A local college offers a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering and mechanical engineering technology. They also offer electrical engineering and electrical engineering technology.
What is the difference between the two BS degrees?
I took Chemical Engineering & Chemical Engineering Technology. In my experience there was a lot more theory in the CE, where the CET devoted more time to lab work.
Dont know if i was clear but for example there is a
B.S. degree in mechanical engineering
B.S. degree in mechanical engineering technology.
B.S. degree in electrical engineering
B.S. degree inelectrical engineering technology
whats the difference in skill, workload, pay, future, responsibility, etc.
Are you sure the ME Technology isn’t a BA instead of a BS? Some schools have an ET degree which is sort of an engineering lite but it’s a BA degree. This is often the same as the engineering degree without the hard core design and lab classes (sometimes senior design project) at the end. If this is the case, I strongly recommend against it. You’ll find it much harder to get a job with an ET degree. It will be nearly impossible in a tough job market.
Haj
Hmm. so the engineering degree might be more managerial while the technology degree would be more along the lines of a regular worker?
One of the main things im wondering is if someone with a B.Sc. in engineering technology can obtain the same job/pay/responsibility as someone with a B.Sc. in engineering.
OK. Now I see that they are both BS degrees. Take a look at the courses required and let us know the differences.
Haj
No its a B.Sc. degree.
virtually all the classes for both are scientific. i dont know if i can post them on SDMB but here goes.
For the technology degree.
ASSOCIATE OF SCIENCE DEGREE
FRESHMAN YEAR 1ST SEMESTER (15 HOURS REQUIRED)
First Semester
*MET 105 Introduction to Engineering Technology (3 cr.)
*MET 141 Materials I (3 cr.)
*CGT 110 Technical Graphics Communication (3 cr.)
MATH 153 Algebra and Trigonometry I (3 cr.)
ENGL W131 Elementary Composition (3 cr.)
FRESHMAN YEAR 2ND SEMESTER(18 HOURS REQUIRED)
Second Semester
*MET 111 Applied Statics (3 cr.)
TCM 220 Technical Report Writing (3 cr.)
*MET 102 Production Design & Specifications (3 cr.)
*MET 142 Manufacturing Processes I (3 cr.)
OLS 252 Human Behavior in Organizations (3 cr.)
MATH 154 Algebra and Trigonometry II (3 cr.)
SOPHOMORE YEAR 1ST SEMESTER(17 HOURS REQUIRED)
Third Semester
*MET 211 Applied Strength of Materials (4 cr.)
COMM R110 Fundamentals of Speech Communication (3 cr.)
PHYS 218 General Physics I (4 cr.)
*MET 242 Manufacturing Processes II (3 cr.)
MATH 221 Calculus for Technology I (3 cr.)
SOPHOMORE YEAR 2ND SEMESTER(16 HOURS REQUIRED)
Fourth Semester
*MET 214 Machine Elements (3 cr.)
PHYS 219 General Physics II (4 cr.)
*MET 230 Fluid Power (3 cr.)
*MET 220 Heat/Power (3 cr.)
Technical Elective (3 cr.)
Total Hours for A.S. 66 cr.
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE DEGREE
JUNIOR YEAR 1ST SEMESTER(15 HOURS REQUIRED)
Fifth Semester
*MET 320 Applied Thermodynamics (3 cr.)
*MET 213 Dynamics (3 cr.) TCM 340 Correspondence in Business & Industry (3 cr.)
*IET 150 Quantitative Methods for Technology (3 cr.)
MATH 222 Calculus for Technology II (3 cr.)
JUNIOR YEAR 2ND SEMESTER(16 HOURS REQUIRED)
Sixth Semester
*MET 350 Applied Fluid Mechanics (3 cr.)
*MET 310 Computer-Aided Machine Design (3 cr.)
*MET 344 Materials II (3 cr.)
EET 116 Electrical Circuits (4 cr.)
CPT 140 Programming Constructs Lab (3 cr.)
SENIOR YEAR 1ST SEMESTER(15 HOURS REQUIRED)
Seventh Semester
*MET 328 CAD/CAM for Mechanical Design (3 cr.)
*MET 384 Instrumentation (3 cr.)
*IET 104 Industrial Organization (3 cr.)
TCM 370 Oral Practicum for Technical Managers (3 cr.)
*IET 350 Engineering Economics (3 cr.)
SENIOR YEAR 2ND SEMESTER(17 HOURS REQUIRED)
Eighth Semester
*MET 414 Design of Mechanical Projects (3 cr.)
Social Science Elective (3 cr.)
CHEM C101 & C121 Elementary Chemistry I (5 cr.)
Technical Elective (3 cr.)
Social Science Elective (3 cr
for the engineering degree
First Semester (15 cr.)
