CS degree worth the cost?

Paying for College
1

Hey guys, I hope this is the correct forum to post this in.

I am in an interesting situation right now.

I’m 31 and I just landed a nice job as a software development and product manager, with a very fair salary. The thing is, I am the only person on the dev team without a Computer Science degree, let alone any degree at all, and I know I am making less because if this.

Second, it is a remote job, I have a small family wanting to start growing in the next couple of years, and I don’t have access to a university, only some community colleges.

I am wanting to ultimately get into Oregon State’s Computer Science Bachelor’s program, which is 100% online. The thing is, it’s a post bacc program, akd I’d have to have a BA to get accepted.

I’m about half way through getting a BA in philosophy. The only way I can finish is to complete it online, through somewhere like ASU.

Ultimately, to finish up the BA in philosophy AND the BS in Computer Science, I’m looking at 60k in debt.

Not only would this allow me to be paid more at my current job, but future jobs as well, I’m just wary of so much debt.

I think it’s a lot, but a friend of mine put it inti sime perspective and said he had a family member who paid around 100k to 120k for their CS degree.

Is this a good idea?

2

Why can’t you finish the BA in philosophy then apply to grad school for your CS. That way, you have an advanced degree and you’ll get credit for that MS.

3

I had asked someone in admissions if that were possible, but they said the MS in CS at ASU required a bachelors iin a related field to be accepted.

Maybe I should inquire about that again?

4

Call the CS department (better yet- email them) and ask.

5

You need to knock out that undergrad degree however and as quick as you can. The longer you delay, the greater the likely hood you will not complete the degree. Pick an online program that is respectable, not a degree mill. Once you get that B.A.on your resume, no one will know or care is was online. I actually have tremendous respect for people who complete the degree later in life, or at least not at 18 years old. It is hard to do ~120 credits part time and I always encourage our clerical staff at work to keep at it. We are lucky. Within 25 miles we have a 3 CCs, and a whole lotta colleges and universities.

I would not worry about your undergrad major. As long as you have the skill set, most employers will not care. In my 9 person group, I’m the only one with a CS degree but my MBA carries more weight when I was hired. Our best dev was a business major from an very very average state U.

If you are thinking about a MSCS, I’m not sure that is the right direction unless you are shooting for the FAANGs. Longer term you can do a Masters in some kind of IT field or an MBA. Unless you already have a bunch of the CS coursework done (discrete math, data structures, programming languages,comp organization ,and maybe algorithms) the pre-requisites for an MSCS can take a few years part time. Also for an MSCS at a good school,you need some really good math skills for the theory coursework. Calc 1&2, Probability, and Linear Algebra depending on the program.

Good luck and don’t give up. That degree will pay off in the long run.

6

Thank you so much NoKiiili. If I didn’t get the MS in CS, would you still recommend I finish the philosophy BA and then just get the BS in CS after?

7

At UC-Berkeley quite a few CS wannabe majors end up as Philosophy majors, so to me they are fairly related. Just as some trivia, DePaul University Associate Dean of the College of Computing Dr. Marty Kalin started as a Philosophy professor. Funny that I took him for both a philosophy class and a CS class in Database Design some 35 years ago.

8

How important is the bachelor’s degree, versus learning more CS, to you?

If you just want to learn more CS, you can self-study freely-available web resources for CS courses at MIT, UCB, etc…

However, if you want to complete your bachelor’s degree, another possibility would be to see if you can switch to CS (or related subject like software engineering) and complete it from where you are now. Your prior course work may be useful for some general education requirements. You may be able to take some of the lower level courses in CS and other needed subjects like math at the local community colleges at lower cost before taking the online courses from a university.

For example, here are some programs to complete a bachelor’s degree in CS that may cost less than $60,000:

https://csumb.edu/scd/cs-online-degree-completion-bs
https://ufonline.ufl.edu/degrees/undergraduate/computer-science/
https://online.odu.edu/programs/bachelor-in-computer-science

9

I agree, getting a second bachelor’s in CS is not worth it. Get the BA, in either Philosophy or CS (If you can reuse alot of the existing coursework to the new CS major) and graduate Asap.

10

Can you look a community college transfer program to work toward a straight CS degree? If you really want the CS degree, I’d look for the cheapest way to make that happen. Since you have experience, you may be able to say CLEP out of a bunch of the CC requirements and you likely have your gen eds covered. Is there an amazing benefit to doing a post bacc degree? Seems like overkill.

I think 60K is too much in terms debt going into having young kids. If you could pay half and loan half that might be more reasonable.

11

Thanks for the replies, everyone!

Personally, I am not a fan of any debt. Currently, I have zero, but I’m in a position at the moment where - monetarily, time, and energy wise - I am able to focus on completing these things for a few years in order to see the benefits in the future.

I know that if I don’t do this stuff in the next few years, as NoKillli said, I’m really not going to want to start this process in 5 or 6 years down the road - I want to be done by then.

