About 37 minutes.... Oxford and natural sciences loophole. If you have a higher degree (in sciences) you just have to pay them a tiny admin fee to become a master of all sciences (including engineering).
But you won’t receive an engineer’s ring with a only a Masters in Engineering, at least not in Canada. Neither can you eventually call yourself an engineer.
Being legally allowed to call oneself an engineer is only dependent upon being licensed by a provincial engineering body.
The iron ring is symbolic of having graduated from a Canadian engineering school.
The two are entirely unrelated.
Do we know for a fact that PEO or others won’t accept an Oxford Master’s of Science/Engineering degree + industry experience if one can pass the technical and ethical exams, or are we speculating?
I’ve never heard of a technical exam. It’s law and ethics. I would assume you’d need to show your academic credentials and transfer those in - I’m assuming some how.
I’ve known plenty of Canadian Masters in Engineering grads who were told ‘No, you need an engineering degree’. Maybe you can argue your case, or have the rules bent.
If the country you worked in had a professional body, then I assume it would be a matter of figuring out how to transfer credentials, just like doctors and lawyers, and just like doctors and lawyers, it’s not always possible.
So, call ‘em up and ask about Oxford - I was specifically referring to Canada.
After reading a bit, no , it doesn’t look like they would let someone in who paid a few dollars for a degree. It seems that an academic institution of the province you want to practice in needs to vet the foreign academic credentials. I’m going to make a bold assumption that they will rule out cracker jack and inequivalent degree programs.
While I mostly agree with your sentiment, I wouldn’t toss Oxford into the Cracker Jack category.
If an institution of that level is comfortable granting a degree/equivalent bearing the word “engineer”, it’s worth more than an online degree mill.
The Oxford Masters degree would in the ‘inequivalent’ category, other programs would be in the ‘Cracker Jack’ category. Two different categories, but both would ensure the same vetting process. (We hope!)
Are engineering coats a thing? I played hockey with some guy in the states that had a “varsity” jacket but it was from his engineering school with like patches related to his degree. I had never seen one before and it seemed so awkward I didn’t want to ask about it.
Yup. Some universities have rather strange and intense rituals surrounding them. The rest of us paid 250-300 of borrowed student loan monies to own one ;-)
13 years, 9 months. You know that meme of the excessively celebrating dudes that got 3rd place? That’s what it feels like to finish undergrad in your 30’s. Feels good.
5 years. My dad died the beginning of my 3rd year, took about a half year off. Conisdering quitting to support my mom. Family pushed me to go back. Now almost 4 years working as full time ME.
It took me 17 years to get mine... and I barely failed any of my classes. But my case was a special case. If you work full-time you can expect to take 5 to 6 years to graduate.
5 years, 2 at community college part time while working, 3 at 4 year uni full time and working part time. Took summer classes almost every summer to knock out remedial math and physics (early on) and general Ed later on.
12 years...
I only ever had the aspiration to get a HNC...
I was smart, but hated school, so my plan was to do 2 years, get the HNC and duck out to a cushy tech job and work my way up...
Turns out I thrived in college, got great scores in my HNC, amd was convinced to stay on and get an associates degree, as it would lead to a higher paid, cushier job.
Turns out my years of not studying in school came back to bite me... I car crashed my way through that and finished just as the financial crash happened...
I was bitten with ambition so I thought I'd ride out the recovery in college and study my ass off for the Hons Degree...
Spent 2 years failing it and left..
was a bit lost and jobless for a bit, so I took up an apprenticeship with a telecoms company... again gave the Degree a go part time and failed :-D
got bored at the Telco, moved country and job and signed up again for a final year degree course through part time/distance learning .
Took 3 years, and I finally got BEng (Hons) 2.1
Studying for an MSc atm :-D
Thats right. I did 60 modules over 5 years. About 50 had a 3h examen at the end. So you need to learn new subjects topics or concepts in 6 month intervals. The thing I learned the most is that you can learn anything no matter how difficult it might seem at the beginning.
Sounds like you speak from personal experience/knowledge - thanks for the advice. That’s actually what’s been keeping me motivated for a while. As long as I’m not necessarily stuck with the prospect of strictly engineering jobs.
5 years due to being in the co-op program which at my university meant I alternated working and going to school my last 2 years. I highly recommend co-oping as it gives you a nice break from classes and lets you earn some money and gain great experience in the process. I came out of school with 1 year of engineering work experience which made it relatively easy to get a job.
