Meng or Msc

[Shahrukh92]

thread731-183897

I am final year student Of BTech in Petroleum Technology. I am willing to do masters in Canada but i m confused which one to select Meng or Msc? What is the difference between this two in educational term and as well as Job prospective/

 

[hokie66]

As discussed in the other thread, it depends on the country. In the US, the standard degree is MS in Engineering. In other countries, MEng is more common. As someone pointed out, most employers don't know the difference. Masters is Masters, unless it isn't.

 

[HPost]

MEng is, as the name suggests, more engineering specific than MSc which is slightly more generalised.

If going directly for Masters, it makes no difference. If doing BEng first, do MSc because MEng is too similar to BEng and not enough of a stretch in terms of experience.

HPost CEng MIMechE

 

[moltenmetal]

A M Eng is 8 grad courses and a paper. A M A Sc is 4 courses, a real research project, and a thesis.

In my estimation, the M Eng likely teaches you very little that is useful, given that it's tough to find eight grad courses at a typical uni that are taught well enough to be truly worth taking. The M Eng is a popular option with people whose employers are paying them to obtain a Master's degree, because all you need to do is attend lectures, do some assignments and write some exams- and over the longer timescale of part-time studies, you are more likely to find eight worthwhile courses over several years than you are in a year or two, since many are not offered every year.

The M A Sc has a hope of teaching you something useful, by getting you to actually study something in depth, on your own- possibly even requiring you to build some apparatus and make some measurements, and then to try to analyze and understand what you've observed, and communicate that with enough rigour to withstand review.

Employers that know this difference value it accordingly, which in my experience is still very little. Most give you perhaps 1 year of extra "experience credit" for a Master's degree. Employers that don't know this difference don't give you much credit for your Masters' degree at all. Again, your mileage may differ.

 

[racookpe1978]

If you are going to use the Masteras degree "only" for the foundation of a future PhD, then you need to specifically tailor the Masters program for that PhD, and your PhD advisor/graduate program head is going to control your decision. (Just about everything in PhD is "religiously/politically/funding oriented from "above" not what you want.

If your company is paying, see what they can do, and for how long that program of paying is going to last. Lots of cuts coming up!

If you are going to use the masters in the company, or if it is going to lead to a pay hike after finishing, I'd go for the shortest group of classes you can. Less chance of future cuts, fastest salary increase - and nobody can take it away fro, you at this company or a future one. (3/4 through a master's program is NOT the way to go into a job interview, nor to have on your back when you go looking for work out of town!)

Few, very few companies will actually have you use specifically the exact course you took a course in. Most of the time, the company will be doing work in advance of what the college is teaching, if the company is actually making money from the new process.

 

[moltenmetal]

OK, I missed something in the OP's post- they have a B Tech in petroleum engineering- no idea what that is, as we don't offer B Tech degrees in Canada- though I think one university in Ontario (McMaster) has started doing so. Suspect all the provincial engineering licensure bodies see it the same way, and will want you to write technical exams if you want a license. Those Canadian B Tech degrees are not going to be CEAB accredited- they lack too many core courses. You need either a B.A.Sc. or a B. Eng. to have equivalency to a CEAB-accredited degree.

Getting a Master's degree of either kind in Canada WILL NOT fix that for you. That route has been tried by many, and they've failed. But petroleum eng may still get you a job in northern Alberta, though those days aren't quite what they used to be. You don't need a license to work as an employee.

 

[Longinthetooth]

I have a B Tech (Chemical Engineering) from a British University. It was accepted in Canada by APEGGA as being the same as a Bsc. I dont think the B Eng degree existed at that time (1970). The course content was definitely the same standard and complexity as a Bsc course. Of course, things might thave changed since then.

 

[moltenmetal]

Longinthetooth: thanks for clarifying that, as the B Tech degrees being offered in Canada are most assuredly NOT up to the standard of a B A Sc degree offered here. I have no doubt that it can be very different in other countries, and that may of course also change with time, and the quality will vary by institution also. Licensure bodies like APEGGA and PEO etc. at the provincial level have to take such care in reviewing candidates' credentials, because there is a great diversity in the scope and quality of various engineering degree programs offered throughout the world.

Rather than making every candidate for licensure sit all the tech exams, irrespective of where or when they were educated, the licensure bodies in Canada through CEAB accredit local B A Sc programs so that locally-educated engineers don't need to write the exams. It's an efficient system, but does leave that credential review hurdle for foreign-trained engineers to leap if they want a license. Some employers (wisely!) use that review to determine whether or not a job candidate's degree is up to CEAB standards, given that employers typically have insufficient knowledge of the thousands of programs granting degrees worldwide to be able to judge their quality effectively. The license, although not required for work as an employee engineer, can therefore tend to become necessary for a foreign trained engineer to be considered employable. Fortunately, that review process can be started and indeed completed prior to immigration, at least in Ontario and Alberta.

Getting a Master's degree is seen by some foreign-trained engineers as an easy way to avoid assigned technical exams when the program isn't viewed as meeting CEAB's standards. Fortunately, the licensure bodies realize that it's possible to graduate with a Masters and still be missing Bachelors' level fundamentals that are essential to the education of an engineer wishing to be licensed.