UIUC vs Stanford EE? Forum

[yellowjacket2012]

congrats on stanford. just some perspective from someone who did a MS in EE, its not really as hard to get into the top EE programs from a decent undergrad GPA EE - as it is to get into the top law programs.

There are a ridiculous number of people who like to go to law school for quick $, and it has no pre-reqs. There are comparatively veeery few people even APPLYING to MS EE type programs because of the BS requirements. This is mitigated, largely, by a giant pool of foreign applicants - but then countered by school policies to have quotas for state residents (public schools) and/or US citizens (some private schools).

Secondly, a Stanford MSEE doesn't mean too much - you have to say which lab you worked with - unless you did a non-thesis option, which is a nice little scam that engineering schools are running. A Master's in EE doesn't really mean anything in the real world, sure you'll get a fe more gray hair, but its not a very valuable degree. They don't "teach" you anything in the MS programs that you can't learn on your own as an engineer or researcher. A non-thesis MS is a nice waste of time. MS gives you - at most - a 20kk bump in salary - and not really that much more EE knowledge.

The only "graduate" work worth doing is to go for a PhD and do research, either for a company or for a university. And that, if you work in a name lab, under a leader in the field. If not, stopping at MS is not worth it- frankly for law, or engineering. 2 years down the crapper. Its a hell of a way to "hide out" in a shitty economy tho.

Lastly, this website is the last place I would go to for advice regarding engineering grad schools - here - you could say "Yale EE" and they'd say omg omg go there omg omg.