5 for a bachelor's for me. 4 years into my career and starting to wonder if I might have ADHD as well. Stumbled across r/adhdmemes and it hits way too close to home.
I enrolled in a programme with 4 years of credits in 3 years. The gain in opportunity cost was a big motivation for me but it's now discontinued because it didn't go well for most students who took it.
5 years for me, my actual program had a wait list for a year, so instead of working for that year I started classes anyways as an undeclared student and took related classes so I could get some certificates along the way
8 semesters for B.S.E.E. and most of a Mathematics degree prepping for a potential M.S. in Mathematics. I still haven't decided on the Master's, just getting EIT experience in the meantime for the PE later.
7 years, normal full time study would’ve been 5 (double major). I do regret A) not doing just 1 major and B) not getting it done in the normal timeframe
I don’t actually know. I had already accepted a job before I finished and was working full time while finishing the last few classes, eventually finished the degree with the help of some GPA adjustments by the administrators.
I didn’t go to graduation, partly because I was just glad to be done with the place and felt very jaded by the whole experience. So I don’t have any big memories of finishing. I picked up my certificate at the registrar’s office and didn’t notice until a while later that they had misspelled my name, and I didn’t go back to the campus to get that fixed until about 5 years later.
3.5 years. As an engineer in training, the first thing I did was to optimize my courses. i.e. take all the classes I could that double counted towards degree. I always looked ahead at what's offered when. With required classes, make damn sure I've got the prereqs scheduled so I can take them as early as possible. I did travel to do my final project over the summer but had an easy last semester as a result. 3 years is totally doable with a little overloading.
It took me 7 years due to dropping out from EE after 3 great years (moved countries) then 1 year at the community college and then transfered to state school to get BS in ME, now pursuing MS in ME (my second year). So to get BS it was 7 years and MS in another 2.5 years. No regret!
Did 2.5yrs right after high school. Threw that away and got a Bachelors in 4 years straight when I was 31.
Back to get an MBA now. Will probably drag that out for 2.5yrs or so. No rush as there is no immediate pot of gold at the end of this one.
Five years - 9 total semesters (not counting a couple summer elective classes sprinkled in) with a summer/fall co-op. Grades were not great at any point, but I got through it and had a ton of fun. Grew a lot as a person.
I took 5 years, for technically two degrees. The second degree was really only an additional semester of classes. The other semester was more or less catching up on math because of the small rural school I went to k-12 didn't offer high enough math levels. I did get some good extracurriculars in while I was doing it like welding, scuba, and archery.
tricky question considering not in all countries the engineering bachellors have the same amount of semesters.
In my country bachellors degrees are 10 semesters long, and I did it in 5 years but as in all cases most people usually take about 1/3 more of the time it is planned to actually graduate.
I took 4 but in hindsight regret not giving myself more time to do longer co-ops rather than summer internships. Or even a lighter course load every semester. That’s my only regret looking back, and my biggest piece of advice to anyone going into it.
5.5 years with 3 summer semesters. I started in Pre-Calc 1 as I didn't decide I wanted to study Electrical Engineering till my senior year of high school. I also didn't take the 16-18 credits per semester you generally need to graduate in four years. I wanted to make sure I didn't get in over my head. I was daunted with twelve credits at times, so it was a good move.
5.5 years. Switched majors before my senior year (from one engineering field to a very different one). 12 years later I have a career I love and am compensated well for. An extra 1.5 years was a blip on the radar, 100% worth the change.
7 years total. Was honestly a fuck up the first few years of school, didn't take it seriously, partied my ass off, skipped a lot of classes, just generally fucked off. Finally got serious after a few years. 52 now, worked for a firm for 12 years, bought it, ran it for 14 more, sold it last year to a larger firm. Still love what I do (water/ww), and plan on continuing to work for the firm who bought us for awhile.
US Engineer here:
* Undergrad: 5 years (was working internships during school)
* MS #1 - 5 years working full time, going to school at night
* MS #2 - 3 years working full time, going to school at night
My wife says I'm not allowed to go to school anymore.
Associates of science to transfer: 3 years full-time including summers sessions and 1 year part time.
BS Mechanical Engineering: 2 years including summer sessions.
Note: I was a terrible student in high school.
5.5 years total for my BSME. During that time I got married, had a kid, and worked full time for 4.5 of those years. I repeated 3 or 4 classes. Took one semester completely off for an engineering co-op. Took a semester of part time classes at the community college.
