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Starting to Think about Grad School....

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tatteredpotato

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I'm finishing up my junior year of my undergrad and I'm on course to graduate right about a year from now. My reasoning for wanting to go to grad school right now is that when I look at the schedule of classes, all the ones that sound really interesting to me are the Graduate Level classes, so I figure I can easily keep focused through a Masters (for the record no interest in a PhD at this point in my life). My degree will be a BE in Electrical/Computer Engineering... which really means it's an EE degree with an emphasis on digital design. I really don't find circuit theory very interesting, but classes about digital systems where I can play with FPGA's I find intriguing. When entering my undergrad my first instinct was a Computer Science undergrad, but there was a part of me that felt like I wouldn't be satisfied with that, because I really had a desire to know how computers worked on a lower level.

So looking forward I'm trying to decide if I should apply to a CS grad program or a Computer Engineering one. I enjoy working with hardware, but I enjoy the creativity software allows you to express. I'll probably have a better idea next year after I take my Embedded Systems/Microprocessors, and Operating Systems courses, but I know you have to start preparing early for these things.

I'd be interested to hear from those of you who have gotten your masters in either EE, Computer Engineering, or CS (or software engineering for that matter), and what type of opportunities each degree opens up for you. Also whether or not an EE undergrad would be a hindrance in getting accepted into any of these programs.
 
I have a bachelors in Computer Engineering, going for my software engineering masters right now. I believe that the skills learned in software engineering curriculum will really help you excel in the workplace, because in addition to learning traditional comp sci topics (programming, networking, databases, etc) you get to study the entire software development lifecycle and understand the process and politics that go on as well. A software engineering masters will help you take a lead programming position and be good at it, or it can help you move in to management, should you choose that path. in my opinion it's very flexible.
 
An EE degree wouldn't likely be a hindrance to any of those programs but that will vary from school to school.

I did an EE masters and took both CS and EE classes. At the school I went to the two schools share building space and work together frequently so it was a non-issue. I don't know if CS majors took EE classes so I can't say it worked both ways. I focused on VLSI in my EE classes and Computer Architecture in my CS work with a sprinkling of analog work and some AI work.

With my focus on VLSI I was basically qualified for any kind of ASIC type work but my computer architecture interest helped me land my current job working on server chipsets.

Grad school was much more freeform on classes both on pre-reqs to take classes and which you had to take. If you are continuing at the school you are at talk to professors that teach the classes you are interested in. Advisors should also know how the various schools interact.

 
I have a CS undergrad (graduated 5 years ago) and have been trying to decide if I want to do a CS master's, or something like comp. engineering. So I will be interested in people's responses here too.
 
Do yourself a favor: If you live in Ohio or you did your undergrad in Ohio, look somewhere else. I did my undergrad in CS in Connecticut and moved to upstate new york for my graduate, best decision I ever made. Look into the major tech school: Rochester Inst. Tech, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Worcester PolyTech, etc.
 
imo i find CS major don't prepare for EE well (have MS in CS), personally i know nothing in EE outside of the fundamental things that i need to know for experimental computing. But I find EE students work in CS fields all the time.
 
Originally posted by: Pegun
Do yourself a favor: If you live in Ohio or you did your undergrad in Ohio, look somewhere else. I did my undergrad in CS in Connecticut and moved to upstate new york for my graduate, best decision I ever made. Look into the major tech school: Rochester Inst. Tech, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Worcester PolyTech, etc.
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FWIW, my friend told me that the RIT program is miserable. I have another friend getting a masters in comp sci at georgia tech and he likes it alot there.
 
Not an EE or Comp Sci major, but I found the same thing about my major (Civil eng) concerning interesting classes in grad school. Most of my technical electives were part of the graduate curriculum, and due to program requirements and scheduling conflicts, you could never really take exactly what you wanted. I figured that you would essentially need a grad degree to actually specialize in a particular sub-field.

However, I didn't go straight to grad school because I didn't want anymore school, and didn't know what I wanted to specialize in. I was going to see where I could land, work a few years, see if I loved it, then go back. Of course with the shit job market, that's all gone to the shitter.

I'm not sure how many sub-fiels/specializations are in EE/CS, so I hope that you are pretty sure where you want to be before going.
 
Originally posted by: Imp
Not an EE or Comp Sci major, but I found the same thing about my major (Civil eng) concerning interesting classes in grad school. Most of my technical electives were part of the graduate curriculum, and due to program requirements and scheduling conflicts, you could never really take exactly what you wanted. I figured that you would essentially need a grad degree to actually specialize in a particular sub-field.

However, I didn't go straight to grad school because I didn't want anymore school, and didn't know what I wanted to specialize in. I was going to see where I could land, work a few years, see if I loved it, then go back. Of course with the shit job market, that's all gone to the shitter.

I'm not sure how many sub-fiels/specializations are in EE/CS, so I hope that you are pretty sure where you want to be before going.
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find a job that will pay for your masters degree. the longer you wait after bachelors degree to go back , the lesslikely you'll go back. i was only a year out when i took my first grad class and i was laaaazy.
 
don't go by if the classes sound interesting. think of it this way: what are your long term life plans and does a masters degree fit into/enable those plans?
 
Originally posted by: Cattlegod
don't go by if the classes sound interesting. think of it this way: what are your long term life plans and does a masters degree fit into/enable those plans?
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Well I mean if I find the class interesting then it's something I'm going to want to do, or will help with what I want to do, and I'm okay with being broke for another couple years.
 
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