MS MechE with Math Bachelors

[squmptilious]

There is a program offered by a reputable university which allows people to get a masters in engineering with a bachelor’s in an unrelated field. It’s a year of undergrad prereq’s followed by an MS.

I have a BA in math. Would I be more hireable if I got a MS in MechE or a second BS in MechE? In other words, would getting a second BS be a better option than going right to the MS?

 

[GregLocock]

Fascinating question. So would 1 year of prereqs and 2 years of MSMEng, be better than X years of BMEng?

OK, your prereqs will skip all the lab stuff, which is where my brain absorbed the theory. But I see that labs are of the Lego level now, when we used to use steam engines. So maybe missing them is no big drama.

If you have BMath then all the maths in your BEng will be trivial, and since that was my biggest waste of time, I suggest your time as a BEng student will be rather enjoyable. Plus you get the labs.

Career wise I suspect path 1 is probably the best, personal satisfaction wise maybe path 2

 

[alchemon]

Do you aspire to become a professional engineer? If so, check your target jurisdiction. Some may or may not accept a masters in lieu of a bachelor's. Also, most masters programs are not ABET accredited, which again is important if seeking professional licensure.

 

[disoswam]

If you want PE ask the board or NCSEE tell you what credits you need to add to your math. You may not need a whole degree.

 

[north_man]

It would depend on your location. Where I’m from it, it would probably be the second bachelors. To be licensed as a professional engineer you need an undergrad in engineering.

 

[squmptilious]

Thank you for the replies everyone. Very helpful

In my jurisdiction I would be able to get my PE in 4 years with the math bachelors, “bridge” undergrad prereq courses, and MS. According to NCEES requirements, I fall under non-ABET undergrad but because I would have 30 credits of college math from my BA plus 48 credits of eng (16 credits from bridge courses and 32 from the masters) I would have an “ABET equivalent” background and so could take FE and then get PE after 4 yrs work experience.

I guess my question is more related to the look of this on a resume. I could see a hiring manager finding my lack of a BS in Eng problematic and round filing my resume. I don’t want to be disadvantaged in hiring and unable to find a job. On the other hand, returning to undergraduate in my late 20s for 3 years of undergraduate courses is not exactly appealing. Would rather move on to graduate work for 2 years after my prereq’s. But if I have to do it to get the right foundation and for my resume to avoid appearing fugazi, I would.

Are there particular areas of mechanical engineering in which a math BA would be desired?

 

[alchemon]

From a pure employment perspective, I would find no differences between a math Ba and then MS Mech Engr, or math BA and then BS Mech Engr. Logically to me, it would make more sense for you to get the masters because it is the higher degree. My primary concern would be whether you could become licensed, because that is important in my industry. If it were me and you felt like you have done the homework on licensure, I'd go for the MS.

Source: I'm a part owner of an engineering company that employs around 120 people, probably 2/3 of those are engineers.

And as far as any areas that are good for a math BA, the dirty secret is that engineers primarily design off excel files and software and do very little hard math after graduation. Perhaps having the additional math background would help in something like rocket/aerospace engineering.

 

[Sparweb]

Speaking as one who makes hiring decisions, I would consider a candidate with a Math BA followed by a BS or MS in Mech Eng. The difference between the BS or MS wouldn't be a big factor unless the MS included some very specific topics that appeal to the job I have open (aerospace in my case). There are so many more things that can enrich a candidate's background, it's too simple to make a categorical choice alone.

To amplify my point of view to you, for some positions I would also consider a candidate with a BA in Math or BSc in Physics plus a mechanically-related technical diploma. Don't scoff, I know a successful engineer with this pedigree. There are many instances where additional qualifications come into play, and have a bearing on the hire-no-hire decision.

squmptilious, just make sure you truly enjoy your education, whatever you choose. It's many years of your youth which you won't get back. Good luck to you!

 

[CWB1]

If you want to become an engineer then I'd pursue a standard bachelor's program. MS programs are largely fluff, and rushing through an accelerated undergrad is a mistake. Undergrad is not only where you learn the fundamental sciences like kinematics, material science, thermo, etc; its where you start to learn the practical engineering skills needed to succeed - CAD, FEA, CFD, analytical approaches, design of experiments/testing, drafting/GD&T, manufacturing processes/DFMA, engineering quality, PM, etc. Learning the science fundamentals is a fairly quick & easy process, grab a textbook and spend a few evenings reading. Developing the practical skills OTOH takes a few years of hands-on experience. Many juniors are quickly forced out of engineering bc they learned the sciences but not the skills in college (bc many schools put little/no emphasis on the skills) and didn't do the usual 2-3 years of internship to develop reasonably professional competency before graduation.

Regarding degrees, I've prob worked with a half dozen engineers with a non-engineering degree and never doubted their competency. I also had one as an intern for a few years while he finished a BS-Physics and completed a MS-Physics. After graduation he was hired into another dept ahead of many applicants with engineering degrees. To say he worked his backside off for several years playing "catchup" is an understatement tho. There's a lot of crossover between Physics and the fundamentals of mechanics/statics/kinematics/dynamics/etc so he read my textbook library to fill in the blanks, took a few of the "heavier" courses like material science and FEA in-person, and used our corporate training accounts to learn CAD, GD&T, PM, and other skill basics online.