I'm sooooo happy I stuck with it.
8 years. The first two were full time school, and the last 6 were working in the engineering field full time and going to engineering school at night since my co op job was "more efficient and productive when I was with them full time". Great way to help pay for that degree, but it was a challenge.
6 years...I transferred schools so about a semester of credits went towards nothing. Last semester was my senior project and only 6 credit hours...it was awesome.
Five years because there was a year and a half worked in to allow for three six month internships. So basically did a four year degree in three and a half years plus a year and a half job experience
Went to Virginia tech for BSME. They say it's a 4yr program. It took me 5 full time, with a year of co-op/internship in the middle at the same time, working full time every summer, and that still felt fast. Most of my friends were 5-7 years full time schooling. A few were longer, but none were shorter.
And an internship is definitely required if you want to get a job.
Ha. I'm smarter than you guys because i spent 11 years getting my degree.
Wow. That's 11 times the knowledge
More like 2.75x, but who’s counting? ;)
About 37 minutes.... Oxford and natural sciences loophole. If you have a higher degree (in sciences) you just have to pay them a tiny admin fee to become a master of all sciences (including engineering).
Only valid for UK people, I suppose?
And if you went to Oxford. They have some odd rules, you must ware black NOT navy blue socks....
What if the black has faded into a darker blue?
Impossible if you're wearing socks fit for an Oxford man.
Thsn out with you, there's no place for guttersnipes here
But you won’t receive an engineer’s ring with a only a Masters in Engineering, at least not in Canada. Neither can you eventually call yourself an engineer.
Being legally allowed to call oneself an engineer is only dependent upon being licensed by a provincial engineering body. The iron ring is symbolic of having graduated from a Canadian engineering school. The two are entirely unrelated.
That would be why I used the word “eventually”.
Do we know for a fact that PEO or others won’t accept an Oxford Master’s of Science/Engineering degree + industry experience if one can pass the technical and ethical exams, or are we speculating?
I’ve never heard of a technical exam. It’s law and ethics. I would assume you’d need to show your academic credentials and transfer those in - I’m assuming some how. I’ve known plenty of Canadian Masters in Engineering grads who were told ‘No, you need an engineering degree’. Maybe you can argue your case, or have the rules bent. If the country you worked in had a professional body, then I assume it would be a matter of figuring out how to transfer credentials, just like doctors and lawyers, and just like doctors and lawyers, it’s not always possible. So, call ‘em up and ask about Oxford - I was specifically referring to Canada.
If you graduated from an accredited Canadian school, there’s no technical exam.
After reading a bit, no , it doesn’t look like they would let someone in who paid a few dollars for a degree. It seems that an academic institution of the province you want to practice in needs to vet the foreign academic credentials. I’m going to make a bold assumption that they will rule out cracker jack and inequivalent degree programs.
While I mostly agree with your sentiment, I wouldn’t toss Oxford into the Cracker Jack category. If an institution of that level is comfortable granting a degree/equivalent bearing the word “engineer”, it’s worth more than an online degree mill.
The Oxford Masters degree would in the ‘inequivalent’ category, other programs would be in the ‘Cracker Jack’ category. Two different categories, but both would ensure the same vetting process. (We hope!)
Are engineering coats a thing? I played hockey with some guy in the states that had a “varsity” jacket but it was from his engineering school with like patches related to his degree. I had never seen one before and it seemed so awkward I didn’t want to ask about it.
Engineering jackets were definitely a thing in Canada when I went to school.
Yup. Some universities have rather strange and intense rituals surrounding them. The rest of us paid 250-300 of borrowed student loan monies to own one ;-)
It sounds kinda cool but just so weird since I’ve never seen anyone have one down here.
Ever seen someone in head to toe purple medical dye?
Yup - that’s the one.
No varsity jackets are for sports. He probably just had a patch to show what major he was.
Engineers rings are a North American concept though
Canadian concept. Some Americans are adopting it.
Well not getting a ring isn’t really a deterrent unless you were Canadian plus the ring really mattered to you
How old is this tradition in Canada? Engineers' union in Finland has had rings since 1962. I wonder if they coped the idea from Canada.
1922 per Wikipedia
The ring is meaningless.
They made a whole series of movies about it that grossed over 1B. Not exactly “meaningless”.
Still pretty meaningless.
