Well, I start my final semester of university on monday and it's time to make a choice. Take my degree and go straight into a nice safe job earning a good salary and start the long haul to the boardroom. Or stay at university and get my masters in Structural Engineering. Taking my masters means I can enter higher up in the company or go into a more specialised area of it. The problem is that it means 2 more years of loans and even more debt. I've spoken to people who have taken both roads but they are biased to me taking their choice. They both make very good cases for why I should choose it. I was just hoping that people who have been in the same situation as me could give me some advice. Cheers.
*ignore me, I'm an undergrad student* What about taking the job now, but going back for a Masters in a few years time?
As you have observed, there is support on both sides. I like the side that says to spend a couple of years in the field before jumping into a masters program. You will gain a great deal more knowledge and may even find yourself in something other than what you now think.
Get your Masters now. Otherwise, you'll be too busy working and too dependent upon that salary to do it later. Trust me.
That was my view as well, I don't know if I could give up my salary and benefits for 2 years while I did my masters. But we'll see just how much money they are going to offer me, it might be too much to resist.
I'm in the get-it-now-or-not camp - I watch too many people muddle through an MA with a husband/wife and kids. Some make it, some don't, but it is a tough thing to move into an apartment and give up salary etc. Another option: find a company that supports you in getting an advanced degree. A few miles from my house is a firm called Schweitzer Engineering Labs (SEL) where a number of my friends work. SEL pays for six credits a year at Washington State University for employees working on degrees that will complement their field at SEL. To their credit, they do the same for line workers who lack a BA, equally with engineers who could use master's degree.
Im in the same boat as boat as you, but I am studying Mechanical Engineering and am 20, 21 by the time ill graduate. I dont plan on getting my masters because I have a wicked Job Connection, with a great salary. Honestly, Id rather gain experience/make money and enjoy my youth and If i feel like it, Ill get my masters down the road. But to each his own. Erm.. and another thing, Even if i really wanted to, I just cant afford it right now.
Yup. I finished my undergrad in '99 and should've gone for the master's right away. It's now '06, and I'm having to prep for the GRE and the MAT because I've probably forgotten half of the crap on there. Oh yeah, I got married and had a kid in there too. That makes going back to school a lot more difficult. BELIEVE me.
If I had gone straight into a master's program after undergrad, it would have been the in the same field I was in in college. The master's I'm pursuing now is in an unrelated field, and I am extremely happy with my decision. I've seen several friends do the same thing. When it's time to go back to school, lo and behold, it's not always in the thing you would've expected. Another reason to wait is that it puts "school" in a whole new perspective after you've been in the working world for a while. It's not something you necessarily slog through when you're making the extra time and money sacrifices to re-enter those halls of academia. And to speak to one other thing that was mentioned above---the additional debt you will accrue---that debt is going to take soooooo long to go away anyway, a couple of years in a master's program is just a drop in the bucket. If that's one of your main concerns, don't let it stop you.
I work with civil engineers (most geotechnical) at the US Corps of Engineers, and am an undergrad in said field. Take this for what it's worth, but most of them say that in civil engineering (which would be what your BS would be in I would assume) you don't really have real directed experitise until you get a master's. This is at least true in the US where we still have to take classes in all the fields of Civil not just our particular favorite. When you get a master's you will be more experited in your field (obviously) but more so than in other types of Engineering (mechanical, chemical, etc). Again take that for what it's worth coming from an undergrad from the US. edit: upon going back to uni after a few years of work. You have the think about where you'll be by then. You'll probably be a) nestled into a good job with a good routine that you wno't want to mess up (unless they are paying for your schooling) and b) Have a good family life that you won't want to cause chaos in by you going off for 1 (or 2) years to school. Now this might not be that much of a problem in England, as opposed to myself living in MS but going to say California for my graduate..
Indeed. This is what my wife did. It has worked out well for her. Meanwhile anytime I have thought about going back to school for a Masters etc. -- life tends to get in the way. If you are sure this is the field you want to pursue do it now.
Simple question. How far away is your degree from it being reproduced in India at a quarter of the cost? If "not so much", do as you please, if "mm.. not sure.... kind of likely" do the masters.
Well since to practice Civil Engineering in the UK you need to be a member of the RICS and RICE and you can only join if your a British citizen pretty darn small.
At the moment because of the chronic shortages in all Construction fields the wages are pretty much similar when starting but as you progress up the corperate ladder the Masters starts to make a differance. So, short term none, long term quite a bit.
How can you outsource a job that requires you to be physically at the site? Plus as I said, you cannot do my job with out being a member of the RICS or RICE.
I think he means outsource to India where it would be cheaper. Yeah.. that doesn't really apply for this, only for computers really. Toon- if you must be a citizen, how can someone from overseas get a job in that field in the UK at all then?
Well, they only use that excuse then someone not from Canada, USA or an English speaker from Western Europe applies. It is an extremely biased and frankly racists system but there is nothing you can do about it. Also if they do grant foreign membership to the RICS or RICE then it is only for a limited time and if you want to stay on then they encourage you to apply for citzenship.