Hey there, folk. I’d like to start off wishing everyone out there a Happy Easter. All of you may not celebrate Easter, but I do, so I thought I should give a shout out to the Man Upstairs during the holiday celebrating His son’s resurrection…I mean, I am the one controlling the content on this joint, right? He’s watched over me as I’ve made my journey through life and I know that I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for Him…I can’t say ‘thank you’ enough for that gift.

Now, I bet some of you are wondering about the second part of the title for this post. I put this in here because I’ve been getting several questions about Stanford MS&E grad program lately and I don’t feel too comfortable answering them. I know a little about the program, but don’t have anywhere near the depth of knowledge about it as I do about going through an MBA program. I’ve given some general info in a couple of responses, but I’m not really doing justice to the program itself or the type of questions that I’m being asked. Instead of coming to me with these questions, I would recommend that any interested parties contact the grad program’s admissions office and asking the questions to them. That way, those people can get the official responses instead of the guesses that I’m limited to provided.

The email below is from someone who has asked me some questions about Stanford’s MS&E program and it was really hard for me to give him as thorough a response as I normally would because I don’t know a whole lot about the program. I did my best here, but I invite anyone out there with deeper knowledge of the program to post a comment on this entry to give “PT” the sort of information he was looking for.

——
PT wrote:

“Dear Marquis:

I found your blog while researching MS&E on the web. Looks like you are very knowledgeable and helpful, so I’d like to ask you a few questions.

I am a recent graduate with a BEng in EE and math. While I loved problem-solving and quantitative aspects of my major, I am less interested in working purely as an engineer. I am primarily interested in Management Consulting, and in Finance as my next option.

I was recently accepted into Stanford’s MS&E program. The decision I will need to make is whether to shell out $50k when I’ve offers for MS/PHD in EE with scholarships and stipends from other respectable institutions. My heart says “go for stanford, you’ve dreamed of it all your life”. The questions I’d like to have definite answers for are:

1. how good is the job prospect/placement situation? what companies recruit from the program?
2. what is the program’s reputation?
3. in the wake of the recent credit crunch, is it risky to take out loans when the economy might be heading for a recession?

Thank you, and your reply would be truly appreciated.

Sincerely,
PT”

——
My response:

PT,

Thanks for checking out my blog and bringing your question to me. Unfortunately, I’m not an expert on the MS&E program and all that I know of it comes from discussions with my friends who were in it when I was there. With that said I can take a pass at your questions to see if you find any of my answers helpful:

- “how good is the job prospect/placement situation? what companies recruit from the program?” –> I don’t know much about the specific job placement stats or overall hiring prospects for folks coming out of the MS&E program, but I do know that its graduates get jobs at top companies when they finish. My friends who were in the program moved into jobs at Mckinsey, Apple, and Bain right after graduation and they also received offers from other firms like Bridgespan and ZS Associates. So, I’m confident that you would be able to get a job coming out of there, but don’t know much more than that.

- “what is the program’s reputation?” –> From what I’ve heard, the program has a good reputation, but I’m not sure of how companies look at it when doing their hiring. It’s in the middle of engineering and business, so I imagine that you’d be able to leverage it to find job opportunities in both industries, which is a plus. Also, since it is at Stanford, it automatically comes with an additional stamp of prestige that is associated with Stanford University overall. And, I believe that some of the courses that you’d be taking are taught by some of the professors at Stanford GSB and I imagine that the market would know that too.

- “in the wake of the recent credit crunch, is it risky to take out loans when the economy might be heading for a recession?” –> Oh man, these are always tough questions for me to answer because I don’t want to give you advice that would make you take on a bunch of loans that you won’t want later on. So, I’ll tell you how I would look at it. If you’ve read through my entries, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of increasing one’s education as much as possible, which is why I’ve got three Master’s degrees. I realize that education comes with a high cost, but, if you want to get the most out of your career, I believe that you’ve got to be willing to invest in yourself. The loans will be a giant pain in the butt to pay off and the credit environment is looking very scary right now, but I still would not hesitate to take on loans to pay for graduate education because I would expect for it to pay off in the long-term. Now, remember that this is just what I think about the situation. I would highly recommend that you talk to some other people about this to get advice on how to play it.

I know this isn’t as specific as you might have wanted, but I took my best turn at them. Take care and good luck with your choice.
-Marquis