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Chris Cristini

Sun Apr 19 2009, 04:21AM

Registered Member #1749 Joined: Fri Oct 10 2008, 02:04AM
Location: Claremont New Hampshire
Posts: 497

Do you guys know how much it could cost to go to a school for it? I want to renew my ASE certifications because I have had them for more than a year and then I want to get CDL license with hazmat endorsement so I can be at the top of all my trades. I want to be able to do it all in a period of 5 to 15 years.

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Sun Apr 19 2009, 09:13AM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

HUH!? With MY Endorsement?? <.< >.> @.o

heheheh.

You're looking at at least 6 years of study not including the time it takes to get your math under your belt. But if you have already taken Calc 1 - 3 and differential equations, you shouldn't have a problem.

If you go to a cheap university that costs $2K a semester, 6 years, $12K, not including books and other overhead. With books you're probably looking at another couple thousand. Matlab and PSpice, uC's and other overhead are going to cost you more of course, but you may be able to scam those from the university.

Good luck.

Proud Mary

Sun Apr 19 2009, 11:21AM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

Chris, you could start by looking at the websites of the different colleges that offer the qualifications you're after. It shouldn't take you long from there to find their finance pages.

Chris Cristini

Sun Apr 19 2009, 02:16PM

Registered Member #1749 Joined: Fri Oct 10 2008, 02:04AM
Location: Claremont New Hampshire
Posts: 497

Ouch!

Mattski

Mon Apr 20 2009, 06:28PM

Registered Member #1792 Joined: Fri Oct 31 2008, 08:12PM
Location: University of California
Posts: 527

If you go the traditional college/uni route then a BS in EE degree can be done in 3 years if you hurry, 4 years is more typical. If you're working at the same time 4 years is probably the fastest you can do. The cheapest way is a community college for basic math, science, and general education courses, then transfer to a 4-year institution for the EE classes. Around here community college is cheap, textbooks cost more than tuition. A 4-year institution usually starts around $1500 per quarter for state schools in my area.

You don't typically need to buy any software, your school often has it in the computer labs, provides it for free or with a textbook, or you can buy a cheaper educational edition. Whenever possible buy books used, sometimes you can get away with older editions which rapidly drop in price.

I have no idea how much time or money the ASE/CDL stuff will take you.

Chris Cristini

Mon Apr 20 2009, 06:47PM

Registered Member #1749 Joined: Fri Oct 10 2008, 02:04AM
Location: Claremont New Hampshire
Posts: 497

I have an ASE for Engine Repair and that took me a year and a half of hands on training I have to renew and update that which should only take about $150 I think CDL will take $1500 plus the test I should save about $10.000 before I can even think about all of my dreams and that can take years.

EEYORE

Mon Apr 20 2009, 11:09PM

Registered Member #99 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:10PM
Location: florida, usa
Posts: 637

EE takes a hell of alot longer than 3 years at my school. I have 108hours of classes to take AFTER satisfying the dang 60hour liberal arts requirements! If your no good at math, tack on a few more years. Theres alot of math to take, and either you get lucky and suffer through or you fail trying.

I SUCK at math (But ROCK the engineering classes!), so I am about to start my 7th year....(I know...) Cost is crazy if you have to live away from home and pay for good and bills. Having a job will nearly wreck it all too, if your not careful. EE is a mad man's major unless your GIFTED at math! ( I had to start at college algebra and will finish with E stats, which is 9 math classes in all.)

Id say, stay away from EE if you make a decent living as is. Unless your good with math.
Matt

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Tue Apr 21 2009, 08:25AM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

CSULB just changed their course outline from 8 semesters to 12 for the EE major. So I'm also highly dubious as to wether you can satisfy the units required in 4 years, that just seems like a joke to me.

Let's say you could do it in 4 years in a quarter system, that's going to be so impacted that you won't learn anything and can't keep up because you have no time to absorb anything in time for exams. Hell, even 15 weeks is too short a time to really play with control systems, and we had to play with all kinds of stuff.

I'd say you can forget about 4.

You need at least 2 years to take care of the 79 GE units, including lower division math. And at least another 5 years for your EE including calc 3, diff EQ, and maybe linear systems. Laplace, Z-transform, Fourier is usually taken care of in the EE class.
AND that does not consider having to wait a year to take 2 classes in spring-fall sequence because they are only offered that way once a year!

I got stuck having to wait to take a spring-fall sequence for my controls elective, and guess what, my backup robotics classes became my controls elective because both spring-fall electives were canceled due to only 9 enrollees!!!! So I lost a year for nothing!

Anyway, there's a lot more to it then what you think. Spring-fall once a year arrangements, REPEATS of classes you fail, FULL classes, Teachers you hate, Class not available, all of that affects your graduation time, and of course overlapping classes.

Plasma Lover

Tue Apr 21 2009, 03:08PM

Registered Member #1911 Joined: Mon Jan 05 2009, 06:30PM
Location: Salem, Oregon, USA
Posts: 165

Hello Everyone,
A bit OT, I know, but is there a chance that anybody may have a spare electrical engineering book that they would be willing to send me for shipping? The only real regulations are that the books contents must be near or complete and at a college level.

I'm located in Salem, Oregon, U.S.A. The area code is 97301.

I was wondering if anybody on the forum would be willing to donate a book to a highschool freshman wanting to be an electrical engineer and willing to take the time to learn all of the material online and not only in public school, since they cater first to the weak-minded. I understand basic calculus and fairly-basic algebra, and I hope that the engineering book that may be provided will challenge me greatly, in an intellectual respect. I am above all of my classes, except mechanical engineering and German, and the reason that there are those two exceptions is that you cannot compare one's own ability to comprehend a language that you are beginning in to another person's, and then there's that fact that, second period, Engineering, is my only real chance to check my email without skipping a class. Having four email addresses, it takes a while. ;)

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Christopher

Mattski

Tue Apr 21 2009, 05:34PM

Registered Member #1792 Joined: Fri Oct 31 2008, 08:12PM
Location: University of California
Posts: 527

There is definitely variation from school to school and person to person in how long an EE degree takes. At my school, almost all of the engineers of all varieties finish in 4 years. 1st year is all math/science/GE, 2nd year is about half engineering classes, and 3rd and 4th year should be almost entirely major- and emphasis-specific interspersed with a few GE's. The people who take 5 years usually didn't take all their GE's, so be sure to plan ahead carefully. Community college is another nice way to do those GE's down for less time and money. You can also easily go to CC while you work. If it takes extra time to graduate because classes are not available or overfilled, that's your colleges fault, unfortunately that's just a YMMV situation. My school didn't have that problem.

Three years is possible (I've seen it) but it's not for everyone, certainly not me. You have to be taking an average of over 5 classes per quarter, I'm not sure how that converters to semesters, but basically if you work really hard it's doable.

And the flip side is that a number of schools tell their students to plan for 5 years. So the best way is to talk to the colleges themselves, they know exactly how long it takes their students to graduate with their specific program. Starting with community college will save you a lot of money and let you continue to work and save money. Then ideally after 1-2 years of CC you can transfer to an EE program and finish in another 2 years.

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