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Ask YC: Masters in CS? Or no?

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

#21

Post by maximilian »

mattrepl wrote: post #11
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.

An MSc and a Masters of CS are slightly different. Basically a Masters of CS is a masters lite. 2/3 the coursework with no thesis. Its a whole different bag.

I'm doing a masters in applied math, and not having to do a thesis would sorta ruin the whole super independent part of it. I'm looking forward to doing cool research that I want to do. It will probably suck towards the end when I'm finishing the details of my thesis, but right now its exciting to dream of things to research.

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

#22

Post by axod »

Readmore wrote: post #19
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.

Getting a higher salary is only relevant if you're working for a big company.

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

#23

Post by jules »

goodkarma wrote: post #14
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.)

How much less code will he be able to write if he gets a masters degree?

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

#24

Post by akeefer »

I did the co-term at Stanford about 6 years ago, though my goal at the time wasn't to go start a company or freelance right away. I'm personally glad I did it, and not because of any resume-padding or salary-boosting (I already had a job at a startup where I worked part-time while I did the co-term) but simply because it was a great opportunity to learn a lot of stuff. I knew that if I didn't do it right away, I'd probably never really want to go back, and I'd also never have another chance to do it in just one year.

There are just a lot of things that are harder to learn on your own. Want to learn SQL, OpenGL, TCP programming? Read some web pages or some books; you don't need a class for that stuff. Want to learn how to write your own database, rendering engine, network stack, compiler, or filesystem? Take a class. Especially if your goal is write enterprise software, which inherently involves building large, complex systems, some of those things will come in handy, if only by exposing you to new ways of thinking. My experience has always been that the practical stuff is easy enough to pick up on your own, but the theory is always harder. It can be done, you'll just learn it better and faster from a good professor.

If you've already taken all the 200 or 300-level courses in CS at Stanford that you want to take, I don't think you'll get much out of the MS. If there are a lot of those courses that you haven't taken and that still interest you, it's worth doing. If it's just a pure business play it's not worth it.

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

#25

Post by RK »

donal wrote: post #15

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 S…

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.

The OP is the author of a book called "How to Succeed As A Lazy Student" :)

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