Engineering Grad School: MBA vs. MSE?

Great article in this month's Mechanical Engineering magazine. It gets into the heart of making the decision about continuing to grad school after engineering school. It is a really good article. It gives an unbiased view of the pluses and negatives of two separate paths. Definitely a must read for new graduates.

I have been out of grad school for a number of years and found the article very interesting. I look back on my decision to take the master's in engineering path as one of the smarter decisions that I made early in life. At the time, quite frankly, I was just looking to stay in school as long as possible. I was having a great time in engineering school while paying the bills bartending all through college. The thought that I would be able to sleep until noon, attend grad classes in the late afternoon and not have to pay for it, was a no-brainer for me.

I didn't appreciate it at the time, but graduate school taught me some of the advanced fundamentals of fluids and heat transfer, but most importantly, it taught me how to take a conceptual project from idea to completion. It was also my first exposure to CFD. I dabbled in small development projects, tons and tons of lab testing and a fair share of "traditional" CFD. Although, I am not sure that at the time, it was fair to call it traditional. It was simply cutting edge at the time, but way out-dated by today's standards.

It really gave me a great appreciation for "the process" of simulation. I really believe it kick started my career path into Upfront CFD. I am looking forward to what the future brings both for me and for things to come in the Upfront Simulation movement.

I always thought about what would have happened if I decided on an MBA instead? Looking forward to hearing others experiences.