Engineer's Degree - United States

United States

In the United States, the degree of engineer or engineer's degree is the least commonly obtained advanced degree in engineering. It is usually preceded by a master's degree and is not a prerequisite to a doctoral degree, serving instead as a terminal degree. The availability of degrees and the specific requirements differ considerably between institutions and between specialties within an institution. In the past, it was not uncommon for a would-be engineer to earn an engineer's degree as their first and only college degree. But since World War II this has fallen out of favor, and it becomes continually more difficult to find a school that offers this option. It is worth noting that regulation and licensure in engineering in the U.S. usually requires an Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) engineering program accreditation, which is granted only to bachelor's degrees and, rarely, master's degrees.

For graduate students in engineering, the two-year master's degree is most commonly followed by a traditional research doctorate (Ph.D.). However, the engineer's degree provides an alternative to the doctorate for professional engineers rather than academicians. Some graduate programs, such as those offered at Stanford, Caltech and the Naval Postgraduate School, require a thesis for the engineer's degree but the research requirements are generally less than those of Ph.D. candidates and more comparable to those of master of science students. Other universities, such as Santa Clara University, do not have a specific research requirement. For this reason, some consider an engineer's degree to be on a level between a master's degree and a doctorate.

A degree with some form of the word engineer or engineering in the title is not necessarily an engineer's degree. Particularly, a "Master of Engineering" (M.Eng.) or "Engineering Doctorate" (Eng. D) degree is not an Engineer's degree, nor is any other bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree. Rather, the engineer's degree is in a category of its own. For example, a student with a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering might next earn the degree Electrical Engineer. The person would then have a B.S. in E.E., a M.S. in E.E., and an E.E. degree. The former two are degrees in engineering, and only the latter degree is actually an engineer's degree.

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