I’m an aspiring cyber security professional, interested in network defense or information protection in particular.
I am trying to decide what I should focus on this summer. I am currently a junior at a no-name university studying for a bachelors in MIS, but I’m touting a 3.91 GPA, some certifications (A+ Network+, Security+), and two years of fairly relevant technical work experience.
I’m trying to decide if I should focus on building technical skills this summer (advance my Python, Bash, Perl, etc.), or study up for the GRE’s and give a run at top schools for a masters degree in cyber security in the Fall.
The thought process is that a masters from a more prestigious university will help to “mask” the no-name university I came from and allow me to compete for jobs I would otherwise have no chance at. I can already see which companies will pay attention to me and which ones will not just because of my school, and that frustrates me. I want to start off my career right.
As a 20 year old, I’m still really young though. My work experience reflects that. I haven’t done much in in the way of research either (I had to write a 50 page honors thesis, that’s the closest I’ve gotten).
Something that would help me understand what course of action I should take is how realistic my odds are that I get into a great school for a masters degree program in security. I obviously haven’t taken the GRE’s yet, but how good of a score would I need to get in order to have a safe chance of getting into a school like So Cal, John Hopkins, etc? If that is a crapshoot even with perfect scores, what kinds of schools would be more realistic? Am I putting the cart before the horse here?
Chance me threads are generally useless. I would treat grad school the same way as people treat undergrad. Apply to some reaches, some matches, and a safety. Try to do some research before you graduate. When it comes to sub-fields of a major, most rankings are useless. You have to dig deep. See which faculty are publishing the most significant papers and at what universities they’re located at.
I don’t know what my “reaches” really are though. The whole point of this question was to gain clarity on what you just said, and what GRE scores would put me where considering my certs and GPA.
I don’t think colleges care that much about GRE scores, at least in science and engineering. From the John Hopkins Web site,
Note, that GRE scores are at the bottom of the list. I remember the math on the GRE being easy. Poor GRE math scores might hurt you. Great GRE scores by themselves don’t do much to push you into the admit pile.
First of all, congratulations on the 3.91 GPA, it is a difficult thing to do in college, especially in a technical field.
If your intention is to mask your “no-name” university, it doesn’t have to be done through grad school, you can also do that with a job. Once you are in the industry for a couple of years, recruiters will be focused more on your work experience than your college education. Sure having Stanford or whatever on your resume will be looked at favorably, but so does “3 years of experience” and “project lead”.
And unfortunately, your age argument doesn’t quite hold water. Recruiters know you are young and they know you don’t have 15 years of experience in the industry. They aren’t going to consider you for jobs that require that nor are they comparing you against people that have 15 years of experience. They will be comparing you against other newly graduated people who are candidates for an entry-level position at their company just like you.
Time and finances permitting, you could always do both if you feel like you are still unsure. I knew a lot of people that applied to both grad school and full time jobs their senior year of college as a safety net if one didn’t work out. However, you should probably take the GRE as soon as you can. You need to have your GRE done by college application deadlines, the earliest of which is about 6 months from now for Fall 2018. The previous poster(s) are correct though about GRE scores, a good or even perfect score won’t guarantee you admission to a program but a low score will keep you out.
In terms of determining safety/reach schools, it is a really difficult thing to help with. It is more of a case-by-case thing than undergrad. It depends more on your background and how good of a fit your background is for the particular program you are applying to. Even if your GPA/GRE are comparable or even higher than the average admit at John Hopkins, if they don’t offer coursework or research opportunities in what you are looking for or what your background is in, they will reject you. I judged places based on a combination of their coursework/program requirements and perceived prestige when I was applying. Looking back, I did weigh prestige a little higher than program so I was rejected from a few places I considered safety schools but got into my extreme reach school because my education/work background was a perfect fit for the program.
I think that the main thing to focus on is how to obtain the skills needed to do the job that you want to do. In CS, the main issue is always: What do you know how to do and what do you want to do? Prestige doesn’t go very far in computer science. It sounds like you have already acquired some very useful knowledge and have no reason to be apologetic about your current university (where ever that is).
Cyber security is a very important area which is not going to go away in the foreseeable future, and where there are not enough people who know what they are doing.
I would expect that a 3.91 would get you into a pretty good Master’s program. However, I have no idea whether that means U.Mass, or Stanford. Frankly you might do very well at either. I think that you need to apply to a range of schools and see where you get in. The good news with CS is that in the unlikely event that you don’t get in anywhere, or (more likely) that you decide that you can’t afford it, you can get a good job and reapply in a year or two.