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Master’s Degree in Computer Science

evanp.me

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Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#241

Post by marksimi »

driscoll42 wrote: post #201
sthatipamala wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also a proud OMSCS alum! But "the opportunity to do some research and publish papers" is certainly not the default. Can you describe how you were able to do that?

So there are a few ways now! I do agree that it's not the default, I'd probably say 1. Courses -There are a number of courses now where you can create projects and publish papers. Again, not the default, but if you put in the effort it's doable. To name a few, Computing for Good, Big Data for Healthcare, Deep Learning, Educational Technology, Human-Computer Interaction and others. 2. VIPs! These I consider one of the…

This is the most comprehensive list of what I've seen for OMSCS research opportunities. Thanks for pulling this together.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#242

Post by gofreddygo »

> The value of a MSCS for me is that I think it would help get me technical leadership jobs at big companies

Its 2022. Been 10 years in the industry. I cannot agree to this.

I clearly see Big companies (recruiters, MANGA) selecting experienced resumes based on years of past experience, resume keyword matching, leetcode expertise and salary expectations.

1 year of leetcode + 1 year of AWS positions me better for an offer from Amazon than a Masters degree.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#243

Post by evanprodromou »

brian_cunnie wrote: post #229

My brother, 56, has been pursuing his Master's Degree at Columbia for over a year now, and he won't complete it until he's sixty (he's going part-time because he has a job), and the take-away is that it's a huge time investment, even as a part-time student. Sure, he cut away YouTube and Facebook, but he also had to cut away the gym. It's a sacrifice. The other take-away is that if you don't have the math pre-reqs for…

Great feedback, thanks!

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#244

Post by masterof0 »

> The value of a MSCS for me is that I think it would help get me technical leadership jobs at big companies

At least in the US this is not true. Many people on the leadership at Amazon and Google (at least in my tenure there) didn't have masters or PhDs, what matters most are your professional achievements, actually smaller/medium corporations are the ones that will be impressed with your cert/degree. I have seen managers with no degrees( that started as a self-taught developers and later became managers) managing engineers graduated from MIT/Hardvard/etc. Maybe in Canada things are a bit different in that regard. Not discouraging OP or anything , everyone can spend their money however they see fit. Just pointing out of the myths I see often in legacy media.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#245

Post by the-smug-one »

hn_go_brrrrr wrote: post #200
bo1024 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with some of the premise —- university education doesn’t focus on preparation for specific vocational skills. But you could say the same about high school. It doesn’t follow that reading writing and algebra are bad vocational investments, in fact the opposite because they support many possible vocations. As a CS professor, my goal is to push students to rewire their brains in ways that are better and more eff…

So teach them the importance of testing, code review, and design documents. As someone who graduated 15 years ago, I feel like the only two truly useful things I got out of my CS degree were 1) lots of practice writing code and 2) my algorithms and data structures class. The latter was useful in exactly the way you hope for, but it was the only such class.

These were all taught at my uni, along with a course that paired student teams up with companies to develop for them.

It's still not what's most important at uni, imho. You have 5 years at uni, many decades at your job.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#246

Post by masterof0 »

nojito wrote: post #167
slotrans wrote: post #93

No way this guy earns his money back. There is no salary premium for a CS master's. Employers that want to see one are places you don't want to work. I mean, if you want to do it just for fun, knock yourself out. Just don't delude yourself about what you hope to accomplish.

>There is no salary premium for a CS master's Not true at all. Most FAANG companies factor in your MS in you compensation (especially if you are moving from one to another)

No, they don't. Plenty of data points in levels.fyi and anecdotal experience, if you are at Amazon or Google I can point you where to look(internal).

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#247

Post by masterof0 »

slotrans wrote: post #93

No way this guy earns his money back. There is no salary premium for a CS master's. Employers that want to see one are places you don't want to work. I mean, if you want to do it just for fun, knock yourself out. Just don't delude yourself about what you hope to accomplish.

Yup, is usually, Whatever Insurance Co. that ask you to have degrees, to not have gaps in your resume, etc... Pretty ridiculous.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#248

Post by kjs3 »

triyambakam wrote: post #121
digisign wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a post on bigtech salary levels recently. Each promotion was equivalent to $100k or more, there were many levels. Hiring into a director position might double it. A degree makes these things substantially more likely. He'll probably have his money back within six months.

At the last start up I worked at, the director of Engineering had a BA in English.

One of the best programmers I ever worked with had a BA in Music.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#249

Post by FastMonkey »

sswezey wrote: post #177

As someone currently mid-career in UT Austin’s part time MS in Software Engineering program, avoid this program. I got my undergrad from Georgia Tech 10 years ago, and Georgia Tech is better in every regard. UT has this nice list online that they never truly offer - you have at most 3 courses to pick from each semester. And to finish in 2 years you have to take the summer course, which there is one class and no optio…

That's sad to hear. I'm in UT's online data science masters and I think it's great. They have some teething problems (we're the first cohort taking a lot of these classes), but it's all pretty minor stuff like delays in getting invoiced etc. We seem to have more choice in lectures than you do each semester, and we definitely don't have to spend particular days doing coursework on long weekends. Things have been pretty flexible for us so far at least. The most important thing for me is that there's enough material in there and that its reasonably advanced, so I feel like it's worth doing this one for sure.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#250

Post by evanprodromou »

karagenit wrote: post #231

> Purdue (#20) Ah, you fell for the trap. Notice how the course description you link is hosted on purdueglobal.edu? Purdue Global (formerly Kaplan) is totally unrelated to the main campus. Basically they took a garbage online college and slapped the Purdue name on it. The “real” Purdue of course has an MS in CS program, though AFAIK it’s only full-time and in-person.

Thanks so much! Extremely helpful. I'll update the article.
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