I can't choose between these degrees  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Cujo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 13, 2018, 09:09:06 am
content: I'm looking for an associate degree or advanced diploma in electronics engineering. What coarse would be the best if i want to get in to digital design or circuit analyses? I'm not mathematically inclined and i'm expecting an ATAR below 50. If there is any coarse anywhere in Australia that looks good that i haven't compiled in the list below, can you show me ?https://www.usq.edu.au/study/degrees/associate-degree-of-engineering/electrical-electronic-engineeringhttps://www.tafesa.edu.au/xml/course/aw/aw_AC00058.aspxhttps://www.cqu.edu.au/courses/study-areas/engineering-and-built-environment/undergraduate/associate-degree-of-engineeringhttps://www.swinburne.edu.au/study/course/Advanced-Diploma-of-Electronics-and-Communications-Engineering-UEE60211/localhttps://www.rmit.edu.au/study-with-us/levels-of-study/vocational-study/advanced-diplomas/advanced-diploma-of-electronics-and-communications-engineering-c6122https://tafeqld.edu.au/courses/18108/advanced-diploma-of-electronics-and-communications-engineeringhttps://www.tafensw.edu.au/offering/-/o/o/UEE60211-01V03-18MTD-228/Advanced-Diploma-of-Electronics-and-Communications-Engineering

author: Cujo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2018, 08:04:08 am
content: BUMP

author: John B
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2018, 08:38:47 am
content: Would you consider skipping a year to brush up on the maths skill required? Circuit analysis IS maths. Feeling like your head is only just above water the whole time is going to be a distracting and demoralising state of affairs.

author: sibeen
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2018, 09:44:36 am
content: I'm with John on that. Even if the advanced diplomas won't delve too heavily into calculus or differential equations or Laplace or......you will still need to wrap your head around complex equations using imaginary values at a minimum. Without being adept at those you will struggle.

author: Cujo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2018, 10:46:40 am
content: Ok then, what should i do then. What coarse should i do in that list or if there is any can you show me ?

author: ArthurDent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2018, 01:05:55 pm
content: Getting uninformed advice from posters on the internet gives you exactly what you pay for.What you should do is talk to someone in career counseling who can access you personally and make recommendations as to your next step. This is a time consuming process that will require some real work on your part well beyond asking random internet posters for their opinions. Good luck.

author: Nitrousoxide
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2018, 01:41:22 pm
content: Either do a bridging course, find a university that can offer alternative entrance (they're big on that in NSW) or pick a course and then do an IPT (internal program transfer).IMO you should do a bachelors.Electronics is implemented maths. The further you delve into it the reliance on and complexity of mathematics increases.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2018, 05:06:52 pm
content: Quote from: ArthurDent on September 15, 2018, 01:05:55 pmAbsolutely correct! And my opinion is also just that, an opinion... Talk to somebody who actually knows something!First you make the big split - technician versus engineer. The difference is HUGE! I know, when you see the engineers walking down the hall it is hard to imagine what they went through to get there. Today it is about 5 years just for a BSEE degree and another year or two for the MSEE. And every bit of it involved math. Lots and lots of math.Math is how we describe the universe.In a typical degree program, the very first math class is Calculus I and there is no chance in the world of passing the course unless you are really on top of algebra, geometry and trigonometry. There is a year long course called Pre-Calc just to built up skills that were normally missed in high school. Although this course is long and arduous, it doesn't build up credit hours for the degree program.I don't know anything about your education system (talk to somebody who knows something!) but around here if you go to a community college there will be an assessment test to show where you stand in things like English and Math. Unless you are a recent HS grad at the AP level, you will be placed in Pre-Calc. Now your 5 year degree will be closer to 6. The counselors here will print a road map to get you through the AS degree with the proper courses for transferring to the state colleges or universities for the last 2+ years.The community college will usually only go up through the Associate degree with the Bachelor degree coming from state colleges or universities.Technician requirements will be more on the practical side of things. Math won't be nearly as important. But the job won't pay as well either. Basically, there is some relationship between math skills and salary. I don't know anything about the requirements for technicians.John B mentioned above taking a year to get up to speed on math. That's what we call Pre-Calc! You would have to be an exceptional high school student to be capable of taking Calc I right out of the gate. Unfortunately, our high schools just aren't that good. Pre-Calc isn't a cake walk either.There's a running no-joke that Calculus isn't hard, it's the Pre-Calc that will kill you. As I help my grandson with his Calculus homework, we joke about that every time we mess up the algebra. It's the simple stuff that bites you in the butt.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2018, 06:08:30 pm
content: Quote from: ArthurDent on September 15, 2018, 01:05:55 pmThe snag with this is most people in career counselling are absolutely useless. They are probably even less useful than some random poster on the internet. At least there's a chance that the random poster is actually from the career of interest, and might know something about how it operates. The sad reality is the only thing that gets you even close to reliable useful advice is personal acquaintance with real practitioners.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2018, 06:29:10 pm
content: Colleges at every level have catalogs that describe in great detail exactly which courses are required for which degrees. There's no mystery, unless... If you take the first 2+ years in Community College, you need to be certain which courses are acceptable at the higher level institution. Even this is well documented.Getting advice on the program requirements is easy. Deciding which program to take is the hard part. In the US, we havewww.bls.gov. You can search by trade, craft or profession and find out what the jobs pay (and that will very by region so drill down) and what the industry growth is expected to be. You would pick a high paying job in a field with excellent growth because it's easy to be one of the chosen few if there will be 100k job openings.Then there is the issue of what do you WANT to do? All of my education is in electronics and computer science. I never worked in those fields other than a minor amount of consulting many years ago. I did work in electrical but, more generally, in project management. Absolutely none of my education was applied other than a little bit of math. Just the way it turned out.A better question is: What type of engineering is fun (for me)? For me, the idea of sitting at a drafting table (now CAD workstation) and drawing up plans (or designing circuits) would be unendurable. I would absolutely hate it! Wandering around, building things, that's fun! I bought engineering, I didn't actually do engineering.Sounds easy! But do realize that I had to tell the engineers what to design and pretty much how I wanted to build it. It's not like I was just grunt labor, they actually paid me for knowing that stuff.It would be nice to network with engineers and technicians at various levels and get their view of their jobs. Filter it because everybody hates their job. Just focus on what they do all day. Meetings (boring), design time, design review, whatever...I couldn't imagine being a working engineer. I would probably hate it!