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second masters degree worth the money? 2

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rustin03

Aerospace
Jun 2, 2004
13
Hi all,

I just finished my MS in Aero Astro at Stanford, and was recently accepted to study for a second masters degree in the EE department at USC.

The original point of getting the 2nd masters degree was to become really specialized in modern control theory, and then go off to be a professional engineer.

However, now I am having second thoughts!

The 2nd masters will cost me around $30,000 over the course of the next 2 years and I am not sure it will be worth it financially.

Will companies (big aerospace companies in particular) generally pay a higher salary for a person with 2 masters degrees as opposed to one? It would be a LOT cheaper to just audit the controls classes I'm looking to take, so if getting a second degree isn't going to pay off, I'd just as soon take the classes for no-credit and save the $30,000 in tuition.

Thoughts? Thanks!
 
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rustin03,

I am just finishing my MSECE this June and specialized in controls. Aerospace is definitely a field where you want some knowledge of modern control theory, especially optimal and robust control, but if you can make it through one MS you should be able to learn controls on your own from textbooks. Courses that I took were long on theory, heavy on simulation, and short of practicality. Any textbook can give you that.

If I were you, I'd get out there in the working world and try to learn the controls material on your own. There are a lot of resources out there, including course websites with lecture notes, homework and solutions, exams, etc. Don't forget to get a computer program that can simulate systems and their responses. MATLAB (with Simulink and associated toolboxes) is probably the most widely used from what I can tell, and it isn't free, but I believe Octave is free (a numerical analysis program very similar to MATLAB - even syntactically) and you can configure it to run on Windows. There are several others available for free download, including Ch Professional and Scilab.

By the way, the PE in control systems seems to be geared toward engineers in the process control industries. If you look at the requirements, there is nothing on any modern control theory, but lots on valves, which tend to be the dominant final control element in the process industries. I really don't know of any of the PE exams that would require modern control knowledge, but it'll sure come in handy when trying to control something with fly-by-wire technology and requiring state estimation.

Good luck.

xnuke
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You have to take all the heat when things go wrong

What do you think happens with us professionals out there?

I you screw up at school, you have the luxury to do classes over again, If you screw up at work you might lose your job, go to jail, lose your license etc...

Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr
 
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