Question about ECEs

[KittenMittens]

I still plan on taking the SAT, it's just not among the top 10 things on my skeletal graduation plan at present. As for the GREs, I would love to knock out a year or two of coursework by passing a couple of them. Too bad some schools don't accept them.

If you want to study for the SAT, I'd say drop it. Why? Because your time would be better spent accumulating credit rapidly. But you say you want to test your logic/reasoning skills? OK. Then study for the GRE. Why? Because it's the same thing as the SAT (older version), and possibly slightly harder. It's redundant to study for the SAT when the time would be better spent on the GRE. Now as far as subject GREs, that probably isn't worth it since most people who do subject GREs already have a strong background in that subject i.e. physics major + physics GRE, or psychology major + GRE and usually junior/senior standing. It could be done, but not worth the time investment compared to the 3 credit exams through CLEPs, DSST, UExcels, etc.

Also, a lot of graduate programs won't care about the GRE. They may have some GPA cutoff, and even then it may not matter as they can make an exception. But if you want to get into a mid to high tier program, then yeah GRE will matter, but you'll have to decide what grad. program is worth it.

I'd say a lot of us who do these programs are doing it for government/military career purposes where where you went doesn't matter as much as having any degree that is properly accredited. As a result, going to Harvard for an MBA won't mean a damn compared to doing it to Alabama School of Business for state/fed/military purposes. Private sector though? You bet.

The problem is that most jobs that are private sector that are worth doing require particular skills i.e. technical and/or with a high enough name. Law school as said before is hard to justify given how crap the market is, etc. If you want to look into private sector, then you'll want to figure out degrees or skill sets have the highest ROI. Those are obviously STEMs, anything for government/military work, computer tech like programming/IT stuff where a degree won't matter as much as what you learn, etc.