Hiring decisions are based more on your resume than degree bc as mentioned, the knowledge and experience of recent engineering grads varies a LOT. Learning to apply the science fundamentals to a specific industry/niche is a very steep learning curve during your first few years post-grad. To succeed in that, you need to know the fundamental science AND have the skills. If I'm not confident that I can provide a junior engineer basic guidance and have them remodel a part, rerun analysis, retest, and approve a redrawn print in the first few weeks of employment then I'm not hiring them. A $20/hr intern has vastly different expectations than a $80k junior engineer, even tho both are in similar training programs.

 

[HVAC-Novice]

Thank you for the replies everyone. Very helpful

In my jurisdiction I would be able to get my PE in 4 years with the math bachelors, “bridge” undergrad prereq courses, and MS. According to NCEES requirements, I fall under non-ABET undergrad but because I would have 30 credits of college math from my BA plus 48 credits of eng (16 credits from bridge courses and 32 from the masters) I would have an “ABET equivalent” background and so could take FE and then get PE after 4 yrs work experience.

I guess my question is more related to the look of this on a resume. I could see a hiring manager finding my lack of a BS in Eng problematic and round filing my resume. I don’t want to be disadvantaged in hiring and unable to find a job. On the other hand, returning to undergraduate in my late 20s for 3 years of undergraduate courses is not exactly appealing. Would rather move on to graduate work for 2 years after my prereq’s. But if I have to do it to get the right foundation and for my resume to avoid appearing fugazi, I would.

Are there particular areas of mechanical engineering in which a math BA would be desired?

Forget about "equivalent ". You want ABET accredited or nothing. What if you jurisdiction change the requirement tomorrow to require actual ABET? What if you move to a different State in 5 years and then have to meet their requirements?

I have a foreign undergraduate degree and a US ME. But graduate degrees are not ABET accredited ever and neither are foreign degrees. So I had to get an equivalent evaluation. That was NOT fun nor easy. Actually it took some years and lot of forth and back with my licensing board. and if I want a license in another state, I hope it works there as well and will have to go through the same procedure. if you are in the US and pay for a degree, get one that is good on paper meaning accredited. It doesn't' matter if it is an actually good school as long as the program you take is accredited. Make sure theat specific program is accredited since schools have multiple programs and not all are accredited.

 

[SWComposites]

Agree, IF you want to work in an industry/role where you need a PE, the get an ABET accredited BS degree.

However, there are plenty of industries where you don’t need a PE and no one cares about them one bit (aerospace, etc). If you want to go into one of those fields, getting an MS degree will have some advantages, particularly fir jobs in R&D groups.

 

[BEMPE16524]

depend on where you want to land your job.

 

[dgeesaman]

I think you need to have a few career choices in mind to make your decisions. Something pulled you from math to mechanical engineering, what is it? What do the jobs related to that require? Having a PE or path to PE licensure is never a bad thing, however in many engineering roles it adds no value. So do your best to figure out the relevance of a PE to your goals and how each option affects PE eligibility and preparation.

For all of the math that MEs do in undergrad, most 'real-world' daily tasks are simplified to plugging numbers into calculation programs, plotting and manipulating data in Excel, and some algebra. So if the applied math in engineering is attractive to you, you'll want to work in an analytical role or get involved developing mechanical engineering tools where you need to derive or document the exact math under the hood.

MSME is typically a deeper dive into a portion of mechanical engineering. It does advance study into the major fields of study but the ones I've seen require you to choose a focus area. An employer will tend to like the MS if the MS concentration is helpful for the role. So if structural analysis is your goal, then an MSME with focus on structural analysis will be better than a BSME without focus. But if you want to do general machine design, employers will see your MSME focus and assume you won't want a job that isn't aligned with that focus.

I'm thinking about the core BSME classes that would be your first year pre-req for MSME. Fluids, Thermo, Physics, Solid Mechanics, Dynamics, Machine Design, Controls, Materials Science, etc. Either they're skipping valuable stuff or that courseload will be crushing.

 

[HVAC-Novice]

You never know what you need later in life.

Even if a job doesn't require a PE license, such license sets yo apart from candidates without license. if nothing else, it proves you are able to pass two 8-hour tests, have 4+ years experience and found licensed people giving you a reference. This isn't' nothing compared to competing candidates without license. And ultimately you do it for your own satisfaction.

 

[fel3]

Years ago, I worked with a very smart guy (since retired) who did a triple bachelor's at an Ivy League school (as I recall, it was Mathematics, Physics, and Economics), then earned a master's in Civil Engineering from some other big-name school. He had no problem getting his PE in California and he had a long and productive career at our 600ish-person consulting firm.

 

[squmptilious]

Thanks for the replies all.

I’m leaning towards looking into either pursuing a second bachelors in ME, or building on the math background and doing grad work in CS or Data Sci which seem to be much more common paths for math majors.

If I was going to pursue ME, I wouldn’t want to be missing any of the fundamentals and playing catch up.

I think if I had a physics BS it would be a no brainer to go right into a masters. With my BA in math I haven’t even taken Gen Phys. So I would have to do two semesters of that during the summer, followed by Statics, Circuits, CAD, Fluid Dynamics first sem then Mechanics, Intro to Materials, Structures, Thermo second semester, and I’d be missing some of these other things such as heat transfer, machine design, senior design, instrumentation, etc.