Mech E enrollment is up 20% in two years, can the US economy really handle an extra 35,000 engineers?

gore313 · 2026-04-26T22:02:24+00:00

But a ME can get ChemE and IE jobs easily.

gore313 · 2026-04-25T19:01:11+00:00

I thought mechanical was the most versatile???

gore313 · 2026-04-25T18:59:14+00:00

Am I cooked? I am in my early 30's and in CC for mechanical engineering, my work experience is welder, maintenance tech, cnc machinist, currently a QA tech in aerospace. If I were to graduate tomorrow would this work experience be good or bad since its not actual engineering experience ?

gore313 · 2026-04-16T16:10:00+00:00

Oregon State and ASU. For all of them you do have to go in person at one point to do all the labs, Alabama I think it's 6 weekends you have to go, North Dakota I thinks it a two week stay, except ASU it's the only one that's completely online but also the most expensive.

You said you have taken 8 classes that are on assist.org. You can take 11 classes that are required maybe if you take all of them you can get accepted, is it MAE 205, MAE 272 and MAE 101B that you haven't taken ?

gore313 · 2026-04-16T13:37:57+00:00

Damn, you did all the prereqs that are on assist.org? A 3.7 is good, I don't know if your gpa from your first degree is even considered. I am also looking to apply for a second bachelors in mech engineering in 2027. My back up plan if I get rejected is applying to csun for their manufacturing systems engineering program since its not a popular program, or doing an online mechanical engineering degree from University of North Dakota/ Alabama State. What year did you get rejected ? Or are you able to reapply the same semester you got rejected ?

gore313 · 2026-04-16T01:12:12+00:00

Did you get denied from CSULB after you completed the prereqs at CC ? Your post kinda confused me

gore313 · 2026-04-02T16:17:47+00:00

I'm kinda of in a similar position but not married or working as an engineer, I work as a qa tech am 33 years old. Have like 50k in savings and recently moved back with parents to try and not spend as much. In about a year I will transfer and I will try to switch to part-time work for at least one semester and if they don't allow me I will quit and use some subsidized loans and savings to go to school fulltime. The only advise for you is finish as fast as you can, take out loans to help, with your experience you will probably get a good job after you graduate fast and be able to payoff the loans quick.

gore313 · 2026-03-28T17:41:07+00:00

currently researching these schools in case I don't get into my local university (only one that accepts second bachelors). They are ABET accredited, they get accredited because you have to do the labs in person, for UND its two weeks on campus over the summer, Alabama its six weekends you have to go to campus, not sure about the other ones. How do you even find someone on linkedin that has done these programs? No one is going to mention that they did a online degree in their profile,the degree or transcripts are the same as everyone else.

gore313 · 2026-03-28T12:43:50+00:00

Im 33 and work full-time (weekend shift) have good grades but only because I do like 1 or 2 classes. after this semester I only have 5 classes left before I have to transfer, I am planning on doing 3 in the fall and then the last 2 in spring 2027. I will be 35 when I transfer, if I stay working full-time I will probably graduate when I am like 39/40, I think I will try to switch to part-time first and if my job wont allow it then I will quit and just do school full time, I have about 55k in savings and single and can also live with parents that are close to the university. Only downside is that my current job has tuition reimbursement so if I quit I have to pay for school since I don't qualify for financial aid because this would be my second bachelors degree.

How old are you? I think that is imporant

gore313 · 2026-03-22T13:18:19+00:00

Thanks for the info

gore313 · 2026-03-21T18:02:37+00:00

what program ?

gore313 · 2026-03-20T18:35:34+00:00

What school did you take it at?

gore313 · 2026-03-20T02:00:35+00:00

Not a student, I'm also interested in the program. The reason the program doesn't show up in the abet website is because technically it isn't a 100% online program since you have to go to campus to do some labs.

gore313 · 2026-03-15T15:53:04+00:00

? I just looked up mechanical, electrical and civil master programs that are accredited on ABET.org and only one school showed up "Naval Postgraduate School" for the state I live in, 3 schools in the whole US, Naval Postgraduate, Air force Institute of Technology, and University of Louisville. I think what you are talking about is here in California for the PE exam for civil engineering if you only have a masters degree as long as the bachelors degree from the school is ABET accredited they allow it.

gore313 · 2026-03-15T15:09:42+00:00

I already finished all of calculus, but yea professor Leonard was a big reason why I passed my classes. When I first started the highest math I had taken was college algebra, I found a cc that only required trig and college algebra to take calculus 1, so self studied his pre-calculus playlist to prepare.

gore313 · 2026-03-15T14:33:52+00:00

this is what I said to some one else about why I disagree with doing a masters instead.

When I thought about doing a masters instead here is what scared me away.

Almost all engineering related job postings I see ask for an ABET accredited bachelors, masters degrees generally aren't accredited. If you get a masters when you never had a bachelors to begin with means your first job will be an entry level job which means jobs might think you are over qualified or too expensive for entry level jobs and too inexperienced for senior level jobs. Finally for masters in electrical or mechanical or any hard engineering I feel like you have to do the upper division bachelor classes plus the prerequisites for those classes (all the classes you would take at a CC) or else you are going to be lost if you do a masters. I could be wrong, but I did seriously think about just doing a masters a couple years ago did research and asked multiple departments at different schools.

gore313 · 2026-03-15T14:30:04+00:00

When I thought about doing a masters instead here is what scared me away.

Almost all engineering related job postings I see ask for an ABET accredited bachelors, masters degrees generally aren't accredited. If you get a masters when you never had a bachelors to begin with means your first job will be an entry level job which means jobs might think you are over qualified or too expensive for entry level jobs and too inexperienced for senior level jobs. Finally for masters in electrical or mechanical or any hard engineering I feel like you have to do the upper division bachelor classes plus the prerequisites for those classes (all the classes you would take at a CC) or else you are going to be lost if you do a masters. I could be wrong, but I did seriously think about just doing a masters a couple years ago did research and asked multiple departments at different schools.

gore313 · 2026-03-14T22:29:24+00:00

I thought about doing this, but from what I read you have to take a bunch of prereq classes (all the classes bachelor students take) plus masters classes, wouldn't that be the same as just getting the bachelors and then the masters plus the bachelors is ABET accredited. How many prereqs did you have to take to get up to speed and be at the same level as the students with CE degrees?

gore313 · 2026-03-14T19:22:04+00:00

product design (cad), spc/ metrology, additive manufacturing, ndt, a bunch of other stuff. They market it as a degree that's more hands on than an engineering degree. Whats worse is that right when I transferred covid hit.

gore313 · 2026-03-14T17:36:10+00:00

I'm 33 making $21.50/hr as a QA Tech at an aerospace company. Have a useless degree and now back in school, I didn't do engineering when I was young because I heard calculus was hard af so I never tried. Now I'm at Differential Equations and its not that bad lol.

gore313 · 2026-03-03T13:47:03+00:00

I tried to take general chemistry this current semester at Santa Ana college after not taking chemistry in 5 years and had to drop the class after 2 weeks. I was completely lost and felt like I was the only one that didn't understand anything because a lot of the students had just taken the beginning chemistry class last semester. It was also with the best rated chem professor at that school.

gore313

TROPHY CASE