CHEM C105 Chemical Science I (3 cr.)
COMM R110 Fundamentals of Speech Communication (3 cr.)
ENGR 195: Introduction to the Engineering Profession (1 cr.)
ENGR 196: Introduction to Engineering (3 cr.)
MATH 163 Integrated Calculus and Analytic Geometry I (5 cr.)
[P: MATH 151 (153-154)]
Second Semester (18 cr.)
ENG W131 Elementary Composition I (3 cr.)
ENGR 197 Introduction to Programming Concepts (3 cr.)
[C: MATH 163]
MATH 164 Integrated Calculus and Analytic Geometry II (5)
[P: MATH 163]
PHYS 152 Mechanics (4 cr.)
[C: MATH 164]
Science Elective (3 cr.)
Sophomore Year
Third Semester (18 cr.)
ECON E201 Introduction to Microeconomics (3 cr.)
MATH 261 Multivariate Calculus (4 cr.)
[P: MATH 164]
ME 200 Thermodynamics I (3 cr.)
[P: PHYS 152; C: MATH 261]
ME 270 Basic Mechanics I (3 cr.)
[P: PHYS 152; C: MATH 261]
PHYS 251 Heat, Electricity, and Optics (5 cr.)
[P: PHYS 152]
Fourth Semester (17 cr.)
ECE 204 Introduction to Electrical and Electronic Circuits (4)
General Education Elective (3 cr.)
MATH 262 Linear Algebra and Differential Equations (4 cr.)
[P: MATH 164]
ME 262 Mechanical Design I (3 cr.)
[P: ENGR 197, ME 270; C: ME 274, MATH 262]
ME 274 Basic Mechanics II (3 cr.)
[P: ME 270; C: MATH 262]
Junior Year
Fifth Semester (17 cr.)
General Education Elective (3 cr.)
ME 272 Mechanics of Materials (4 cr.)
[P: ME 270]
ME 310 Fluid Mechanics (4 cr.)
[P: ME 200, ME 274]
ME 330 Modeling and Analysis of Dynamic Systems (3 cr.)
[P: ECE 204, MATH 262]
Statistics Elective (3 cr.)
Sixth Semester (17 cr.)
General Education Elective (3 cr.)
ME 314 Heat and Mass Transfer (4 cr.)
[P: ME 310]
ME 340 Dynamic Systems and Measurements (3 cr.)
[P: ME 330]
ME 344 Introduction to Engineering Materials (3 cr.)
[P: Junior Standing]
ME 372 Mechanical Design II (4 cr.)
[P: ME 262, ME 272, ME 274]
Senior Year
Seventh Semester (14 cr.)
General Education Elective (3 cr.)
ME Elective (3 cr.)
ME Elective (3 cr.)
ME 414 Thermal-Fluid Systems Design (3 cr.)
[P: ME 262, ME 310; C: ME 314]
TCM 360 Communication in Engineering Practice (2 cr.)
[P: ENG W131, COMM R110]
Eighth Semester (14 cr.)
Free Elective (3 cr.)
ME Elective (3 cr.)
ME 401 Engineering Ethics and Professionalism (1 cr.)
[P: Senior Standing]
ME 462 Engineering Design (4 cr.)
[P: ME 344, ME 372; C: ME 414, ME 482]
ME 482 Control Systems Analysis and Design (3 cr.)
[P: ME 340]
If you wouldn’t mind, just tell us what is different between the two. I’m sorry but I don’t want to go through that list and try to figure that out.
Haj
I got your email Wesley and the link to the programs at your prospective college.
The BS looks like the classical ME degree, a good mix of theoretical and applied science.
The BSET is the follow on to the ASET. The ASET is a two year degree which will prepare you to be a technician. It’s very much applied science hands on. The BSET will continue to be more applied and hands on. You’ll specialize in one area, something like tool design. People with this sort of degree are typically going to be more limited in their careers which is fine if there is one specific thing that you really love.
I think that the BS will be more rigerous and serve you better.
I’ve given you the basics from reading the web site and, of course, YMMV. You should really call one of the advisors at the university for the true details.
Haj
i honestly do not know. I am assuming the technology degree is more hands on and less cerebral.
Well, it appears from the curricula posted by Wesley Clark that the MET degree is oriented more towards manufacturing processes and production, whereas the ME degree goes much more in depth into theory and analysis.
With the ME Technology degree, you’ll be better suited for jobs with titles like “Manufacturing Engineer” or “Industrial Engineer,” or even “Quality Assurance Engineer.” Your job will be to plan and oversee the manufacturing processes, and you’ll be working on the production floor where you interface between the design engineers and project management on one side, and the machinists, assemblers and technicians who actually apply the tools to the hardware and make or assemble the end products and their drawings.
