Masters in Engineering

[et1nuke]

I was wondering if anyone had completed a Masters degree in Engineering that had a non-engineering undergrad degree. Basically I am curious what schools you attended and what you either did on your own or were required to do in order to gain acceptance into graduate school.

 

[KCOTT]

I was actually wondering the same thing. I started off in engineering as an undergrad and got lazy with it so I switched over to a liberal arts type major.

Would love to go back and finish what I started somehow.

 

[FlyinSpy]

I was a Math major as an undergrad (William & Mary - motto: "300 years of tradition unhindered by progress!") and got an MS in Systems Engineering from George Mason Univ. No issues on admission or coursework.

 

[incubus852]

I was actually wondering the same thing. I started off in engineering as an undergrad and got lazy with it so I switched over to a liberal arts type major.

Would love to go back and finish what I started somehow.

You want to get a M.S. in engineering with a liberal arts degree or want to go back and take whatever classes you didn't finish to get a bachelors? Which one?

Getting a masters without an bachelors in engineering/math/physics etc is going to be near impossible. Most graduate programs REQUIRE an undergraduate degree, most require a degree in the specific field; i.e. if you want to get a M.S. in aero, you need an undergrad in aer/mech. Maybe Devry has something. Or that online University of Phoenix.

Here's some admission criteria from my alma mater:


-Bachelor of Science in engineering or science (including sufficiently quantitative social science programs) from a regionally-accredited institution*
-Two years of calculus through differential equations, or an equivalent intensive one-year sequence
-Cumulative undergraduate GPA of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale
-One course in engineering economy or the equivalent material in a combination of other courses (M.S.ISE, M.S.EMT)
-One course in linear algebra (suggested)

I doubt you took linear algebra for a liberal arts degree.


Going back and completing the classes necessary to get your bachelors... I'd say you would have to go back to the same school and program you ditched. Plus, curriculums change fairly often so you might end up having to repeat nearly everything minus the basics (physics/calc/chem). Going to a different school and saying, "Hey, I took phys/calc/thermo/statics at another school, can I finish up here?" would most likely get you the response of "get the hell out."

So I'd say you're screwed in either case.

On a side note, I'd be pretty pissed if I went back to school for an engineering masters and there was some guy with an undergraduate liberal arts degree is sitting next to me.

 

[incubus852]

I was a Math major as an undergrad.

Nuff said.

 

[KCOTT]

You want to get a M.S. in engineering with a liberal arts degree or want to go back and take whatever classes you didn't finish to get a bachelors? Which one?

Masters in something. I was just asking if was possible in engineering, maybe not a core one like EE, ME or Aero, but maybe something more along the lines of ISE where it's a lot more business-related and manufacturing engineering concepts, if that makes sense at all.

Getting a masters without an bachelors in engineering/math/physics etc is going to be near impossible. Most graduate programs REQUIRE an undergraduate degree, most require a degree in the specific field; i.e. if you want to get a M.S. in aero, you need an undergrad in aer/mech. Maybe Devry has something. Or that online University of Phoenix.

Well, I'm some odd years away from thinking about masters right now (just graduated like a week ago). But I was curious nonetheless.

Here's some admission criteria from my alma mater:


-Bachelor of Science in engineering or science (including sufficiently quantitative social science programs) from a regionally-accredited institution*
-Two years of calculus through differential equations, or an equivalent intensive one-year sequence
-Cumulative undergraduate GPA of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale
-One course in engineering economy or the equivalent material in a combination of other courses (M.S.ISE, M.S.EMT)
-One course in linear algebra (suggested)

I doubt you took linear algebra for a liberal arts degree.

No, that's where I stopped in engineering. The highest I went was engineering diff eq's and heat transfer when I was in Aero.

Going back and completing the classes necessary to get your bachelors... I'd say you would have to go back to the same school and program you ditched. Plus, curriculums change fairly often so you might end up having to repeat nearly everything minus the basics (physics/calc/chem).

Thanks, sorry I asked.

Going to a different school and saying, "Hey, I took phys/calc/thermo/statics at another school, can I finish up here?" would most likely get you the response of "get the hell out."

