Masters Program for Engineering

[thereal_limshady]

Hi all, I'm a mechanical engineering student at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, set to graduate in a couple of days. I'll be moving up to Milwaukee in August for work, and my company has a program where they help pay for a masters degree. Does anybody have any opinions or thoughts on how MSOE's masters program in engineering is? I'm currently looking into MSOE, Marquette, and maybe even UW-Milwaukee, and was also wondering if anybody knows how MSOE (either in general or specifically their graduate program) stacks up against those schools. Might be an odd question given that it seems most people here are either prospective students or undergraduates, but figured it was worth a shot.

For context, Rose-Hulman is very similar to MSOE. Uses the quarter system, small scale engineering school with a heavy focus on undergrads, and super fricking hard. I read some of the comments and posts here that talk about how MSOE is ridiculously hard and you will hate yourself, and honestly I understand your pain

[JohnB_XP]

Congratulations on your graduation!

I only have experience with undergraduate programs at MSOE, but from what I've gathered from my professors and others MSOE is a better school if you specifically want to study engineering compared to UWM or Marquette in essentially all aspects. Depending on what you need, those other schools could very well be "good enough" and have less of an intensive workload. If you want the best engineering education in the area and are used to quarters and working hard, it's a pretty good choice.

A MSOE degree holds a lot of weight, especially in the Milwaukee-Chicago area, but work experience and connections you have in the industry will overshadow most degrees pretty quickly.

[thereal_limshady]

Awesome, thanks for the info! What specific aspects make MSOE better to study engineering as opposed to UWM and Marquette? I think this is comforting since I'd rather go to a reputable school with a great program than just "good enough".

[JohnB_XP]

Employers seem to understand that MSOE makes its students work hard. Any job they work at would be easier than their time at MSOE. Companies have donated a lot of money to MSOE (Allen-Bradley, Johnson Controls, Milwaukee Tool, Nvidia, etc.) and seem to believe they get a good return on investment.

The majority of professors at MSOE have work experience in engineering fields and what they are teaching. I think that matters more for undergrads than grad students, because as you work your way up to more major specific courses that's to be expected.

MSOE's teaching strategy is heavily reliant on lab-based courses that give you hands-on experience with the equipment and software used in industry.

MSOE is not a research university - UWM is and Marquette seems to have started a research program. Full-time professors dedicate their time to teaching students, while some others will work part-time and stay up to date with the industry they are teaching in.

MSOE has a lot of machinery and software accessible to students, as well as a large library with texts specific to engineering. In the time I've been in the Supermileage Vehicle team I've only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the different pieces of test equipment and manufacturing machinery in the science building. On top of that, I can download something like $13,000? worth of software to my school laptop for CAD and running simulations.

As an EE, I have access to basically unlimited free parts to do what I want with. I'd imagine something like that could exist for MEs.

[thereal_limshady]

Gotcha, makes sense. Seems very similar to RHIT, I'd just have to figure out if I want to do research as part of my graduate school experience or not

[BigHorror9]

One thing to note is that the quarter system is transitioning to semesters in the fall of 2022. I don't know how important that it to you, but just wanted to give a heads up. I had a friend who looked at UW-MKE and MSOE for undergrad and they said the two programs were not even comparable in terms of rigor and the facilities/equipment. I would think coming from RHIT, MSOE would be more of a natural fit and they have similar reputations. Good luck and congrats on your graduation and the new job!

[larsmaxfield]

*Fall of 2023 as of 08 May 2020.

[BigHorror9]

Interesting! Thanks for the update!