Ask YC: Masters in CS? Or no? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask YC: Masters in CS? Or no?

#11

Post by mattrepl » Sun, May 04, 2008, 3:28 PM UTC

mechanical_fish wrote: post #9

Will a master's open up any doors that wouldn't be open for a Stanford grad with a good resume? Wait and see. In your case, I'm extremely doubtful that a master's will make any difference whatsoever. And getting one now is premature optimization. Wait until you find yourself trying to get a specific kind of job, but failing, because the jobs are being snapped up by people with advanced degrees. Then get a master's. I…

A MS usually requires about 30 credit hours, or 10 courses. Do these accelerated MS programs have the same requirements?

Sounds like earning the degree now may shorten the program's duration.

Re: Ask YC: Masters in CS? Or no?

#12

Post by donw » Sun, May 04, 2008, 3:45 PM UTC

Posts like this make me wish I had worked harder in school. Which is why I'm back and getting my MS -- doing things right this time. grin

In your case, you need to ask yourself if another year in school is what you want or need; nobody here can answer that for you. A Master's will open new doors, but at the opportunity cost of taking time away from other projects that may be more beneficial.

Re: Ask YC: Masters in CS? Or no?

#13

Post by goodkarma » Sun, May 04, 2008, 4:02 PM UTC

abless wrote: post #8

goodkarma wrote: post #7

If your goal is to developer enterprise software, and you already have your first project (i.e. this summer in Italy), what do you need the Masters degree for?

What does he need his BA for? Not for what he is doing ATM anyway.

I agree, but that is in the past. He's asking about the future.

I don't work in the field I got my degree in. But I still enjoyed the experience.. :)

Re: Ask YC: Masters in CS? Or no?

#14

Post by goodkarma » Sun, May 04, 2008, 4:04 PM UTC

bluelu wrote: post #4

A masters degree is always good when you are selling yourself to other people. If it only takes you one more year, I would simply do it.

You can write a lot of code in a year. If what you want to do is write code. (And he does.)

Re: Ask YC: Masters in CS? Or no?

#15

Post by donal » Sun, May 04, 2008, 4:15 PM UTC

The opportunity to bang it out in one year is something that shouldn't be passed up lightly. Going back after being out for a while is hard.

I'm getting my masters now (graduated undergrad in 2003). It is difficult, but then I'm working and going to school.

The one thing going for taking time off and going back is that you are amazingly focused because you know why you are there, but then if you are graduating from Stanford and considering a MS, then I don't think that is really a problem for you.

I don't think the MS for you would be as much about career options as it would be being able to get even more in depth with subjects in a way that you really don't get much opportunity to do later in life. At least for me it became become fluent enough in subject n+1 to do task x+1. The queue only gets longer and I never have managed to go back to any one thing that has interested me.

Re: Ask YC: Masters in CS? Or no?

#16

Post by tptacek » Sun, May 04, 2008, 5:04 PM UTC

donw wrote: post #12

Posts like this make me wish I had worked harder in school. Which is why I'm back and getting my MS -- doing things right this time. grin In your case, you need to ask yourself if another year in school is what you want or need; nobody here can answer that for you. A Master's will open new doors, but at the opportunity cost of taking time away from other projects that may be more beneficial.

What doors would those be?

Re: Ask YC: Masters in CS? Or no?

#17

Post by gexla » Sun, May 04, 2008, 5:13 PM UTC

As a freelancer you will rarely (if ever) be asked about your educational experience. If you were for some reason, then a bachelor's degree would probably suffice. If you are good at what you do, then you will have high enough demand for your work that you can pick the work you do. If a potential client makes unreasonable demands, then you simply go with with next client in line.

The world moves fast. If you have an idea about a certain niche for enterprise software then right now is probably better than a year from now. The earlier you can break into a market the better.

A degree is more important for working for others. You need that degree to get past the HR gatekeeper. In the freelance world, things are different. I don't even have an undergrad degree and I have had no shortage of freelance work.

Once you go freelance, you will have a hard time convincing yourself to go back to working for someone else. Leave the grad degrees to the academics. For hackers, grad degrees take us out of the real world for too long.

Re: Ask YC: Masters in CS? Or no?

#18

Post by ivankirigin » Sun, May 04, 2008, 5:40 PM UTC

Masters coursework isn't worth it across the board. Some areas are too theoretical for what Masters students will want to do.

I got a more directed MS in Robotics, and am very glad I did. I think it helps to have a niche. You can do the exact same work I did for my robotics degree in a general CS degree - so my advice is to pick an area of focus, and work on building something interesting.

You shouldn't work on many projects. Take the opportunity to build up a single real system for 2 years.

Re: Ask YC: Masters in CS? Or no?

#19

Post by Readmore » Sun, May 04, 2008, 6:47 PM UTC

mechanical_fish wrote: post #9

Will a master's open up any doors that wouldn't be open for a Stanford grad with a good resume? Wait and see. In your case, I'm extremely doubtful that a master's will make any difference whatsoever. And getting one now is premature optimization. Wait until you find yourself trying to get a specific kind of job, but failing, because the jobs are being snapped up by people with advanced degrees. Then get a master's. I…

Not true. A CS Masters will get you a higher salary across the board. Even if you end up doing your own thing the more in-depth studies of a Master's program will help you in that respect as well.

Re: Ask YC: Masters in CS? Or no?

#20

Post by adamsmith » Sun, May 04, 2008, 7:09 PM UTC

I'd advise against getting a master's degree for someone who already has an impressive resume and knows what they want to do next.

I dropped out of my master's program after getting accepted into YC. It was a no brainer; I flew back to Boston and met with my adviser the same day to tell him I was dropping out. I had already published with him so we were good friends.

With few exceptions, people in the tech industry rarely care about graduate degrees.

Beware of opportunity cost when reading posts saying it's only one year, or you can make $x more / year with a master's degree. It sounds like you're going to learn much more in the first year of your venture than you would in school.