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Do you recommend getting a master's?

Do you recommend getting a master's?

Do you recommend getting a master's?

(OP)
Hi guys,

I am just curious what a lot of you guys think about the value of a master's degree in structures.  Obviously, with companies starving for engineers, it isn't necessary to get a well-paying job, but will having an advanced degree reap long-term benefits?  I'd like to hear what you think...

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

A looooooooooooooong time ago, when I got my BS, there were no jobs to be had.  So I stuck around, got my masters and got a job after that.  The masters degree got me an additional $1.00 an hour, which in those days was about 12% more than a new bachelors.
But of course, that was the salary one year of experience would have got me.  
But in the big picture, the masters gave me a lot of confidence.  My employer liked it on my resume and in further job hunting, it set me apart from other candidstes.
There's also a lot of noise that a masters is going to be considered the minimum level for engineering graduates, like for architects.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

I found that the MS filled in the gap for things that either weren't taught in undergraduate school or I was exposed to at work.

I agree with Jed it does give one a sense of accomplishment; whether it brought me more money is hard to say. If you decide to pursue it, I hope your employer foots the bill.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

The last two companies I worked for were moderately high-end structural firms and they required a MS.  They got very desperate and hired 3 BS people and encouraged them to get their ME or MS from a local university.  They all did that while they worked full time.

Grad school is A LOT more fun than undergrad and you should be able to get it paid for, plus a small salary, if your grades are good.  Unless it's financially crippling for some reason, I wouldn't consider NOT going ahead and getting it.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

I think that a few years of work would be a good thing.  Its amazing how out of touch acadamie is with the as-built project.  We've hired a number of bachealor individuals, always stunned by how far removed they are from the construction process.  Having said that, education is the best thing.  Your knowledge is all you have and it can never be taken away from you, it goes way beyond 'market value'.  'Market Value' will only come with time.  If you can find a consulting firm that will hire you and then encourage, read pay for your master then this would be the best of both worlds, the real world, ie., application and money, and the world of modeling and theory.  Your away then, the future is bright!

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

Go for it.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

Well I remember when I was finishing my bachelor degree I was so tired of academia I couldn't wait to start work and do something a bit more productive.  When I did engineering about 25 years ago it was a hard slog, lots of hard work.
My idea is if you like it do it, in my case I just needed a real break, maybe in hindsight I would do it now, but I didn't, so be it, Im still here and still designing and building structures.

Interested to know what others in my vintage think about this topic !

Merry Christmas to all !

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

I had to explain last week to a guy with a Master's in structural engineering how there is leeward wind load on a screen wall. I had had similar experiences with two other of our somewhat young engineers with Master's degrees. They all lack some basic understandings and basic ability to problem solve.

All that said, I still would recommend a Master's. I'm just not convinced that it equips one better for the consulting world than one year's experience does.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

I am not sure that a master's degree is the end all for a structural engineer.
If it is something you want to pursue. investigate several school's programs.  They are not the same and a good BS program does not guarantee a good MS program.

We have hired two engineers with MS degrees from the local university. Both of them did their research in prestress concrete girders for bridges.  None of which was very relevant to our work.  Neither of which was really trained for designing buildings.  Both wanted to get into building design when they went and got their MS degrees.  Both have said that they woul dhave gone else where had they known what they were getting into.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

Perhaps my opinion is biased because I do have a masters degree in structures. However, my BS is in a different branch of engineering and to be up to speed on even the basic civil coursework, a masters degree was purely essential if I wanted to grasp the tasks my work required.

In my experience, the best way to go through grad school is to have an employer pay as you go. This way, your main investment is time, not money, and you can structure your coursework to focus on topics that best suit your day job and make it that much more fulfilling. I think this is more beneficial than completing a masters directly after a BS with little to no work experience.

Be aware, as most academia, post-graduate studies often get a bum wrap for being too theorhetical or too focused on a niche topic. My former grad school advisor would be proud if he could read this, because I fought him tooth and nail about coursework being too theory based. I wanted to learn practical applications. Yet, he repetitively reminded me that you don't learn theory on the job, so it's best to learn it in school. In hindsight, I see the beauty in learning higher engineering theory, because it helps make everything click so much faster.

So, if you already have a BS and have a little experience and your employer is willing to help you out, I'd say you have nothing to lose by going for it.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

I have a BS in Civil Engineering and an MS in structural.  The MS was and is incredibly valuable to me.  Not in $$ terms but due to the fact that it made me a much better engineer.  Without it I would have struggled to truly understand structural engineering.

I have been in the role of hiring in a structural engineering department for many years.  All of the MS grads I hired were very good.  The few BS grads were good, but there was a noticable difference in ability, understanding, etc.  Even after 1 year of experience, the BS - MS difference was apparent.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

I'm encouraged that so many of you are so positive about pursuing a masters. I am precisely in the position many of you  are describing as the "ideal" in that my company is paying my way.

My excitement about pursuing a masters would not have diminished if the general sentiment in this thread would have been to discourage it, but I'm all that more excited to know that my colleagues encourage and respect this pursuit.

Happy studying, all!

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

(OP)
Yea, I guess I have close to what some of you guys would consider the ideal situation.  I just graduated and the company I've been interning with will let me get the master's while working part-time.  Sometime in the past year, I decided that I should go to grad school to fill in the gaps and develop a great level of confidence in my work.  However, it is kind of disheartening when you see classmates with much lower GPAs, that are going out and getting jobs paying >60k with a bachelors degree.  It makes you wonder if it is worth it.  

