do you recommend getting a masters

huangyhg

do you recommend getting a master's?
hi guys,
i am just curious what a lot of you guys think about the value of a master's degree in structures.  obviously, with companies starving for engineers, it isn't necessary to get a well-paying job, but will having an advanced degree reap long-term benefits?  i'd like to hear what you think...
a looooooooooooooong time ago, when i got my bs, there were no jobs to be had.  so i stuck around, got my masters and got a job after that.  the masters degree got me an additional $1.00 an hour, which in those days was about 12% more than a new bachelors.
but of course, that was the salary one year of experience would have got me.  
but in the big picture, the masters gave me a lot of confidence.  my employer liked it on my resume and in further job hunting, it set me apart from other candidstes.
there's also a lot of noise that a masters is going to be considered the minimum level for engineering graduates, like for architects.
i found that the ms filled in the gap for things that either weren't taught in undergraduate school or i was exposed to at work.
i agree with jed it does give one a sense of accomplishment; whether it brought me more money is hard to say. if you decide to pursue it, i hope your employer foots the bill.
the last two companies i worked for were moderately high-end structural firms and they required a ms.  they got very desperate and hired 3 bs people and encouraged them to get their me or ms from a local university.  they all did that while they worked full time.
grad school is a lot more fun than undergrad and you should be able to get it paid for, plus a small salary, if your grades are good.  unless it's financially crippling for some reason, i wouldn't consider not going ahead and getting it.
i think that a few years of work would be a good thing.  its amazing how out of touch acadamie is with the as-built project.  we've hired a number of bachealor individuals, always stunned by how far removed they are from the construction process.  having said that, education is the best thing.  your knowledge is all you have and it can never be taken away from you, it goes way beyond 'market value'.  'market value' will only come with time.  if you can find a consulting firm that will hire you and then encourage, read pay for your master then this would be the best of both worlds, the real world, ie., application and money, and the world of modeling and theory.  your away then, the future is bright!
go for it.
well i re  
i had to explain last week to a guy with a master's in structural engineering how there is leeward wind load on a screen wall. i had had similar experiences with two other of our somewhat young engineers with master's degrees. they all lack some basic understandings and basic ability to problem solve.
all that said, i still would recommend a master's. i'm just not convinced that it equips one better for the consulting world than one year's experience does.
i am not sure that a master's degree is the end all for a structural engineer.
if it is something you want to pursue. investigate several school's programs.  they are not the same and a good bs program does not guarantee a good ms program.
we have hired two engineers with ms degrees from the local university. both of them did their research in prestress concrete girders for bridges.  none of which was very relevant to our work.  neither of which was really trained for designing buildings.  both wanted to get into building design when they went and got their ms degrees.  both have said that they woul dhave gone else where had they known what they were getting into.
perhaps my opinion is biased because i do have a masters degree in structures. however, my bs is in a different branch of engineering and to be up to speed on even the basic civil coursework, a masters degree was purely essential if i wanted to grasp the tasks my work required.
in my experience, the best way to go through grad school is to have an employer pay as you go. this way, your main investment is time, not money, and you can structure your coursework to focus on topics that best suit your day job and make it that much more fulfilling. i think this is more beneficial than completing a masters directly after a bs with little to no work experience.
be aware, as most academia, post-graduate studies often get a bum wrap for being too theorhetical or too focused on a niche topic. my former grad school advisor would be proud if he could read this, because i fought him tooth and nail about coursework being too theory based. i wanted to learn practical applications. yet, he repetitively reminded me that you don't learn theory on the job, so it's best to learn it in school. in hindsight, i see the beauty in learning higher engineering theory, because it helps make everything click so much faster.
so, if you already have a bs and have a little experience and your employer is willing to help you out, i'd say you have nothing to lose by going for it.
i have a bs in civil engineering and an ms in structural.  the ms was and is incredibly valuable to me.  not in $$ terms but due to the fact that it made me a much better engineer.  without it i would have struggled to truly understand structural engineering.
i have been in the role of hiring in a structural engineering department for many years.  all of the ms grads i hired were very good.  the few bs grads were good, but there was a noticable difference in ability, understanding, etc.  even after 1 year of experience, the bs - ms difference was apparent.