That's why i went the route I did... in the MAE field, you're much more marketable with just a BS since companies don't want to pay more for a "fresh out" MS grad and not know what to expect in terms of real world performance. Plus, any company worth working for has a good tuition reimbursement benefit. So i don't mind taking one class a semester to slowly knock out my masters. (The PhD will be out of my pocket though)