Anyone go back to get an Engineering degree?

[Geology]

I completed a B.S. degree in Biology some years ago.  I'm happy to have a college degree (you should be too - if you did).  However, as for the health-care related professions that you can enter from this degree - I don't want to take that route, or the Masters / PhD route.

 

Do you know anyone, or maybe you yourself did this, who went back and got a degree in Engineering (Civil, Mechanical, Chemical, - not Eletrical).

 

If you have done this, know someone who has, or have some understanding of the Engineering fields, please answer these questions:

 

1) How is the work environment different in these two fields, how different is Engineering (CE, ME, ChemE) compared to, say, working as a Lab Technician, in a 'generic' laboratory.

 

2) What kinds of personalities attract Biology and Engineering? How much outdoor work is CE? How smart do you need to be? How much communication with teams is there (communication skills are required for all jobs - from Cashiers to Warehouse Workers - but what is the nature of this communciation; what do you find yourself communicating the most - that sort of thing).

 

3) Engineering employment outlook and Internship / co-op programs.  Are straight-out-of college Engineering salaries what they're touted to be.  Employment outlook in different fields? What is your, or someone who you know - that person's experience with college internships / coop.  Do they (most Universities) or do they not let you graduate with or without them.

 

Please answer these questions if you have, or know someone who has, gone back to get an Engineering degree.  These kinds of questions - only people acquainted with Engineering will be able to sift through.  So please, ask someone you know if possible.  Thanks and I'll be reading this now and then and adding a reply or two. 

[Quantum Buckyball]

I have a BS degree in Biology and my Masters was very closed to the ChemE field but it was not a ChemE degree.

1. I think the main difference for ChemE vs. Biology was the high-end math courses (linear algebra, calculus etc.) and programming courses. Most of the time, you won't be working as a lab tech, instead, you would be doing a lot of computational simulations and optimization (C++ or matlab). You should have a solid background in programming and linear algebra (matrix).

2. As for communication, I didn't have any problems communicating with the ChemE people I worked with mainly because I'm a spectroscopist.

3. I don't know if it's required to have internship before you graduate or not, but I did do an internship and had to work on a couple of projects and publish papers before I was allowed to graduate.

Edited February 26, 2013 by Quantum Buckyball

[dmb1785]

I have considered this too..I'm a current undergrad student, but I may want to just change my major to something like biological engineering or environmental engineering. I have heard bad things about these job markets however.