Paula Alvarez was working full-time as an Automation Support Engineer/Project Leader at Air-Vac Automation on Seymour, CT, when she decided to pursue her online MSECE with the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She says she chose the program for its high educational standards and engineering excellence.

Alvarez said the flexibility of the program, the quality of the education, and support from faculty are some of the advantages she experienced with the Purdue online program. She says online education allowed her to enhance her knowledge while applying her expertise and strengthening her skills in industry.

 

“I also had the flexibility to adapt my schedule to study and work at different locations, which I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise,” she said.

Alvarez said the online MSECE provides the tools to solve new problems and face new challenges with state-of-the-art approaches that she will apply in the workplace. She says even though it is an online program, new students should pace themselves as they would for on-campus classes, as they can be very rigorous.

“The workload between lectures, projects and assignments can become overwhelming if you're taking too many classes,” said Alvarez. “All live sessions are recorded, so if you can't attend live, you can watch it later as many times as you want.”

She says professors and staff are easy to reach, even late at night and during weekends. Alvarez encourages students to take advantage of the different platforms available for students to communicate with each other. She says there are a lot of opportunities to engage and be an active learner, and students should take advantage of that.

Dimitri Peroulis, the Michael and Katherine Birck Head of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and special advisor to the dean of engineering for online learning, said, “Our faculty have created a number of high-quality programs that meet the needs of working professionals across multiple fields. We are proud of the growing learning community of our online students who work earnestly and persistently to earn the same degrees as our on-campus students.”

Purdue’s online MSECE ranked #1 in its category in the U.S. News & World Report's latest ranking of the Best Online Programs in the nation.