Does one salary change dramatically with a MS in engineering rather than a BS?

Question

Im currently majoring in electrical engineering and I need about two years to finish my BS. Well i was just wondering if i should attempt a MS? The classes are challenging right now but I love them. How harder does it get? Does salary change alot if you get a MS in engineering?

Answer 1

You are definitely worth more with an MSEE than with a BSEE...it's about a $10k salary premium, give or take for your geographic area and industry.

Many employers will help pay for school, so you may also want to consider working or interning and continuing a master's program in the evenings.

Good luck!

Answer 2

It depends. More established larger companies might require a masters, but many companies are more impressed by what you can do, not your degree (exception made for academia). I'm more on the software side of things, but I've had people ask how much more I would pay for a masters (as an employer) and to me, a masters only means you stayed in school longer, not that you're necessarily better at real world problems.

If you can combine EE with software, and perhaps focus on embedded systems, you could probably do very well.

Answer 3

I'm not 100% sure about engineering but for the sciences, the MS is kind of being phased out. Its bs or phd. with a masters one is overqualified for a bs job and underqualified for a phd level job, so one is stuck. My mother was a chemical engineer and that is what happened to her. She had to go to a completely different line of work.

Answer 4

It always depends on where you plan to go and how good you are at your specialty. Companies pay you what you are worth to them. However, some companies do say they look for people with MS, like HP or Logitech.

I believe graphs show around 10-15%+ difference in salary.

If you go for MS, then you will have to choose a specialty to concentrate on, if you really want to be good at a certain field (analog, digital, power, dsp, etc...).