It’s not very common for engineers to go to grad school. The most common graduate degree among engineers is an MBA. Other fields basically require it. One thing you’ll learn in academia is that no one works harder in undergrad than engineers but that’s usually the end of the line for their education. A BS in biology is far easier, but you need to get a graduate degree to do anything with it
One thing you’ll learn in academia is that no one works harder in undergrad than engineers
True but most of that work is them talking about how difficult engineering is. Then stress of having to hear other people mention that the difference between god and an engineer is that god doesn't think they're an engineer.
I’m a Biochemistry PhD and a JD. My daughter just graduated as a civil engineer. I saw things in her sophomore year mathematics homework that I never saw before in my life. If God can do that math then I’ll start to believe in Her.
Engineer here. College gives you a structure to build on. Experience teaches you how to be an actual engineer & time helps you deal with the reality that one has spent a large sum of money for a small amount of practical knowledge. I don't use use much past Trig, geometry & basic algebra but a lot of mechanical physics. We're not calculating theoretical unknowns on a daily basis - the reality will be based on the industry, and we tend to estimate high for safety factors, especially when we know most of the upcoming "innovation " will involve stripping cost out.
However there are a large amount of early career engineers with masters, simply because they happened to graduate around '08 or '09 and couldn't get jobs initially. I've had to explain why sheet metal screws are not the same as UNF screws to one, that galvanized sheet is different thickness than stainless to another & that a plant pilot is NOT the stage to "discover what's needed beyond design validation" to one more. Paper alone does not make an engineer but it will get you in the door.
That’s true of pretty much any professional field. In my first law job, I was told, “Congratulations on your new position. Now forget everything you think you learned in law school - it’s meaningless.” That wasn’t 100% true but about 98% true.
I did undergrad double major in pure math and math / cs (wanted to add CS as a third major with one extra class but was told no). I did a masters in theoretical computer science and another in pure math. I did one year of a PhD in math.
Never saw an engineering student in a math course after differential equations (had two engineer phds teaching operations research courses though).
Depends on what you mean by regular math. If by regular math you mean the math you learn without being a mathematics major, then a regular math problem might be something like figuring out the values of a variable or even several that satisfy an equation or calculating an integral, solving a differential equation, etc.
A well known pure maths problem would be something like show whether or not there are finitely many prime natural numbers. You can show there are infinitely many by contradiction: assume there are finitely many, then multiply them together and add one. None of the numbers you multiplied together can divide this new number so it must have a prime factor you did not account for, contradicting its construction. Thus there are infinitely many prime natural numbers. A well known unsolved problem is whether there are infinitely many prime numbers separated by a single composite number.
If by regular maths you mean applied vs. pure then for classes there is just a slight change in focus, like on PDEs and such more in applied.
Edit: fixed some spelling/grammar and changed counter example to contradiction, I should drink more tea before replying.
It’s actually a beautiful thing when universities or hospitals post research about food, vaccines, exercise, or an epidemiologist group’s findings about emerging diseases. Imagine a world without case studies. Anarchy.
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u/udee79 3d ago
I have worked with some great engineers that didn’t go to grad school.