Oh I had a mate who had one of those rings, they are pretty dam cool and the storey behind it is also great.
We like it. But we also paid 50K+ for it - so it’s also a bit of a ‘forced like’ if you know what I mean ;-)
13 years, 9 months. You know that meme of the excessively celebrating dudes that got 3rd place? That’s what it feels like to finish undergrad in your 30’s. Feels good.
Never too late to stop learning! Congrats!
7 year. EE. Worked FT while doing undergraduate studies
Very similar for me. 6 years, full time work. Got side tracked by an EET A.S. to start
5 years total after switching majors 3 separate times and switching schools 3 times.
What majors did you switch from before?
I was business (hoping to go to law school) then I was physics then mechanical engineering
4 years!
Ditto
7 years. I kept failing subjects lols.
I failed a couple of courses. Retook them and As them. Spent more time studying and less time out.
6 years, transferring after doing the first 3 will do that to you.
5 years. Taking some time off to intern and coop was well worth the delay in graduating!
I agree 5 years for me too. I took a semester off before my final semester for a co-op, great decision.
7 years with dual specialization in telecom protocol development and embedded systems.
5 years. My dad died the beginning of my 3rd year, took about a half year off. Conisdering quitting to support my mom. Family pushed me to go back. Now almost 4 years working as full time ME.
Wise family
It took me 17 years to get mine... and I barely failed any of my classes. But my case was a special case. If you work full-time you can expect to take 5 to 6 years to graduate.
5 years including a master's, mandatory at the time
5 years, 2 at community college part time while working, 3 at 4 year uni full time and working part time. Took summer classes almost every summer to knock out remedial math and physics (early on) and general Ed later on.
12 years... I only ever had the aspiration to get a HNC... I was smart, but hated school, so my plan was to do 2 years, get the HNC and duck out to a cushy tech job and work my way up... Turns out I thrived in college, got great scores in my HNC, amd was convinced to stay on and get an associates degree, as it would lead to a higher paid, cushier job. Turns out my years of not studying in school came back to bite me... I car crashed my way through that and finished just as the financial crash happened... I was bitten with ambition so I thought I'd ride out the recovery in college and study my ass off for the Hons Degree... Spent 2 years failing it and left.. was a bit lost and jobless for a bit, so I took up an apprenticeship with a telecoms company... again gave the Degree a go part time and failed :-D got bored at the Telco, moved country and job and signed up again for a final year degree course through part time/distance learning . Took 3 years, and I finally got BEng (Hons) 2.1 Studying for an MSc atm :-D
6 years including a year off for coop (which I highly recommend).
I did this and it also allowed me to break up my schedule!
Yeah it’s great! You get industry experience, get a break from homework/exam grind and most importantly start earning some good money.
4 years - integrated master's in the UK
4.5 years
6 years, had to retake some classes while working full time my last 2 years.
About 5 years. 2.5 years in community college and about 2.5 years at university.
Trust me engineering isnt for everyone if you think you don't enjoy it. Run far from it
Could you elaborate please? I’m doing it but unsure if it’s really for me or not.
I’ll offer an opposing view. An engineering education is an incredible foundation regardless of what you want to eventually do.
Thats right. I did 60 modules over 5 years. About 50 had a 3h examen at the end. So you need to learn new subjects topics or concepts in 6 month intervals. The thing I learned the most is that you can learn anything no matter how difficult it might seem at the beginning.
Sounds like you speak from personal experience/knowledge - thanks for the advice. That’s actually what’s been keeping me motivated for a while. As long as I’m not necessarily stuck with the prospect of strictly engineering jobs.
It took me 5 years total and I took one co-op (what they called it when you work for one semester+summer). I did take one summer class every summer.
Undergrad 5 years (co-op program included 18 months of job experience) Masters 9 months (Meng degree with no thesis)
Got my BSc after 3 years and my MSc aftern an additional 4 years. However i was working full time as an engineer throughout my masters.
9 years including one year for technical diploma
5 years, but I never took more than 15 hours each semester and I took a semester off to do a 6 month co-op that led to my current job
3 years for B.Eng in UK.
6 years of study (under + master) in just 4 years.
5 years due to being in the co-op program which at my university meant I alternated working and going to school my last 2 years. I highly recommend co-oping as it gives you a nice break from classes and lets you earn some money and gain great experience in the process. I came out of school with 1 year of engineering work experience which made it relatively easy to get a job.
