Undergrad School

Dleg · Jan 21, 2011

You need to be absolutely certain that your specific degree is ABET accredited, I would think. I don't know if "general engineering" accreditation means that the specific degrees are all covered, but I kind of doubt it; as navyasw said, other schools have specific degrees that are accredited, so you will want to same, I am sure.

Getting a non-ABET degree is a huge handicap. You will have to fight to gain recognition of that degree for licensing, and also for many types of jobs (government jobs, especially, require ABETdegrees, otherwise you ahve t jump through hoops to prove you have an engineering degree)

cydcarter · Jan 25, 2011

There is a lot of great advice in this thread. I just wanted to reinforce some of it.

Make sure it's ABET accredited. That only matters if you want to be a licensed engineer. And this early in your 'career', you should keep that door wide open no matter what you plan to do with your life if you are looking at engineering in general.

The school name only matters depending on who is hiring. We had an architecture section leader hire everyone in his dept from the school he graduated from. It was not a 'prestigious' school by any definition of the word, but that's who he was loyal too. Our mechanical dept has hired everyone from GT, USF, Duke, Penn State, etc. Even a really small, community college in Alabama (he was a PE already though).

My experience says that 9/10 times, the farther you are into your career and away from your degree, the less the alma mater matters. Work experience and recommendations will trump your degree almost everytime. The exceptions are those really presitigious schools that just have that branding on them or a hiring manager that has a soft spot for certain schools.

I wish you well, but as long as you get an ABET accredited degree, and you put in all the effort to do well in school and get your certifications early and often (FE, PE, maybe some other area-specific certifications like LEED or EDAC or whatever) you will be fine.

CbusPaul · Jan 25, 2011

Let me add to this with one piece of advice, don't listen to a word that Ironman says.

roadwreck · Jan 25, 2011

CbusPaul said:
Let me add to this with one piece of advice, don't listen to a word that Ironman says.

that is sound advice.

lusone:

Capt Worley PE · Jan 25, 2011

Well, he isn't making fatty money, yet, either.

ALBin517 · Jan 26, 2011

GDIklz said:
Also, when speaking of grad school, do the big name universities take serious consideration into where you received your undergrad? If you go to a no-name school for undergrad, can you make it into top grad schools?
Thanks!

It depends on the grad program. For example, law schools go almost exclusively by undergrad GPA and LSAT score. The applicant's undergrad school and course of study has almost no effect on law school admission, as long as it is accredited.

Some people also get into a "Catch 22" with grad school in that they are better-prepared for grad school if they take tougher undergrad classes. But if the tougher classes hurt their GPA, they might not get into the grad program they want anyway.

I mainly mentioned the grad school thing earlier in the thread because you never know. I went to school with a girl who had kind of coasted to a 3.5 GPA through her freshman year. That was a very good GPA... until she decided she wanted to make a run at med school. Then she had ground to make up because she had not got all As in the easy classes. So what I was trying to say was that carrying a 3.5 and having fun might be acceptable, or you might be burning bridges.

ironman · Jan 27, 2011

The back door into grad school is enrolling in 600 level classes as a non degree seeking student and then applying on the basis of your grades in thoes classes. I dont know if this works for med school or law school but it will work for an engineering masters.

navyasw02 · Jan 27, 2011

ironman said:
The back door into grad school is enrolling in 600 level classes as a non degree seeking student and then applying on the basis of your grades in thoes classes. I dont know if this works for med school or law school but it will work for an engineering masters.

And you have to do well at the courses and still meet admissions requirements and they have to accept you. It's not like you can take this path and say "Ha haaaa I fooled you admissions folks." If you're still a sub par candidate they're not going to lower their standards and there's still no guarantee of anything other than you just gave some school money for courses that dont count anywhere.

GDIklz · Jan 28, 2011

Okay, so should I steer clear of a school that doesn't have specific ABET accreditation for Mechanical Engineering? Even if it's accredited for "Engineering"?

wilheldp_PE · Jan 28, 2011

GDIklz said:
Okay, so should I steer clear of a school that doesn't have specific ABET accreditation for Mechanical Engineering? Even if it's accredited for "Engineering"?

