Interesting. I also have degrees in Aeronautics (German (then) equivalent to masters and ph.d) and did my JAR ATPL in my late thirties. To me the ATPL felt like one semester of the 12 which were required to get the master's degree.
Anyway, it does not matter much because who in the industry would hire someone with an engineering degree converted from a pilot's license - without any additional training that is? I have worked as an aerospace engineer for many years and my actual work was a lot closer to mathematics and computer science than to anything taught in an ATPL course. But maybe there are positions in the industry which are suited for an ATPL trainee, something like flight test evaluation maybe.