Electrical Engineering Degrees

Overview

An electrical engineer is a person who designs, fabricates, and repairs electrical equipments, lays electrical circuits and bridges electrical connections. Testing and repairing electrical equipment, ensuring that all functionalities are available, is part of an electrical engineer's job. Students from all walks of life can pursue electrical engineering. Sometimes, you can take up a computer engineering degree alongside an electrical engineering degree because the two go in hand-in-hand. This degree can be obtained as an associate's, bachelors, and master's degree. Doctoral programs are also available in some colleges. Robotics, communication engineering, integrated circuits, and computers are subjects to be studied for completion of a course in electrical engineering. Online classes are the new trend of learning, featuring flexibility and ease of learning, apart from individual attention and interaction between students.

Benefits

Career options for an electrical engineer are many; some of the markets in which your skills can be put to use are test engineering, project engineering, design engineering, and research engineering. Scientific research and development firms, power generation, distribution, and transmission require people qualified in electrical engineering. An electrical engineer generally has a broader grasp of all aspects of engineering due to his job nature. The median salary for electrical engineers is around $76,000, with the top 10% earning around $115,000 per year. The number of jobs available for electrical engineers in the U.S. has been predicted to increase by about 5% in the coming decade.

Costs

An associate's degree is a two-year course and the estimated cost of this degree is around $4,500 to $14,000 depending on the school. A bachelor's degree, a four-year course, is relatively expensive and costs around $23,400. A master's degree generally takes 2-3 years, due to the fieldwork and research associated with it and its cost varies from school to school. Doctoral programs are offered in fewer colleges and are generally covered by scholarships or fellowships.

Schools

Various schools across the United States offer electrical engineering in the traditional brick-and-mortar way and as online classes. Some of them are DeVry University, Drexel University, and Penn-Foster College. Bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering are offered in Thomas Edison State College.

Testing & Preparation

A high school degree or diploma, or an equivalent set by the General Education Development (GED), is required for enrollment for an associate's or a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. The master's degree requires the appropriate bachelor's degree and relevant experience. Teamwork, communication ability, and coordinated work are required from an electrical engineer. The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and appropriate levels of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) may need to be completed before enrolling for a degree in electrical engineering. DANTES Subject Standardized Test scores may be an added advantage for admission.

Financial Aid

Financial aid opportunities are available in every university that offers electrical engineering. Grants, loans, funds, and payment plans are available besides financial aid and scholarship, varying from college to college. You may check out with the respective colleges and/or universities to get more information, for instance Drexel University, Penn-Foster College and Grantham University. Students pursuing a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering can apply for the undergraduate engineering scholarships. There are several federal aids such as Federal Stafford Loans, Federal Pell Grants, and Federal Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students that you can apply for.