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Master’s degrees are the second biggest scam in higher education?

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Re: Master’s degrees are the second biggest scam in higher education?

#221

Post by zsmi »

beefok wrote: post #218

My college mentor always said, "do not pay for a Master's degree, find a company who will pay for it." Best damn advice I've ever gotten!

Is that possible?

Every company I've every worked for offered money for education but usually it only covered slightly over 1/3 of the total expense when everything was said and done. (And this was early 2000s when University was cheaper)

Also, two companies required at least a B for reimbursement which is not always that easy in a competitive STEM class. I found I could do work, or school, well. But not work and school and subsequently dropped out of my Graduate program. It worked out in the end. :)

Re: Master’s degrees are the second biggest scam in higher education?

#222

Post by kccqzy »

phsource wrote: post #150

One reason that often gets glossed over (including in this article) is how (non-online) Masters programs are huge moneymakers as a ticket to working in the US. I've seen that in CS programs at University of Buffalo and Yale, a majority of Masters students are from abroad, especially from Asia. Basically, if you wanted to work in tech in the US, you could either: - Find a multinational company in your home country, wo…

The gist is right, but details are wrong. Undergraduates can also get a 3-year work visa via OPT with STEM extension during which you can enter into the H-1B lottery multiple times (as many as four times if you time it well). It's just masters have higher chances in that lottery.

Re: Master’s degrees are the second biggest scam in higher education?

#223

Post by fallingknife »

peteretep wrote: post #193
depressedpanda wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conversely, I don't even have a bachelor's degree in CS, and I haven't suffered at all because of it. I got a job offer before graduating, and decided my time was better spent earning money than learning stuff I would probably never have any use for. Rather than focusing on degrees, I think it's a lot more important to focus on learning, however you don't know what's important to learn until you actually start workin…

I spent the first ten years of my programming career without a degree, like you. I got a SoftEng MSc at 30. It was worth it. Sometimes we just don't know what we don't know.

I think formal cs education would make me a better engineer than I am now, but at the same time I have never seen an instance where education has mattered more than intelligence.

Re: Master’s degrees are the second biggest scam in higher education?

#224

Post by pclmulqdq »

fnord77 wrote: post #174
phsource wrote: post #150

One reason that often gets glossed over (including in this article) is how (non-online) Masters programs are huge moneymakers as a ticket to working in the US. I've seen that in CS programs at University of Buffalo and Yale, a majority of Masters students are from abroad, especially from Asia. Basically, if you wanted to work in tech in the US, you could either: - Find a multinational company in your home country, wo…

we've had foreign job candidates with masters degrees in CS from top 50 schools who couldn't pass a simple programming test or who couldn't answer some basic CS questions on O(n) or whatnot. I'm not talking sadistic google interview questions, these were things that anyone with a BS should be able to answer.

That has happened to me so many times that my last company shreds resumes from foreign students with a prestigious American masters where the undergrad is not similarly prestigious (eg IIT and Tsinghua are good, but not many other schools).

Re: Master’s degrees are the second biggest scam in higher education?

#225

Post by zsmi »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #42
fallingknife wrote: post #17

When are we going to learn that encouraging everyone to get more education is a waste of resources? All it leads to is lowered standards and devalued degrees. Your credential is only worth something because someone else doesn't have it.

One would hope that one's salary would depend on one's expected productivity, which an education should increase. Lowered standards and devalued degrees is probably a thing though.

I would say this depends strongly on the field. In the field I'm most experienced in, electrical engineering, I tell people considering a Master's is that it's a possible short cut to the pay of someone with 3 years of experience. So if you can get it fast enough, and the math works out, then do it. Otherwise skip it.

Re: Master’s degrees are the second biggest scam in higher education?

#226

Post by chmod600 »

LatteLazy wrote: post #110
chmod600 wrote: post #70

"We can’t just rely on the market to provide all of the quality discipline that master’s programs need." It seems like if the federal government stopped lending for master's degrees, and allowed students to file for bankruptcy to get out of private loans, then the market might very well sort everything out.

Wouldn't that just mean rich people got masters they didn't need and poor people didn't get ones they did need? Maybe markets have a difference concept of efficiency than society...

Poor people who choose degrees with good career prospects will get a loan. Poor people who want a degree with bad career prospects may not have the chance to waste a year or more of their life pursuing one.

Re: Master’s degrees are the second biggest scam in higher education?

#227

Post by vericiab »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #159
phsource wrote: post #150

One reason that often gets glossed over (including in this article) is how (non-online) Masters programs are huge moneymakers as a ticket to working in the US. I've seen that in CS programs at University of Buffalo and Yale, a majority of Masters students are from abroad, especially from Asia. Basically, if you wanted to work in tech in the US, you could either: - Find a multinational company in your home country, wo…

Assuming you're actually smart and skilled - wouldn't it be better to just start your own consulting business, or if you're really ambitious, eventually an agency? Aren't H1-B visa workers mostly in extremely HCOL areas and significantly underpaid / taken advantage of? I imagine if you're from India and you really want to get out of India - this sounds like a good deal (although wouldn't $50k for tuition be hard to g…

I used to work for a small tech company in the suburbs outside of St Louis, which is definitely not a HCOL area. When I left (to move back to a HCOL tech hub), probably about half of the engineering staff were H1-B visa holders. This was because we often had trouble finding qualified candidates that were either already local or willing to relocate to the area. Visa sponsorship was a much more compelling reason to relocate than anything we could offer US citizens.

The office was near Mastercard's global operations headquarters and it seemed like they also employed a lot of visa holders. So I don't think we were particularly unique in our willingness to offer visa sponsorship in a LCOL area.

Re: Master’s degrees are the second biggest scam in higher education?

#228

Post by ipaddr »

chrisseaton wrote: post #90
UK-Al05 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of professions and trades require a qualification or license to practice. So getting these qualifications are required for reskilling.

Right so the employees providing the actual services may need qualifications. The person opening the business doesn't. I've never seen anywhere where opening a business needs a degree or qualification.

Dentist, vet clinic, lawyer are three.

Daycare center, hairstyling and financial advisor are others that require qualifications / lic

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