Jump to content

southpolesteve

Members
  • Posts

    3
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by southpolesteve

  1. Hi Everyone. Looking for some assistance on selecting a school. I have applied to the following schools for a Master's in Mechanical Engineering: UCLA - Admitted with no funding, but a great prof has agreed to work with me and seems excited about me coming there USC - Admitted with no funding. Low on my list. I have heard several things from other USC eng students that have turned me off recently Boston University - Admitted with 50% scholarship. I have also spoken to a prof here who seems willing to work with me. But less prestigious school than UCLA. Texas - Still waiting to hear For anyone interested GRE, V:610, M:740 3.4 GPA from top 5 large public university Very unique and meaningful research and work experience Rejected at: MIT and CalTech
  2. Here is a quick background and what I am trying to do: I have been admitted to a couple top US grad programs for Fall 2010 (Masters Degrees) I have also been admitted to a year long program in Iceland that starts in Feb 2011 (All ECTS certified credits and a scholarship) The last 4 months of Iceland is writing a thesis I have spoken with Iceland and they are cool with me returning to the US and performing a combined thesis with another grad program The question is: Do you think that grad schools would be OK with doing one semester of my master's coursework abroad? If I can transfer the Spring 2011 credits, I would really like to do this and write a combined thesis in the Fall of 2011. I am in the process of finding out from my admits, but am still waiting on some schools. Has anyone had experience transferring grad credits?
  3. Just wanted to throw my view into the ring. I actually have started my own engineering consulting company. I did this about 4 months after I graduated with an undergrad degree in Mechanical Engineering and another in Mathematics. First off, about being PE. Don't believe that you HAVE to have a PE to work contract or consulting jobs. For MechE type stuff its not absolutely necessary. That being said, for structural stuff, it is very important. But don't think it will automatically preclude you from consulting. As long as your not signing off as a professional engineer, you can't get in trouble. You just have to make your clients aware of that. Starting something like this is not going to be easy, and its not going to be buckets of money. Just to give you an idea, I probably make less than I would have as an entry level engineer at a large corporation. But I also have freedom. I went to traveled the world for 3 months and worked form the road. I work from home now, set my own hours, work about half the time of a 9-5, etc. I have a lot of freedom but there are also sacrifices. There can be a lot of instability. I get no benefits. I also move apartments every 4 months to keep rent down. My first few contracts were week to week and barely paid living expenses. But working hard and sticking with it can pay off. A large client (billion dollar a year corp) just gave me a long term contract and nearly doubled my pay. I think the most important thing for starting out is networking. You will start out with zero reputation and no professional portfolio. These are HUGE obstacles. I was lucky to do some good work in school and make some excellent contacts. Talking to these people is how I got my first few contracts. Talk to everyone, tell them what your good at, schedule lunch meetings with someone 5 days a week (99% of the time they will pay because they realize you are still a poor college kid). Even offer to do work for free. For a couple weeks. If they like you, they will hire you. One thing that is working for you is the economy. A lot of companies currently have hiring freezes. Many have the money to hire someone, but they can't commit to someone over the long term (ps the idea of entry level job security is BS). Take advantage of this by offering to work as a consultant. Make them buy you a CAD license, and computer hardware. It seems expensive in the short run, but they don't have to justify hiring a whole new team member to their boss. These kinds of gigs are GREAT for you and great for the company. You get paid more, get experience and then your not tied down at the end of the project. Thats the short of it. Its definitely not an easy road. Signing up for a cubicle farm is far simpler and probably pays more. Send me a pm or an email and I can tell you more.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use