I've been reading this forum for a few months and doing online research about getting a technical degree. I've narrowed it to these 2. Any thoughts on either of these? The cost will be about the same, $15k for the AS in Electronics Engineering at Grantham or $20k for a BA in Electrical Eng. Tech. I think the AS is the way to go for technical stuff. I originally wanted to go to CIE and have talked to some of their staff, but I'm not convinced they'll get the DETC accrediation back anytime soon. thx,
Whats the end goal? Is cost a factor? I don't see a link to Excelsior....they are usually promoted around here (along with TESC and COSC) because they accept a lot of transfer credit and credit by exam...thereby reducing your costs dramatically. If your not looking to accomplish that, then I would look at other schools first.
If you want a DEAC accredited associates degree in a technical field I think $15k is way too much. Have you considered PennFoster? Your cost would be roughly half of that and a fair amount of your coursework would likely be ACE recommended (meaning you have a better shot of transferring it to one of the big three if you should choose to pursue a B.S. later on). If you have your heart set on these two schools, I would pick Excelsior because it is RA and because I would rather pay an extra $5k for a B.A.
Are you looking to become a licensed engineer in the future? What are your state's requirements? Do they require ABET accreditation? These are things to consider.
Requirements @neuhaus, I have a BA in Econ from Sac State. I didn't really utilize it...tragically. @sanantone, I THINK so, but that's in the future a bit. I will look into Penn Foster.
I would go with an Excelsior College (EC) Bachelor of Science in Technology program. Although not a full engineering degree a technology degree will open up a lot of engineering jobs including lab technician, CAD jockey, quality tech*, drawing/document control, and others. TESC also offers The Bachelor Science in Applied Science and Technology in Technical Studies in severa lareas - some that may differ from EC * For quality you can also earn well recognized certificates in several areas from ASQ. The nice feature of these two colleges is that you can take the courses at any accredited institution plus many gen ed courses via CLEP and DSST exams. Plus they are both regionally accredited institutions. With one of their degrees you would have little problem enrolling in follow-on degrees.
Note that I only suggested PennFoster IF the OP is seriously interested in a DEAC accredited associate degree (which is the case with Grantham). Why PennFoster? Because they are (apparently) significantly cheaper than Grantham. A PF AAS would be roughly half the cost of the Grantham A.S. Also, they have ACE recommendations for a good portion of their courses. So, the potential for transfer to a B.A. at one of the big three. BUT, sanantone raises an interesting question, do you want to be a PE? If so, you should probably be focusing on ABET accredited programs. At my company we have a goodly number of people who work as "Engineering Technical Specialists." They report to a licensed engineer but they do quite a bit of engineering work on their own. Some of them have engineering degrees. Some of them haven no degree and worked their way up from production positions. We also have manufacturing engineers who are not licensed. So there are career paths for non-licensed engineers. But earning a licensure qualifying degree isn't a bad strategy even if you decide against becoming licensed down the road. It's still nice to have the option.
I have worked in the aerospace industry for a long time and met probably a thousand engineers. During that time I've only ever met one PE that I know of. But having a PE is not required for aerospace. Obviously for other fields (e.g. civil engineering) it is required or is important.
A little background. I've been Autocad drafter/tech for about 10 years now. I have a BA in Econ, but never worked in the industry. I'd like to move up tp a more technical position, hence a "technology" degree - preferrably Electrical. The PF one is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper, and ostensibly has the right degree, but I looked at the courses and a handful are electrical in nature. I'm inclined to go with PF, only because it satisfies (on paper) what I would need in order to move on to a higher poistion. Thank for all the input.
I think the "or is important" is a key here. I don't believe there to be any legal requirement for some of our design engineers (who are PEs) to be PEs. Yet, our company requires a PE license to even be considered for the job. When a hiring manager wanted to make an exception to that policy our legal department stepped in and overrode that particular protest. I've talked to our Risk Management people and know it doesn't have anything to do with insurance. But it may have something to do with product liability. It may just be one of those things that evolved because some lawyer successfully discredited a fully qualified engineer purely on the basis of not being licensed (even if not required). I don't know the full history and I can only imagine the myriad ways something like that comes into being. But, point is, if you show up at my office with an engineering degree you can get a job (potentially) but there would be some areas where you couldn't work.
Thanks for sharing this. I was aware of the great certificate options at WNMU but I hadn't come across ENMU (really, New Mexico? Really?) before. The tuition is crazy low and they have an online MBA. This puts them on par with Chadron State College. Also a good, cheap source for religion credits/B.A. without having to go to a fundamentalist (not that there's anything wrong with that) leaning school.
