College vs. Self Study? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Circuit Maniac
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 28, 2011, 02:40:16 am
content: Hi there! I'm interested in electronics and want to get into electrical engineering. I'm in my third semester in a community college right now. I was going to get a BS or MS degree, however, I've been considering my options lately. Instead of going to a 4 year college (by the way I live in the U.S.) and spending thousands of dollars I could take a quarter of that money and buy all the books, courses, and kits I would need to self study. Also if I did this I wouldn't have to take any courses which have NOTHING to do with engineering. There's also all sorts of free educational material online such as:NEETS:http://www.rarmy.com/coleman/neets/UC Berkely Lectures:http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.phpMIT Lectures:http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/Engineering Lectures from around the world:http://www.learnerstv.com/course.php?cat=EngineeringFree ebooks:http://www.reddit.com/r/eebooksI could use college curriculums a guideline of what to study:http://www.ece.vt.edu/ugrad/curriculum/11/ee11.htmlhttp://www.ece.utexas.edu/undergraduate/ee_tech_electronics.cfmAlso here's a quote fromhttp://mastersfinance.info/possible-to-receive-a-masters-in-engineering-without-having-a-bachelors-in-engineering/QuoteI was homeschooled and took my first two college semesters online so I'm good at doing self study. Of course, it might be harder to get a starting job without a degree, but as long as I can show them that I know the material, and do the things that Dave suggests, such as showing them my own projects and my enthusiasm, I think I would be fine. Do you guys have any advice on what I should do or opinions on how feasible it would be?

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 28, 2011, 03:05:28 am
content: Both, if you can somehow afford it.Having a degree opens many doors very early on in your career. Times have changed; most serious companies with good career prospects will not even call you for an interview without at least a Bachelors, unless you invented a proven overunity device. By default they wont risk someone without a degree, no matter how good you might be. Thats the cold, hard truth.Not to mention all the experiences from going to university...life changing. Online self study is not a subsitute for walking in the same corridors as pioneers in your field and having stimulating discussions with them in the canteen. Going to the Monday morning embedded systems lecture still half drunk from Saturday night only to find yourself explaining barrier potentials in p-n junctions to your like-minded classmates in the afternoon. You might meet that someone special too.However, don't rely on the things you will learn at university. It's insuffiecient for such a practical science. Use your enthusiasm and ability to self study and make yourself stand out. Take on industrial placements, design consultancies, get published, get involved in the electronics industry (forums, products, events etc etc).An alternative is apprenticeships.All roads lead to Rome if Rome is where you want to end up to. The lengths, terrain and view is the only difference.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 28, 2011, 06:54:17 am
content: Yes a formal qualification will help you a lot. I don't know about the US but when I came back from Italy to live in the UK again I found it very hard to get any decent job as I have no recognised qualifications. I'm certainly not uni material myself so my only hope is to make a few things that work, prove that they are good and hopefully find an understanding company one day or start on my own. As the one course I did take in Italy was crap I did end up learning all I know for myself, and yes i miss the fact that I had no one to go to and discuss things with, just a textbook and my own initiative

author: Jimmy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2011, 08:49:08 am
content: The problem is getting an interview if a job is advitiesed by a recrutment agency and states you must have a quolification in Electrical engineering then to get a interview with the actual company that will employ you then you need to go to uni. However if you bash down the doors of companys that you want to work for and get an internship then move up the ladder you may get away with not having that peace of paper until you want to change jobs.

author: allanw
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2011, 10:40:45 am
content: Quote from: Circuit Maniac on February 28, 2011, 02:40:16 amIsn't that one of the benefits of two year community college then getting a Bachelor's after two years, to have completed all the gen. ed requirements during the first two years?

author: Hypernova
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 28, 2011, 01:28:01 pm
content: Quote from: Circuit Maniac on February 28, 2011, 02:40:16 amGuess what? HR doesn't give a shit, nor do they even understand, to do the showing part you NEED that piece of paper, THEN you get to show your gadget to the engineers they forward the CV to who will appreciate it.I got my MEngsci degree Dec last year and got offered a hardware power electronic position in Taiwan (flying there tomorrow). While I'm sure what convinced them to hire me despite my primarily embedded software (BEng CompSys) background was the 8ch SMPS fan controller I built and showed off during the skpye interview, what got me the interview in the first place was the degrees.Like all mature professions, electronics has become a field that for the most part require tickets to enter. You can still find some job postings asking for a degree OR "5 years relevant work experience", but let's face it, how are you going to get the experience in the first place?

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 28, 2011, 06:42:35 pm
content: every job I have ever applied for the person interviewing me know less about the area than I did. HR and agencies are ignorant of how godd you are. They can only read (and maybe do sums but that's the sum total of their skills)

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2011, 09:15:08 pm
content: You'll need to do some work at home no matter what. There is no substitute for real world experience.That said, you'll discover that most of college isn't really about learning the engineering itself. Rather, it is mostly about making friends and learning how to work as a team. The main downside is wasted effort on "required" classes that are more or less worthless to an engineer. (In my experience, politics and history are the worst.) Taking those classes at a community college (preferably during the summer) and transferring the credits is the way to go.

author: Circuit Maniac
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 01, 2011, 03:40:56 am
content: Thanks a lot guys! It sounds like going to a university would be my best bet. I guess I'll continue getting my degree then.Also, good luck with your job Hypernova!