- To Justify My "Engineer" Title: Even though I'm a Computer Science graduate from UVA's School of Engineering and my job title is "Software Engineer," I don't feel like a true Engineer. True Engineers apply math and science to create value-added products. I use no math or science whatsoever. I'm leaning towards a degree in Systems Engineering, which is admittedly not as true of a discipline as mechanical or electrical engineering, but it should make me more of an Engineer than just Computer Science.
- To Increase My Employment Potential: I have no intentions to leave my job, but just in case there happens to be a particularly turbulent recession (or depression) as the US transitions from a consumer-based to a production-based nation, I will want to have a job. Traditionally during recessions/depressions, the more education you have, the better chance you have at getting/keeping a job.
- To Increase My Compensation Potential: Chances are that with higher education I could earn more pay than I would with just a Bachelor's degree. One of my goals is to allow Katie to be a full-time mom, meaning our family would just get by on my income. Being able to earn more pay would, obviously, help towards that goal.
- To Help the USA: In order for the US economy to be truly strong, it will need to produce more, and that's going to require engineers.
As of now, I'm planning on appling to the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program. I'm scheduled to take my GREs by the end of this month. I just need to find some referrals.
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6 comments:
A bachelor's degree nowadays is like the equivalent of a high school diploma circa 1980, so I agree it's probably a good idea to go back to school. You seem to have a perpetual thirst for knowledge, anyway, so you might as well get credit for it! Now quit uploading WWE Raw wrestling matches to Facebook and go study for the GRE! :)
Mike has been talking about the same thing recently. I'm going to show him your post, and maybe you can give him advice!
By the way, since you're on your way back to academia, did you know you and Mike have been cited in an actual book? (It's your keystroke timing project.)
Here's the citation: http://safari.oreilly.com/1593270461/ns1593270461-BIBL-1
And here's the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Silence-Wire-Passive-Reconnaissance-Indirect/dp/1593270461/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-1096616-1480908?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189459984&sr=8-1
By the way, that comment is Kellan -- somehow Google is making me use my defunct Blogger account to post.
Awesome about wanting to get a Masters. I just thought I’d offer some advice about the GRE. From what little I know about your academic background I think you ought to do well on the quantitative section. You also write pretty well and being with Katie I'm sure you've built up an extensive vocabulary. = )
Based on my own experiences with the GRE I found that brushing up on some basic math (i.e. geometry, algebra) was helpful, as well as looking through word lists of the most frequently used GRE words. Since you most likely have a strong background in math I wouldn't even sweat the quant. section. In fact, my engineering and some of my science buddies in grad. school managed to score within 720-800 on the quant. section.
If anything you should familiarize yourself with how the test is formatted. My friends and I have found it helpful to do a few practice tests and try as much as possible to simulate the actual testing conditions and environment. Trust me on that--even this guy I know who managed to score close to a 1500 cracked open a GRE book and took a practice test or two.
If you're at all interested in GRE study aides I highly recommend Kaplan and ETS. The latter has really good practice tests and an adequate amount of review information. Kaplan, on the other hand, has relatively good practice tests, but larger review sections for math and verbal. I would only use Kaplan if you feel as though you need a lot of practice.
So anyway, overall the GRE, albeit required, is such a small percentage of your entire application. My point is that because you have several years of work experience, a degree from a really good school, and a bachelor's in a good area, your GRE scores, whether good or so-so, won't be the defining factor for getting accepted or not. Well, unless your GPA is super crappy...but yeah. Good luck with studying!!
http://www.nvc.vt.edu/
Interesting. I find a masters to be increasingly less useful to my career as I progress. I suppose it depends on what you want your career path to look like. Just seems that all the people I encounter in this field that have "advanced" degress either have no practical grounding in reality, or are the "architecture astronauts". BTW, in regards to CS not feeling like a true engineering discipline I highly recommend you look up Neal Ford's essay on Polyglot Progamming.
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