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4 year engineering degree vs 2 year designer degree, then have company pay for bachel

Matthew Medcalf

New member
Right now I'm a first year engineering student and a University. I've been deciding whether to keep on the track I'm going, which will take me 4 1/2 to 5 years because of scheduling issues, and having to take an extra class or two. I'm thinking about going to a tech school, and getting my 2 year mechanical design degree and finding a job doing that, then try and have the company pay for my school.I would try and work full time, then take 2 classes a semester at night or something. I would possibly be able to go to a better engineering school then If my company pays for it. Also since I already have college credit, I could cancel out a lot of the classes in the 2 year degree program, and I could knock more general eds and math classes that would transfer to a university, so I would only have to take my major classes. Has anyone ever done this route before? Would you recommend this or just go get the 4 year right away?
 
You might also want to consider one of the schools that does an engineering co-op program like Drexel or Kettering. Many students get their employer to fund their studies. It takes a little longer but you come out with a lot of valuable work experience. On the other hand, I went straight through for my BSME in 4 years and never regretted doing it that way.
 
Talk to ROTC. There are 2 year programs that allow you to try it out and then 3 or 4 year programs to become an officer. Then you get out and kick some ass for America in the Air Force or Navy for a few more years, then have Bart get you a job designing drones.
 
I'd make sure you understand the potential job market for that 2 year degree the best you can. You don't want to finish that and find there are few jobs with that level of education. I also wouldn't assume that you'll find an employer that'll pay for your bachelors.

That said, if you can get work with a 2 year and make enough money to pay for your BS yourself without loans, that might be a good route. I have daughters in college and one of my biggest concerns for them is graduating with crippling student loan debt. My middle daughter is at community college in a 2-3 year program to get her RN, then she transfers to Ohio State for her bachelors. The cost savings are tremendous and she can work as a nurse as she finishes her schooling at OSU.

The risk in delaying your bachelors is that you get comfortable making OK money and never finish it. I wouldn't consider stopping with the 2 year as an option, you have to push through to get the 4 year degree.
 
Get all the education you can now and continue to look for opportunities to help fund it. Once you leave it becomes harder and harder to return to it. Engineers that have a job and are needed in their job, don't have a whole lot of time for a lot of continued formal education. It gets very difficult to fit it in and actually have the energy to accomplish it.
 
Get all the education you can now and continue to look for opportunities to help fund it. Once you leave it becomes harder and harder to return to it. Engineers that have a job and are needed in their job, don't have a whole lot of time for a lot of continued formal education. It gets very difficult to fit it in and actually have the energy to accomplish it.

I can relate. In hind sight I should have stayed and got my masters, now with kids and work I barely have time to watch a 1/2 hour television show let alone consider going back to school for my masters. I could really stretch my schedule and fit it in if I tried but since I need more than 3 hours of sleep to live it's not something that's in the cards for me.
 
With tuition as high as it is and the opportunity cost of school vs work higher than ever, a masters degree is quite an indulgence.

Do you need a masters degree for a management position? If so, that seems like a good case for waiting and getting a company to pay for it.
Or do you need a masters degree to display as a credential to give you more credibility? If so, then there are cheaper ways to scratch something credible together.

Here's my two cents for the young buckwheater out there: throw away the TV. If you really can't live without Breaking Throwns or True Cards, or whatever the hell is on nowaways,
binge watch what you must on Netflix when you get a holiday.

More and more I find that I'm literally directly competing with engineers in China. I don't know if they're smarter than me or not. I do know they aren't watching TV, and they're living and working in ways we would consider pretty uncomfortable. If you want to keep up, there just won't be time for a lot of luxuries and niceties.
 
I went straight through for 4 years. For me, it was the right thing to do. I do have several friends that took other routes but I'll tell you, it's tough to have the discipline to stick to it. Working days and studying nights for quite a few years is a tough row to hoe, most people never finish it.

In mechanical engineering, I've never seen much point in a masters. I think the job market for higher degrees is pretty small and the pay premium is too. Most engineers I know that wanted to move up got MBA's. Personally, I've never wanted to have anything to do with management and I have several engineer friends that got into lower level management and HATED IT. I've always tried to get as many technical skills as possible and stay strictly engineering. It's what I like, it's what I went to school for. I don't want to deal with budgets and personnel issues.
 
It took me 6 years part time while working full time as a designer to get my BSME. The year I was graduating, there was an instructor of mine that was just finishing up his PHD. He asked me if I had considered graduate school. I laughed and told him I had too much practical experience to put up with graduate school. He understood exactly what I meant. Ironically, the degree has been pretty much window dressing - never worked a job that "required" a degree and thanks to my machining experience before becoming a designer nobody ever held that "book smart" opinion of me. The fact that I never needed it doesn't mean it wasn't worth it. I have a much better understanding what I'm doing because of it.
 
I was in the exact scenario as the OP, and I went the 2 year route based on even more reasoning.

While I now make what most 4 year ME's make, it took 15 years to get there proving myself and eventually becoming a Lead and Admin.

My advice. Hold tight on the 4 year.

You then have 2-4 times more job opportunities, despite the actual job. What I mean by that is there are PLENTY of 2 year Design jobs out there. There is high demand for good ones, but very hard to find them, and even more difficult to ID those with high potential. ME's are actually more common, but they don't all have good Design skills. But they can get either job and even more unrelated, just because they have a 4 year piece of paper.

The majority will trust the 4 year paper more than they trust your experience with a 2 year degree and often wont even look at you without a 4 year degree. The 2 year peeps are drastically more limited to what they apply for and what they can expect for salary, despite the demand I mentioned.
 

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