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Master’s Degree in Computer Science

evanp.me

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Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#21

Post by iamsrp »

bradlys wrote: post #16
arvinsim wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had to get a masters, I would take one unrelated to software development. Marrying software development knowledge with another non-tech domain expertise would make one valuable.

> would make one valuable. To who though? A lot of people won’t care if your masters is in education if you’re gonna work in most fintech. I think it pigeonholes you further if you go down this route. If you want that then go for it but I’ve seen many wasted masters and PhDs in Silicon Valley. Many.

Maybe an English degree would be a good complimentary one?

"To whom..."

Sorry. Couldn't resist...

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#22

Post by yumraj »

donthellbanme wrote: post #13
driscoll42 wrote: post #2

I'm personally in the Georgia Tech Online Master's in Computer Science (OMSCS) program right now and can't say enough good things about it. The coursework is rigorous, deep, and varied, you really do learn quite a bit through the program and more than just random learning on your own, you get a degree out of it. Plus you get the opportunity to do some research and publish papers.

The problem is when you have paid the tuition, and finished the degree, it's so hard to objectively rate it. I have a Bachelor's degree from a decent state school in California. At the time, I felt the courses were too easy, and my four years were a bit of a waste of time. I remember going to a graduation party, and you would think we graduated from med school. The graduates were carrying on like it was so rigrigrous…

I have no idea how one flunks the kindergarten, but I’m pretty sure that it does not reflect one’s intellect in anyway.

Am pretty sure there’s an interesting story there somewhere :)

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#23

Post by stblack »

OP may already possess a master's degree, school-of-life alumnus.

But I "get" it. I've thought of doing this too.

I would add one criteria: I get to do the whole master's degree using Rust.

I'm sure this would narrow the field of schools.

I want a master's from a school that recognizes that it's effectively over for C++ and Java. At least it's completely over in my own mind. There's no way in hell I'm doing a master's degree where the school's obsolete syllabus dictates those legacy languages.

This stipulation might garner considerable traction. This quirky old guy, with more industry experience than anyone on faculty, will run advance reconnaissance for us, which is something he's been doing much longer than our typical master's students have been alive.

Because let's be honest guys: it's all about Rust going forward. If you feel otherwise I respect that view, but you haven't seen the shit I've seen.

I'd do a Rust-centric master's degree in a heartbeat, and I'm sure I'd love every minute of it.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#24

Post by nitrogen »

iamsrp wrote: post #21
bradlys wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> would make one valuable. To who though? A lot of people won’t care if your masters is in education if you’re gonna work in most fintech. I think it pigeonholes you further if you go down this route. If you want that then go for it but I’ve seen many wasted masters and PhDs in Silicon Valley. Many.

Maybe an English degree would be a good complimentary one? "To whom..." Sorry. Couldn't resist...

Maybe an English degree would be a good complimentary one?

Muphry's Law strikes again: compl-e-mentary vs. compl-i-mentary.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#25

Post by nomilk »

stblack wrote: post #23

OP may already possess a master's degree, school-of-life alumnus. But I "get" it. I've thought of doing this too. I would add one criteria: I get to do the whole master's degree using Rust. I'm sure this would narrow the field of schools. I want a master's from a school that recognizes that it's effectively over for C++ and Java. At least it's completely over in my own mind. There's no way in hell I'm doing a master'…

> There's no way in hell I'm doing a masters degree where the school's obsolete syllabus dictates those legacy languages

This applies not only to languages, but techniques, systems knowledge, documentation - everything about it really.

Part of the problem with selecting a degree on the basis of modernity is each course in the degree can be vastly different - some are up to date, others are 10 years out of date.

There's also a slight risk in doing a course in its first year, because the bugs haven't been ironed out.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#27

Post by wirthjason »

driscoll42 wrote: post #2

I'm personally in the Georgia Tech Online Master's in Computer Science (OMSCS) program right now and can't say enough good things about it. The coursework is rigorous, deep, and varied, you really do learn quite a bit through the program and more than just random learning on your own, you get a degree out of it. Plus you get the opportunity to do some research and publish papers.

I have a more mixed experience with the OMSCS. Overall it's a good program, and if the choice is between Udemy or OMSCS then it wins hands down. For me the central issue is online vs. in-person.

Education is an interactive experience, the value of a good professor and classmates is helping to identify issues when you are stuck and nudge you just enough for you to connect the dots. As an undergraduate I liked attending study groups and office hours. I learned as much from my peers, both me helping them and them helping me, as I did from my professors. This spirit was difficult to replicate this in OMSCS.

The problem is that high tough, in-person communication is very effective but this doesn't "scale" well. I can only imagine how different the world would be if Plato was teaching online. :)

Also I was in the 2nd cohort, there were certainly a lot of "bugs" and issues they were working through. Additionally, the culture of video conference and zoom was also less a few years ago, which could make an impact.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#28

Post by 0x20cowboy »

bradlys wrote: post #11

Where would a masters degree in CS help for someone with 20+ years of software experience? Genuinely - I have no clue. I don’t have a masters. I’ll likely never need one. If there was a specific field that required intense learning and was cutting edge (computer vision or something) then I’d understand a masters (or especially a PhD) but for general work…? Don’t get it. You’d certainly be better off financially from…

I recently gave up trying to get a masters (because I couldn't get admission to any program), but I wanted to get one because I wanted to work in research and development. Work on kind of out-there problems. To get hired to do something like that... to even get past the HR screening... you need at least a masters degree pretty much anywhere.

If you don't have a goal like that, and you already have that level of experience, I agree it's dubious what a masters would do for you.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#29

Post by thematrixturtle »

stblack wrote: post #23

OP may already possess a master's degree, school-of-life alumnus. But I "get" it. I've thought of doing this too. I would add one criteria: I get to do the whole master's degree using Rust. I'm sure this would narrow the field of schools. I want a master's from a school that recognizes that it's effectively over for C++ and Java. At least it's completely over in my own mind. There's no way in hell I'm doing a master'…

I think you're looking at this from the wrong angle. A MSc is not supposed to teach you programming languages, because whatever you learn now will in any case be obsolete in 10 years. It's supposed to teach you fundamentals and how to think, which is timeless.

One of the most famous introductory CS courses in the world, MIT's "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs", was for decades taught using a programming language called Scheme, a dialect of Lisp that's wildly different from any mainstream language and is used for basically nothing other than this course. This was partly intentional, since it does a great job of shocking teenage hacker wannabes out of their "I already know language X so I'm hot shit" complacency.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#30

Post by clpm4j »

stblack wrote: post #23

OP may already possess a master's degree, school-of-life alumnus. But I "get" it. I've thought of doing this too. I would add one criteria: I get to do the whole master's degree using Rust. I'm sure this would narrow the field of schools. I want a master's from a school that recognizes that it's effectively over for C++ and Java. At least it's completely over in my own mind. There's no way in hell I'm doing a master'…

Spoken like an experienced software engineer and certainly not the type of person who is well suited for a formal classroom environment. But take a peak inside any of the Fortune 500 and you would surely walk back your assertion that it's effectively over for C++ and Java, regardless of how useful or elegant Rust might be.
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