Well I'll make sure to ask the nice ones then.

So I'd say you're screwed in either case.

The glass if half empty and constantly evaporating.

On a side note, I'd be pretty pissed if I went back to school for an engineering masters and there was some guy with an undergraduate liberal arts degree is sitting next to me.

Sorry. Didn't mean to ruffle your feathers with a probing question.

 

[brownshoe]

Masters in something. I was just asking if was possible in engineering, maybe not a core one like EE, ME or Aero, but maybe something more along the lines of ISE where it's a lot more business-related and manufacturing engineering concepts, if that makes sense at all.

But in the defense of, incubus852 you didn’t say all this in your original post.

In certain disciplines you would need the undergraduate degree for sure. This is an example of the simple junk I deal with everyday: Spiral rib ALCMP type 2 has almost the same friction coefficient as RCP. Fun, huh? Simple stuff for sure, but you would need to know these little bits of information, and other stuff like this to get an advanced degree in my field.

Steve

 

[BigRed389]

Math swap to Systems Engineering isn't a stretch though.

History, Spanish, basketweaving, whatever to any MEng program is pretty much crazy if you don't have the necessary pre-req's.

And the MEng is supposed to be a professional degree geared toward technical practice and development through coursework, not building fundamentals.

 

[BENDER]

A buddy of mine majored in physics, and then took some "leveling" courses and is now in grad school as a ME and specializing in fluids. To add just incase your curious, he makes a great engineer, and one of the most brilliant people I have ever worked with.

 

[nugget61]

IIRC, think you can get a MS in engineering if you have a science related undergrad, but you cannot get a MENG without an engineering undergrad. (At least if you want an accredited degree)

 

[et1nuke]

I was a Math major as an undergrad (William & Mary - motto: "300 years of tradition unhindered by progress!") and got an MS in Systems Engineering from George Mason Univ. No issues on admission or coursework.

So it sounds like advanced Math is the key if there is a possibility.

 

[Bugsmasher]

A physics major has demonstrated the quantitative skills to get a graduate degree in engineering, especially if he's going to specialize in something fundamental like fluid mechanics. A liberal arts major would be completely lost in a graduate engineering program unless he essentially studied engineering in his spare time. Unless you had a quantitative major of some kind I'd look elsewhere for the grad degree.

nugget61: Admissions requirements vary from school to school. Some programs allow non-majors to take extra classes to qualify for the Master's, but that will be case by case. Chemical engineering at Northwestern, for an example, accepts other engineering majors and hard science majors to its MS and PhD programs.

 

[HeyJoe]

On a side note, I'd be pretty pissed if I went back to school for an engineering masters and there was some guy with an undergraduate liberal arts degree is sitting next to me.

Why should you even care how they got there? If he or she couldn't hack it, they won't last long. If they can, are you upset because they didn't endure what you did to get there?

Going for an undergrad degree is the generally accepted way to learn and be given a diploma so others can reasonably expect someone to have a grounding if not mastery in a subject area. Doesn't ensure they haven't forgotten what they have learned after the fact or have any common sense.

 

[hooflys]

http://www.bu.edu/eng/leap/

 

[BigRed389]

A physics major has demonstrated the quantitative skills to get a graduate degree in engineering, especially if he's going to specialize in something fundamental like fluid mechanics. A liberal arts major would be completely lost in a graduate engineering program unless he essentially studied engineering in his spare time. Unless you had a quantitative major of some kind I'd look elsewhere for the grad degree.

nugget61: Admissions requirements vary from school to school. Some programs allow non-majors to take extra classes to qualify for the Master's, but that will be case by case. Chemical engineering at Northwestern, for an example, accepts other engineering majors and hard science majors to its MS and PhD programs.

Some majors it's even accepted as the norm.

My school's Operations Research degree required new grad students to the MEng program to take 4 prereq classes their first year which I knocked out as an undergrad. Since most engineers don't exactly minor in the field and it's not exactly the most commonly offered undergrad major, they'd be turning away otherwise well qualified people away without that option.