What are the differences between the M.Eng and the MS in engineering?

Master of Engineering vs Master of Science?

• Doing a little research into my career goals. I'm currently a Civil Engineering undergrad, and will be graduating with my BS in a few years. I was looking into graduate education, and noticed there's a difference between MS and M.Eng (I thought they were the same). I tried looking into their differences, and the pros/cons of pursuing each, but am still quite confused. From what I understand, the M.Eng is essentially all course-work and no research, while the MS involves research and a thesis. I would assume this would mean the MS is a longer, more difficult path, but I see that many institutions' M.Eng program takes longer to complete. tl;dr: What are the main differences between MEng and MS? What would be the benefits/drawbacks to pursuing MEng, MS, or simply not pursuing a Graduate Degree?

• Answer:

  I've seen some variations in what the differences and definitions are by universities, but in general, like you said, the MEng is all course work and MS involves research and a thesis. One difference is funding, if you are doing research with a MS, you will likely have your tuition paid for as well as a stipend on top. If you do only course work for a MEng you could get funding if you TA a course, but there are only so many TA's needed. You could also just pay your own way with coursework only. If you did the MEng it will typically take 2 to 3 semesters whereas the MS is more like 3 to 4 semesters. The amount of credits required is the same, however for MS some of those credits are research credits, and you might take fewer classes during a semester to have time to work on research, so that is why it is a little bit longer. Research will always take at least as long or longer than coursework only. The benefits to the graduate degree probably vary depending on what specialty you are looking at. In the structures area, a Masters is pretty important to have if you want to do any kind of major design work. Also, in the structures area, I've been told that as far as employers are concerned the MEng is the same as MS, but that you will learn more doing research, and also I'd say you have a better chance of funding with research. Good luck with your desicion!