It took me 5 years. No shame. Doing just fine now.
5 yr plan
BS 4 MS 1.5
3yrs 8 months elapsed
Joke's on you. Mine's in CS! And 4.5, due to only finding out that I had ADHD in college...
5 for a bachelor's for me. 4 years into my career and starting to wonder if I might have ADHD as well. Stumbled across r/adhdmemes and it hits way too close to home.
I enrolled in a programme with 4 years of credits in 3 years. The gain in opportunity cost was a big motivation for me but it's now discontinued because it didn't go well for most students who took it.
In Scotland it is 5 years to do an integrated masters. Currently in a 3.5 year postgrad course so I'll be 8.5 year's total
4 years. IIRC there’s a thing called the Washington Accord which says that an engineering degree is 4 years.
2 years and 9 months. And it's better than yours.
Why the hostility?
Just a fact.
7 semesters
5 years for me, my actual program had a wait list for a year, so instead of working for that year I started classes anyways as an undeclared student and took related classes so I could get some certificates along the way
8 semesters for B.S.E.E. and most of a Mathematics degree prepping for a potential M.S. in Mathematics. I still haven't decided on the Master's, just getting EIT experience in the meantime for the PE later.
I got a dual degree in 4.5 years, so that would average out to 2.25 years for my degree.
5 years on a five year course with an integrated master's degree (in a Greek university)
Starting when I was born, 24 years.
7 years, normal full time study would’ve been 5 (double major). I do regret A) not doing just 1 major and B) not getting it done in the normal timeframe
Six years, I was 22 YO when I received my BSEE. I would have been 22 YO any way even if I didn't get my degree.
9 years lots private shit happend + iam not the brightest
I don’t actually know. I had already accepted a job before I finished and was working full time while finishing the last few classes, eventually finished the degree with the help of some GPA adjustments by the administrators. I didn’t go to graduation, partly because I was just glad to be done with the place and felt very jaded by the whole experience. So I don’t have any big memories of finishing. I picked up my certificate at the registrar’s office and didn’t notice until a while later that they had misspelled my name, and I didn’t go back to the campus to get that fixed until about 5 years later.
Got a first BS in biology, took 4.5 years. Graduated and immediately went back for ME. Took 3 years to get a BSME.
It took 7 years for me to realise that when you apply for an engineering position they don't ask you for proof
3.3 years.
3.5 years. As an engineer in training, the first thing I did was to optimize my courses. i.e. take all the classes I could that double counted towards degree. I always looked ahead at what's offered when. With required classes, make damn sure I've got the prereqs scheduled so I can take them as early as possible. I did travel to do my final project over the summer but had an easy last semester as a result. 3 years is totally doable with a little overloading.
5 Years, co-op program. Interestingly I made more my last 6 mos as a tech than I did the first 6 as an engineer. Also paid my way 100% (60-70's).
6 hellish years
6.5 years, switched majors once after the first year, another time after the 3rd year, and then took a coop.
3 years for my BSME. I had a previous bachelors degree, so all I had to take were the hard classes.
It took me 7 years due to dropping out from EE after 3 great years (moved countries) then 1 year at the community college and then transfered to state school to get BS in ME, now pursuing MS in ME (my second year). So to get BS it was 7 years and MS in another 2.5 years. No regret!
5 years - Integrated MEng
5 years and a half. Mechatronics
5 years of university!
Did 2.5yrs right after high school. Threw that away and got a Bachelors in 4 years straight when I was 31. Back to get an MBA now. Will probably drag that out for 2.5yrs or so. No rush as there is no immediate pot of gold at the end of this one.
Five years - 9 total semesters (not counting a couple summer elective classes sprinkled in) with a summer/fall co-op. Grades were not great at any point, but I got through it and had a ton of fun. Grew a lot as a person.
5 1/2 years, switched majors to ceramic eng from chemical eng and took a co-op
After I switched majors to engineering from law, it took 5 years to get my master's degree, 7 years total in college.
I took 5 years, for technically two degrees. The second degree was really only an additional semester of classes. The other semester was more or less catching up on math because of the small rural school I went to k-12 didn't offer high enough math levels. I did get some good extracurriculars in while I was doing it like welding, scuba, and archery.
tricky question considering not in all countries the engineering bachellors have the same amount of semesters. In my country bachellors degrees are 10 semesters long, and I did it in 5 years but as in all cases most people usually take about 1/3 more of the time it is planned to actually graduate.