Yes. You want to go to a school that has the program you are interested in specifically accredited.

Dleg · Jan 30, 2011

I agree. But if you have any questions, contact ABET through their web page and ask them. I don't understand what the difference is between having a general engineering accreditation for the college program, versus degree-specific accreditation. But I would err on the side of caution and make sure your specific degree is accredited.

ironman · Feb 3, 2011

navyasw02 said:
ironman said:

The back door into grad school is enrolling in 600 level classes as a non degree seeking student and then applying on the basis of your grades in thoes classes. I dont know if this works for med school or law school but it will work for an engineering masters.

Click to expand...

And you have to do well at the courses and still meet admissions requirements and they have to accept you. It's not like you can take this path and say "Ha haaaa I fooled you admissions folks." If you're still a sub par candidate they're not going to lower their standards and there's still no guarantee of anything other than you just gave some school money for courses that dont count anywhere.

It is a bit of a gamble but if you want to get into grad school and your undergrad GPA is not all that then you may have to try doing this. Also this is the one case (in my opinion) where the name brand of your undergrad degree can possibly be a get out of jail free card for a not so hot GPA.

In my case I am working on the pre-req's for a EE MS.

I have a degree from a VERY well known engineering school but my GPA was not hot

I am taking cross disipline undergrad classes to get me ready for MS level work in EE and am doing well

Hopefully between my name brand degree, my PE and doing well in my "gap" classes I will be able to get a MS

Of course its not gaurenteed but at the very least it will count toward my continuing education.

The money is all relative, when you are in undergrad living on loans or mom and dad 3 credits of tuition is big money (espcially if you are going to a brand name, out of state school) now that I am making decent money and only taking one class at a time its a write off. Also technically I dont need a second degree to test for a second PE either so worse case I can take enough "gap" classes to be deemed competent in EE to sit for the PE and could do cross disipline work internally in my company (I already have 1 year stamped in cross disipline work), that would be the least ideal way to however. Also having the MS shaves a year off your second PE time requirements.

So if I can do this so can others.

If you went to a no name school it may be tougher to get into grad school but if its what you want to do you have to try right.

benbo · Feb 3, 2011

ironman said:
navyasw02 said:

ironman said:

The back door into grad school is enrolling in 600 level classes as a non degree seeking student and then applying on the basis of your grades in thoes classes. I dont know if this works for med school or law school but it will work for an engineering masters.

Click to expand...

And you have to do well at the courses and still meet admissions requirements and they have to accept you. It's not like you can take this path and say "Ha haaaa I fooled you admissions folks." If you're still a sub par candidate they're not going to lower their standards and there's still no guarantee of anything other than you just gave some school money for courses that dont count anywhere.

Click to expand...

It is a bit of a gamble but if you want to get into grad school and your undergrad GPA is not all that then you may have to try doing this. Also this is the one case (in my opinion) where the name brand of your undergrad degree can possibly be a get out of jail free card for a not so hot GPA.

In my case I am working on the pre-req's for a EE MS.

I have a degree from a VERY well known engineering school but my GPA was not hot

I am taking cross disipline undergrad classes to get me ready for MS level work in EE and am doing well

Hopefully between my name brand degree, my PE and doing well in my "gap" classes I will be able to get a MS

Of course its not gaurenteed but at the very least it will count toward my continuing education.

The money is all relative, when you are in undergrad living on loans or mom and dad 3 credits of tuition is big money (espcially if you are going to a brand name, out of state school) now that I am making decent money and only taking one class at a time its a write off. Also technically I dont need a second degree to test for a second PE either so worse case I can take enough "gap" classes to be deemed competent in EE to sit for the PE and could do cross disipline work internally in my company (I already have 1 year stamped in cross disipline work), that would be the least ideal way to however. Also having the MS shaves a year off your second PE time requirements.

So if I can do this so can others.

