Hey. I'm a 2017 HSC graduate and am interested in doing engineering, particularly electrical. I'm confused in regards to the 2 types of electrical engineering courses that UNSW offers; the Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Honours) AND the Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Honours) w/ the Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering. What is the main difference between the two? Couldn't I just take the normal Bachelor course with a lower entry rank and move into the Masters course later (provided I achieve satisfactory results)? Or does the second course (mentioned earlier) provide added benefits, as implied by its higher guaranteed entry rank?
These questions are eating me rn lol.
The BE ME is one of a suite of programs that help give you flexibility in your studies when you choose electrical engineering. Popular choices are BE (4 years), dual degrees with BE (e.g. BSc, BCom, BA or LLB, 5-6.5 years total), or the newer BE ME (5 years total). Dual degrees give you more depth in another discipline (e.g. Science) than the BE ME minor, at the undergraduate level, while the BE ME gives more depth specifically in electrical engineering, at the postgraduate level.
I have never heard an engineering employer complaining about overqualification, however for the same Australian graduate engineering position, it typically won't matter too much whether you have a BE, dual degree or BE ME - all are strong qualifications that are highly valued (there is no 'wrong choice'). Although the BE ME has been running about 5 years, it is probably not too well known in Australian industry just yet, although international employers may give it more weight (e.g. it is closer to the typical European engineering degree than a BE). My suggestion is to be guided more about what kinds of skills you would like to take out into the workplace.
It is not very complicated to transfer between programs once you have started one (using UNSW's Internal Program Transfer process), but a high average will be needed to transfer *into* the BE ME, because of the postgraduate qualification. A fair number of students do transfer both into and out of the BE ME.
A BE followed by MEngSc can also take a total of 5 years, so what is the difference from the BE ME ? The BE ME is a single integrated qualification (you can't graduate with a BE unless you transfer programs), has a minor, has more design courses, has two 1-year-long projects, is more flexible for international exchange, and has fees at the undergraduate rate throughout (masters are usually full fees).