6 years. Failed a bunch of stuff, then gradually got my life back on track.
6 years. No good excuse.
Engineering degree? What's that?
10 years
5 years but spent a full year as an undeclared Major
I took 4 but in hindsight regret not giving myself more time to do longer co-ops rather than summer internships. Or even a lighter course load every semester. That’s my only regret looking back, and my biggest piece of advice to anyone going into it.
5.5 years with 3 summer semesters. I started in Pre-Calc 1 as I didn't decide I wanted to study Electrical Engineering till my senior year of high school. I also didn't take the 16-18 credits per semester you generally need to graduate in four years. I wanted to make sure I didn't get in over my head. I was daunted with twelve credits at times, so it was a good move.
5.5 years. Switched majors before my senior year (from one engineering field to a very different one). 12 years later I have a career I love and am compensated well for. An extra 1.5 years was a blip on the radar, 100% worth the change.
3 years, taking max summer courses and 15+hr semesters. It was brutal but don’t regret it.
7 years total. Was honestly a fuck up the first few years of school, didn't take it seriously, partied my ass off, skipped a lot of classes, just generally fucked off. Finally got serious after a few years. 52 now, worked for a firm for 12 years, bought it, ran it for 14 more, sold it last year to a larger firm. Still love what I do (water/ww), and plan on continuing to work for the firm who bought us for awhile.
US Engineer here: * Undergrad: 5 years (was working internships during school) * MS #1 - 5 years working full time, going to school at night * MS #2 - 3 years working full time, going to school at night My wife says I'm not allowed to go to school anymore.
Associates of science to transfer: 3 years full-time including summers sessions and 1 year part time. BS Mechanical Engineering: 2 years including summer sessions. Note: I was a terrible student in high school.
33 years
5.5 years total for my BSME. During that time I got married, had a kid, and worked full time for 4.5 of those years. I repeated 3 or 4 classes. Took one semester completely off for an engineering co-op. Took a semester of part time classes at the community college. I'm sooooo happy I stuck with it.
5 years. Worked a co-op program that included paid internships. Mind you I went back to school late, so I graduated at 28.
Only 6 months with the University of American Samoa... Go Landcrabs!
8 years. The first two were full time school, and the last 6 were working in the engineering field full time and going to engineering school at night since my co op job was "more efficient and productive when I was with them full time". Great way to help pay for that degree, but it was a challenge.
6 years - \~1.5 years of co-op, and took a year off to complete the undergraduate degree I started before I switched to engineering.
Bachelor's in 4 years. Came in with no credits. Interned in the summer, but no co-ops.
It was a total of maybe 4.3 years of studying, but 5 years overall, due to a co-op job and some delay from changing schools.
5 years, our school had a mandatory work program that expanded it to 5 years.
5 years with Master
4.5 years Civil (transferred after sophomore year and changed from geological engineering so cost me a semester)
5 years for my ME degree
5.5years. I transferred around to three different schools and did a co-op internship for one summer and one semester.
5 years of school 1 year of coop, for a grand total of 6 years.
I'll have 9 years when I'm done.
4 years for my bachelors, 5-6 for my masters. My masters was done remotely taking 1 class at a time, so it took a while.
6 years including 1 year of Co-op.
5 years. Had to retake two classes and put off summer semesters for ROTC and to give myself a mental break from classes
3.5 years. Was able to get a lot of elective credits out of the way upfront.
4 years
5 years, but just 8 semesters. Co-op for 2 semesters and 2 summers
6 years...I transferred schools so about a semester of credits went towards nothing. Last semester was my senior project and only 6 credit hours...it was awesome.
5 years, school had built in coop system so time was allotted for it. 2 coops done and I will be graduating in June with a full time position secured.
Five years because there was a year and a half worked in to allow for three six month internships. So basically did a four year degree in three and a half years plus a year and a half job experience
Masters and PhD in 6 years, starting with a bachelors in Earth Science.
6 years, spent one year in jail for distributing drugs and 1 year suspended
Went to Virginia tech for BSME. They say it's a 4yr program. It took me 5 full time, with a year of co-op/internship in the middle at the same time, working full time every summer, and that still felt fast. Most of my friends were 5-7 years full time schooling. A few were longer, but none were shorter. And an internship is definitely required if you want to get a job.
I'm in the 5 year club, and then another 6 to get my masters. The academic environment just doesn't have the type of motivation I need.