tests). If you start with CS (which is, by the way, the most employable of the group), there would be no point in getting an engineering management degree; you can just get an MBA.</p>
<p>You are, by the way, free to take classes outside of your major. You’ll find that just because something interests you doesn’t mean you want to spend time learning all the tedious details of that subject. For example, in BME you will probably have to go over endless quantities of FDA regulations - if you aren’t going to be working in that field, you will learn to hate that aspect of the major.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of engineering management as a BS level degree. No company will hire a new grad with no work experience as a manager of an engineering team. </p>
<p>CS would be the best path to a first job immediately upon graduation. You might choose to go for an MBA later, once you have some work experience, which would probably open more paths than an MS in engineering management would. </p>
<p>The usefulness of an engineering management degree depends on a lot of factors. At some colleges, engineering management degrees encompass what other colleges call industrial engineering. For example, Stanford used to offer a major called Industrial Engineering & Engineering Management that encompassed 4 smaller programs – industrial engineering, engineering management, operations research, and engineering-economic systems. Today they call the degree Management Sciences & Engineering. In salary surveys, BS management sciences engineering degree holders do reasonably well, with a starting salary and employment rate similar to aerospace and civil engineering. I’d recommend reviewing the program and career center information for the major, rather than assuming.</p>
<p>Miami (OH) offers undergrad engineering management. Their website says “interdisciplinary program offers a core of coursework both in engineering and business, giving you a strong technical background coupled with business management skills. Majors choose from among the following four technical specialties: Electronics and Computing, Environmental Science, Manufacturing Engineering, Paper Science, or Systems Analysis. As a graduate, you will be qualified to fill technical positions that require interaction with business aspects of operations, purchasing, personnel, accounting, and marketing. Examples of such positions include technical sales, line supervision, purchasing, environmental protection, and quality control.” </p>
<p>They also state that the placement rate for graduates is consistently near 100%. Someone is obviously hiring these people. Anyone know about their program?</p>
<p>Engineering management would be used in our company perhaps to hire project managers. They are not really managing the engineers, they are more like producers on a move set. They coordinate meetings and the like and do reporting to make sure real management knows how the project is progressing. You would likely be passed over for the real management jobs by people with a BS/MS in an engineering field (many of whom would also have an MBA).</p>
<p>I think the premise of your initial question is flawed. Find work that you enjoy and in which you excell. The timing and money will be there if you get any Engineering or CS degree from a reputable school. </p>