With the ME degree, you’ll mostly sit behind a computer all day and do analysis and design, taking top level technical requirements and turning them in to instructions for draftspersons who make the drawings for the machinists to read. You’ll also do analyses to justify your designs, like calculate internal stresses and heat transfer, life cycle and reliability estimates, etc.
I can’t say you’ll be any more or less likely to find work with either degree, or that you’ll be guaranteed more pay or management opportunities. That all depends on how assertive and motivated you are, and how well adapted you are to the role you choose. If you like the more abstract, egghead stuff, and are very good at math, then choose the ME degree. If you like getting your hands dirty and prefer to work with the craftsman-ey side of things, and identify more with the machinists than with the design engineers, then choose MET.
Either way, if you want to guarantee a career on the management side, then you will also want a degree in business administration later. Lots of places offer this as continuing education so you can attend classes in the evenings while you work as an engineer during the day.
If you plan to go beyond a BS degree in engineering, then definitely take the ME degree.
Yah. im thinking because its a tech degree its not taken as seriously. thats my main fear. i want to be taken seriously and to be given an opportunity to perform managerial or advanced jobs, not just taking order with no real hope of advancing i guess.
Casual observation:
Schoolwise a tech degree has much less study of engineering theory and adds additional classes in application.
The tech classes are still pretty tough but not quite as tough as the pure engineering theory classes
People with engineering tech degrees usually work for people with engineering degrees.
Some states won’t qualify techs to get an engineering license.
The tech degree is still a fairly strong degree and, depending on your employers rules, a tech is not limited from management positions. It just might take a little longer to make the corporate climb than the engineers.
Bubba
when i look at the Civil engineering technology AS degree it says
“The curriculum is not intended to prepare students for registration as professional engineers.”
it doesnt say taht about mechanical engineer technology or electrical engineer technology
for engineering it says
“Graduates of this program are qualified for high-level positions as technologists”
so looks liek the best i could hope for is a technologist position with one of those degrees. maybe a normal engineering degree is better?
That should say
for electrical engineering it says
I shouldnt post drunk.
Umm…I didn’t see whether this was a United States college or not, but one thing you may want to check is whether the tech degree will allow you to sit for the F.E., and later the P.E. Those can be pretty important for some career paths, and will only be more and more important in the future IMHO.
Electrical Engineering Technologist (Sheridan College class of '85) here.
In Ontario, the Technologist diploma (not a degree here), when I took it, was a three-year program heavily weighted toward practicalities. We were very hands-on: build this, service that, etc, with enough theory to support it, but we did not get into extremely theoretical design.
There was also a two-year Technician program.
This sorts neatly into the hierarchy at work: engineers design the stuff, technologists implement their designs, and technicians repair things.
If I wanted to get my electrical engineering degree, I’d have to go to university and at a minimum take another year of classes to get the four-year minimum requirement. I suspect that I’d have to take quite a bit more; things have advanced a lot since I was in school.
In Ontario, EETs have their own professional association, OACETT, separate from the professional engineers.
I agree with Una Persson. If you really want to be an engineer, you want the degree path that will allow you to be a “Professional Engineer” otherwise known as a P.E. Being a P.E. is extremely important for your progression in some engineering fields (like mine, Civil/Environmental). I’ve heard it’s not that important to Electrical Engineering, but if in ten years the company you work for tells you that they want you to become a P.E. (in order to give you a promotion or a raise) you will be kicking yourself for not taking the program that led to it. A P.E. is important because the US government requires a P.E. to examine, supervise, and approve most engineering designs before they are implemented.
IMHO, an engineering degree is better, because your chances for advancement are higher and you are less likely to be stuck doing repetitive or non-design work. If you aren’t too interested in having a lot of responsibility, an engineering techonology degree might be better.
Wesley Clark, what is it you want to do with your life? You can live very, very comfortably with the tech. degree, assuming you’re not talking about stopping at an associate level – although in many industrial fields all you need is a high school diploma and proven skills (I know a few control “engineers” like this).
In my specific field of the auto industry, there’s no such thing as an engineering degree – technology degree is all that exists (last I heard, there’s only one doctor in the field in the USA, and I worked for him for a bit). Despite not being “real” engineers, the responsibility and decision making is all the same. You can advance to the same levels. There’s nothing really holding anyone back, and the rarity of the occupation can lauch you forward. Granted this is one example of a more arcane field than say, an electrical engineer.
Of course, I’m talking about accredited, well known universities (there’re only two that I know of for this field), not something like a tech. school (which aren’t bad, just different).
The fact is, once you have a degree and the skill set and experience that an employer is looking for, it doesn’t really matter what the degree is in. Although as said, to get to upper management you’ll want the MBA.