Most of you who read engineering blogs probably fit into one of two categories. Either you’re in the workforce or you’re in graduate school (or higher). But today’s post isn’t really geared (did you see what I did there?) toward you; rather, it is for anyone who is an undergraduate in an engineering field or possibly in an unpaid MS or PhD engineering program.
There’s a seldom discussed fact about engineering graduate school programs that every American student should know. If you want to go to grad school, in engineering, and you’re a US citizen, you can get accepted at virtually every university even with less than stellar grades, get paid the standard stipend, and not have to pay tuition. Any place that tells you that you must TA for a year or two before receiving an RA or tells you that you must pay the first year’s tuition is, frankly, lying.
You, the student, actually have a huge bargaining chip and most don’t even know about it. It’s not that engineering grad programs don’t have enough students applying. Rather, it’s that they don’t have enough qualified students entering. Now, some of you are thinking “Hmmm, what does my citizenship have to do with my technical and academic qualifications?”. It’s very simple. Many grants/proposals/scholarships/tuition waivers that are awarded go to qualified applicants and one of the qualifications is you must be a US citizen.
A lot of funding for graduate engineering proposals comes from US defense or energy agencies like DOD, DOE, DARPA, AFOSR, etc. Even with the projected US military spending cuts, there is still a significant amount of money available from these agencies for research at universities. And universities need qualified students to work on those funded projects.
So, for those of you who are US citizens and are worried about the cost of graduate school, my suggestion is to consider it again. You’re now at the point where you get paid to go to school rather than the other way around. And if a university isn’t giving you a stipend and a tuition waiver, shop yourself around. I’m sure there’s plenty of programs that would love to you have.
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What you say is mostly true of PhD programs. MS programs at top-ranked universities often do expect students to pay, because the demand is higher than they can fund. Even at those programs, it is usually possible to get a TA position.
If you just want a degree, and don’t care about name brand or quality, you can probably find a program that will offer money.
There’s some truth to what you’re saying. Universities expect students to pay at both the MSc and PhD level. But they don’t care where the actual money comes from (meaning either the student or some project proposal). Maybe at the MSc level, more comes from students whereas at the PhD level more comes from projects.
Even [especially?] at the top universities, there’s enough money around to get in for free if you’re at least an average student at the MS level. You just have to want to work on the right project, find the right advisor, or know the right questions to ask. The easiest thing is to pick up the phone and ask (don’t email!). And know what you want to say. If you start out by stamming “I…ummm….I…uggghh…. want to do research on… stuff…” is not a good way to go about it. But saying “I’ve seen from your past publications, you’ve worked on this and that which interests me. I’m interested in a similar area [] and want to work for you.” yadda yadda yadda
I’m entering college this fall as a freshman, and I’ve enjoyed reading EB for a long time. I’ve always known that I wanted to go to graduate school, but the chances seem to be slimming down, due to the intensity of the undergrad curriculum and the lack of research in my field of interest at renowned universities. The tens of thousands of dollars of debt I’ll have at the end of my undergrad isn’t helping the outlook either. What is the benefit of having a graduate or PhD level degree, as opposed to entering into industrial research for specialized companies?
Hi Helena, thanks for following EB. I wanted to give you a short response but it wasn’t possible. See today’s blog post at EB.
http://engineerblogs.org/2011/06/grad-school-is-it-worth-it/
Which universities offer a MS/PhD programme for people from Europe? I’m from the Netherlands and have a bachelor degree in EE.
Hello! I’m a junior in a ME program, and am thinking about attending grad school after I graduate. My university (University of North Florida), does not have much in the terms of grad school, so I’ll have to look elsewhere. I think I know the general type of research I want to do (propulsion systems, aerospace-type stuff). My question is, though, how do I find a grad school that I want to apply for and that does research in the areas I want to do research in? I have no idea where to start and it is a bit overwhelming.