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

There's more to being "heartened" with your job than the salary it presents to you.  Over the years, having in my head that I know what I'm talking about has been a huge blessing.  

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

I got my BEng 3 years ago and at that time I couldn't stand the thought of more lectures, tutorials, coursework etc.

I found the first 2 years working in a consultancy invaluable as has been mentioned in this thread a few times.
My bosses have been encouraging me to go for a Masters and this year I got hungry again, so I'm starting a distance learning (on-line) MSc in Renewable Energy in February.  I know this veers away from structures but I believe there will be a useful knowledge overlap when I get working on some projects.

Anyway getting some experience has worked well for me, but having the support of my bosses to go on for the Masters is great.

If you're not working for a company that will help, try to find one.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

A few years ago, while I was an undergrad, I had spoken to quite a few structural engineering firms. None of them would hire people without a MS or who had no plans of pursuing a MS in the immediate future.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

JAE wrote: "Over the years, having in my head that I know what I'm talking about has been a huge blessing."

I think this is very true.  Thinking back to the various design subjects: steel, concrete, masonry, wood, lateral loads, etc.  I learned some of these on the job, but never to the depth that I learned the ones I had in school.  Of course, going through a good MS program gives the opportunity to take several more of these classes.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

I worked as an structural engineer for 3 years after getting my BS; then I went to grad school full time and got my MS in one year.  I know not everyone can do it this way, but the intensity was great.  Having a Master's has been valuable to me, not only because it gave me a deeper understanding of structures.  All the papers and presentations I had to do helped me become a better writer and speaker.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

graduate school gave me an opportunity to study various topics in greater depth than I was able to do as an undergrad and the time to study I would not have as a worker bee.  I recommend getting the masters degree to increase your knowledge of engineering, not just to earn more $$.  The $$ will come as your employers, and most importantly your clients, recognize that you have more knowledge.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

If your BS program didn't establish a strong structural foundation, then you should definitely pursue a Masters.
If you have a good mentor, this will only enhance what you can take from him as your knowledge base with be that much broader for him to expound upon.
I like others was tired of full time school and full time working after 4.1/2 years, so emhraced the opportunity to enter the work force. Thus I only have a BS in Architectural Engineering. When I do find the time to go for a Masters, it probably won't be in structural engineering.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

If the opportunity is there: I would say it was worth while. I went back and got a masters after I got my P.E. (while working full time). (So it was a great way to get PDH hours to maintain my license.) It was kind of funny how that developed: I originally just wanted to cover a few classes (i.e. Structural Dynamics, Advanced Mechanics of Materials, Earthquake Engineering, and Finite Element Analysis (which I dropped)). But by the time I finished taking what I wanted to take I was half way towards earning an M.S. anyway (and work was slow due to the recession), so I decided to just go ahead and finish.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

I totally agree that MSc is a necessary pursuit. What I have been curious is the assessment of PhD persons in engineering firms.

I got my BSc and MSc consecutively and worked a few years before moving to Canada. I started a program for a PhD degree, but in the third year, for mixed reasons, I "downscaled" (as it was called, although I did the same thing as planned) to a MSc program. I am glad that all my degrees are on the same major.

I have worked in differet companies afterwards, from commercial to industrial, from size of a few to a few thousand employees. And I worked with many PhDs in engineering companies. It seems to me that companies regard PhD a great deal and blindly assign important jobs. For example, automatically grant them to be specification writer, technical supervisor, QC personnal, etc. I don't know if this is common practice.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

I haven't seen P.E. licensing requirements mentioned in this thread.  ASCE and others are recommending post-baccalaureate studies as a requirement for licensure.  To my knowledge no state licensing boards have yet adopted this requirement, but it appears to be the way things are going.

Since abusementpark is structural, a professional license will probably be necessary (or at least desireable) for career progression.  I would encourage this be a consideration as well.



RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

I heard something at a structural seminar a while back where the presenter was saying that students don't really learn what they need to enter the job market in a bachelors degree anymore.  The masters is where they get the knowledge to prepare for work.  I don't know why this is, but it somewhat seems to be true.  Personally, I wouldn't have minded skipping some of the `weed out' calculus and science classes to have the opportunity to learn more structural engineering in my bachelors degree, but that is a different subject.  
I don't have one, but would recommend a Masters.  Your career lasts a long time, and the more applicable knowledge you can obtain, the more valuable you'll be over your entire career.  The good / valuable structural engineers are always learning new stuff and advancing their knowledge base and capabilities.  I don't know that you necessarily need to obtain the knowledge from a masters degree, but it is a sure way to assure yourself that you'll be presented some of that knowledge - without learning it all yourself.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

I went to graduate school at night while working and my employer paid for it. I wasn't going to pass up this benefit.

Everything seemed to become much clearer and working gave me additional insentive to pay more attention to what was being taught. I would often ask the prof what the practical aspect was of what he was teaching us or call him on something that was not practical.

I am with the others....go for it!

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

Some companies will not hire a structural engineer without a graduate degree.  In addition to the above posts, educating yourself can give you more job opportunities.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

To be a bit of a curmudgeon, why not an MBA instead?  Seems that is the wave at present.

RE: Do you recommend getting a master's?

Note you need to have 18 semester hours of structural analysis and design courses for NCEES model law structural engineer designation.  You may need additional course work anyway to meet this requirement.

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