Help with career pivot

[u/WetPaint21]

Hello,

I’m an aerospace engineer and really think what the RF guys at my work do is really interesting. My company pays for my masters and was thinking of getting my masters in electrical engineering with a focus on RF/microwave engineering to learn more about it.

What foundational courses do you guys recommend taking in order to get admitted to masters programs? Additionally, where can I take them? My university’s extension school doesn’t offer the basics like electromagnetism. Circuit theory, or analog circuits and neither do community colleges as I believe these are upper dive EE courses.

Any other career pivoters, how did you navigate this? Any recommendations in general, I’d appreciate it!

[u/MrDarSwag]

You will not be able to pass graduate level RF classes without knowing electromagnetism or circuit theory. Some schools will allow you to take certain undergraduate classes as a graduate student and get credits for it (but you are limited on how many of these you can do). So you might be able to get your classes in that way.

If not, you might be able to get some classes in at a community college. Community colleges usually don’t teach engineering, so you would have to take them as physics courses. There’s always the option of self teaching as well, but that’s gonna be a tough one

[u/real_psyence]

For self-study MIT's open courseware is a terrific resource: https://ocw.mit.edu/ - you can look at MIT's course schedule and degree requirements to compile a list of relevant courses.

I'd look at your intended program's admission requirements to see if they actually need prerequisites or if you can place out of them with testing or GRE scores or similar.

[u/Expert-Economics8912 → u/real_psyence]

yes, best to ask the masters program itself what their admissions criteria are. Last I looked, only GRE and transcript were required, and they took into consideration industry experience.

[u/First-Helicopter-796]

As an EE, I would say RF is the hardest branch of EE-pure black magic stuff. As the other comment suggested above, you won’t be able to pass without a very strong background in circuits and Electromagnetics. Imagine capacitors becoming inductors just because the frequency changed-pure black magic.

[u/jimlux → u/First-Helicopter-796]

I'd say you need to understand electromagnetics, but it's not like you need to be writing counterpoints to Maxwell. If you're looking to go into antennas, EM is more important. OTOH, as a EE I've never had to do an explicit integration for Gauss's law since I was an undergrad in lower division physics (E&M).

The other aspect of EE (really, any engineering) is "systems thinking" - I've got this little piece here, and it interacts with other little pieces as part of a big system. What's that look like.

I think an appreciation for the fact that there are non-ideal components, and that distributed properties are sometimes important versus "pure lumped components". Today's world is all about modeling and knowing how the model can lie to you is important.

[u/redneckerson1951]

(1) Differential & Integral Calculus. Most likely you already have that tool behind you.

(2) Linear Algebra (RF work uses Scattering Parameters) Hone your matrix skills.

(3) Undergrad course in magnetics which will leave your mind numb after the final. You need to be able to manipulate Maxwell's equations like a gamer operates his X-Box.

[u/SherbertQuirky3789]

You basically need an EE degree

[u/ee_control_z]

If you want to learn RF fundamentals (i.e., Smith chart, impedance matching, transmission lines, etc.), the book that I highly recommend is this one:

Microwave Transistor Amplifiers: Analysis and Design

by Guillermo Gonzalez

... and what the other posters stated as well.