If you went to a no name school it may be tougher to get into grad school but if its what you want to do you have to try right.

That extra education must be paying off. That post is actually intelligible.

ALBin517 · Feb 4, 2011

ironman said:
navyasw02 said:

ironman said:

The back door into grad school is enrolling in 600 level classes as a non degree seeking student and then applying on the basis of your grades in thoes classes. I dont know if this works for med school or law school but it will work for an engineering masters.

Click to expand...

And you have to do well at the courses and still meet admissions requirements and they have to accept you. It's not like you can take this path and say "Ha haaaa I fooled you admissions folks." If you're still a sub par candidate they're not going to lower their standards and there's still no guarantee of anything other than you just gave some school money for courses that dont count anywhere.

Click to expand...

It is a bit of a gamble but if you want to get into grad school and your undergrad GPA is not all that then you may have to try doing this. Also this is the one case (in my opinion) where the name brand of your undergrad degree can possibly be a get out of jail free card for a not so hot GPA.

In my case I am working on the pre-req's for a EE MS.

I have a degree from a VERY well known engineering school but my GPA was not hot

I am taking cross disipline undergrad classes to get me ready for MS level work in EE and am doing well

Hopefully between my name brand degree, my PE and doing well in my "gap" classes I will be able to get a MS

Of course its not gaurenteed but at the very least it will count toward my continuing education.

The money is all relative, when you are in undergrad living on loans or mom and dad 3 credits of tuition is big money (espcially if you are going to a brand name, out of state school) now that I am making decent money and only taking one class at a time its a write off. Also technically I dont need a second degree to test for a second PE either so worse case I can take enough "gap" classes to be deemed competent in EE to sit for the PE and could do cross disipline work internally in my company (I already have 1 year stamped in cross disipline work), that would be the least ideal way to however. Also having the MS shaves a year off your second PE time requirements.

So if I can do this so can others.

If you went to a no name school it may be tougher to get into grad school but if its what you want to do you have to try right.

I never knew a second PE could be necessary. My stamp does not specify "civil" so I thought I could sign whatever I felt comfortable signing.

snickerd3 · Feb 4, 2011

depends on the state. Some you can only practice in the test you took. Others like IL the statute states you can practice in your area of knowledge, doesn't matter which test you took.

ironman · Feb 4, 2011

snickerd3 said:
depends on the state. Some you can only practice in the test you took. Others like IL the statute states you can practice in your area of knowledge, doesn't matter which test you took.

Thats true, in my state they have disipline specific stamps. They are however in the process of going to a general stamp so i called the board and they said that even though they are going to a general stamp your disipline will still be listed in your licence and you can only stamp what you tested for. The reason they are going with a general stamp is to make it easier on the board to add more disiplines to the list (we did not have fire and gas, instrumentation, or some other PE disiplines), it was creating issues when there were big projects going on and you had out of state engineers comming up to work on fire and gas designs but they could not transfer their stamp, however, they did not want to go as liberal as IL.

I kind of like the individual disiplines for marketing purposes, having a PE in a disipline where there are few people makes it much more marketable and drives the bill rate up. If you have general stamps I have discovered that there are a sufficient number of PE's that will just stamp things that they really should not be stamping so if you start allowing people to stamp things that "they feel competent to stamp" you can start having ME PE's stamping P&ID's/PFD's/etc that maybe they should not be stamping. If companies can strong arm an existing ME to stamp they dont have to hire a contractor or bring on another engineer. That is not good for engineers or bill rates.

I am ultimatly more interested in the MS because thats the bare minimum to get into research type work. If the bill rates in engineering get driven down too low at least I will have the resume to do something a little more fun, while other engineers eat each other alive driving each others bill rates down to that of a bus driver. I doubt that will happen but you want to be as liquid as possible when the crap hits the fan. I guess finding out you make only 3$/hr more than a construction flagger kinda sucks.

wilheldp_PE · Feb 4, 2011

Did you bump your head or something, ironman? Your recent posts are surprising coherent. Congratulations on sounding like less of an *****.

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