@ucbalamnus, it’s not necessarily that important to me that I get a degree in CS. Personally, I’d be OK with a BA in Philosophy and going to grad school for something like Philosophy or History and then call it done, since those are really my personal interests, but I really feel like having the CS degree will benefit me since that is the field I plan on working and staying in.

@suzyQ7, this is also an option I am considering if the CS degree doesn’t make sense, ultimately.

@MusakParent, I could do that , but it would take me an extra 4 semesters (2 years) or so to do. The benefit of doing the post-bacc degree would be extra pay, I also think it would benefit me in the future for career advancement, additional pay, and opening the door to jobs that require a Mathematics or CS degree to even be considered, which I’ve been told most management positions in tech do, or at the very least it’s highly advisable to have one.

A few things:

  1. I am wanting to get the CS degree mainly because I feel that, coupled with experience, it will put me on the same playing field for jobs in the future with those who do have CS degrees, since this is the field I am working in.
  2. I also feel having the CS degree will increase my pay, as well as get me in the job for higher paying jobs
  3. The main reason I am considering doing the post-bacc CS degree online is that it will be a time saver. The only requirements for getting accepted are a previous BA in any field, and some math requirements.

If I were to try to get into a CS program otherwise, it is incredibly competitive, I’m not near a University in the immediate vicinity, and in addition to finishing up the math requirements, I would also have to take about 4 semesters of CS prereqs.

So, in short:

  • To get into the CS program at OSU, I need to have a BA complete as well as the math requirements completed (I could complete both in 2 years)
  • To get into a CS program otherwise, I would have to have additional math and CS prereqs done (this would take an additional 2 years)

In essence, getting the BA in Philosophy and then getting into the CS program at OSU is a shortcut, to a degree, even though it costs a bit more. The benefit though is that since I’m not able to physically attend class anyways, it allows me to work full time and go to school.

I guess my main question still is if getting the BA and then CS degree is worth 60k?

I could have 20 paid off by the time I finish my first BA, thus only owing around 40 total, and then I could probably pay 10 to 15 in 1.5 to 2 years WHILE completing the CS degree, bringing the total owed to around 30

For example: 60k starting - 20k paid off while completing the BA - 10 paid of while completing the CS degree = 30k left total).

Sorry for the long reply, it’s just a big decision and I want to make the right one.

12

I think a 2nd BA/BS degree is not worth it.

If you complete the undergrad Philosophy degree with maybe a CS minor, it may make the resume look a little better. Once your are producing at work, the undergrad major is almost insignificant. FWIW, one of the sharpest students in my math coursework was a philosophy major/math minor. Of all things, he loved Real Analysis and a we both ended up working for GE in the 80s until *Neutron Jack decimated our organization.

On my side of IT, many industry certifications are more heavily valued by some companies and organizations (CISSP, CISCO,VMware, DELL, EMC, NETAPP, HP, most firewall vendors). This is especially true in the systems integrations business. My main vendor is always sending their people off to conferences and training because their business partnerships with the manufactures require a certain # of employees have the certs.

I’m not sure if you are a pure developer or one of the new devops. Either way, learning about AWS and Azure would probably not be a bad idea. For better or worse, we are all heading in that direction…ugh!

13

Thanks NoKillli!

That’s interesting, I could have sworn it would make a huge difference (having the CS degree), but it’s seeming to not be the case.

ASU Online doesn’t offer a CS minor.

I’m fairly new to working in development myself, but I have had my hands in working with and managing developers for about 5 years or so, so I know I could pick it up faster than most people due to my exposure to it over the years.

If I completed the BA in Philosophy, do you think an AA in both Mathematics and Computer Science would be sufficient in place of the CS degree?

14

Finish the bachelor’s in philosophy. Once you can check the credential box (yep, have a degree), your experience matters more, and it looks like you have experience in the field already. I don’t think you’ll need additional academic credentials in CS.

15

Thanks ordinarylives.

It’s looking like finishing the BA in Philosophy and then doing some additional coursework in CS and math at a community college online is looking like the most effective route - in terms of time and especially financially for the end goals I want to achieve.

Maybe after all of this is done and I want to go to grad school down the road that will be an option also.

I feel like all of you have ultimately saved me a ton of money and I am very grateful for your advice!

16

In addition to introductory level CS courses at your local community colleges, you can self-study on your own various CS courses whose course materials on free online:

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/
http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/classes-eecs.html (CS 10, 61A, 61B, 61C, 70 are the introductory courses)

17

This is the MC in CS for non-CS undergraduates at Northeastern University:
https://align.ccis.northeastern.edu/
You should check for similar programs in your area.

18

^^MS in CS that is.

19

Longer term, if you have interest in the cyber-security end of things, UCB has an online program. If I was 15 years younger, I would do this. I considered it for about 10 seconds until I thought about the ROI and the need to retake the GRE. (Last time I took the GRE&GMAT, Reagan was in the White-house.)

https://cybersecurity.berkeley.edu/about/

20

CS is one of those areas where your coding ability/performance and certifications are much more important than a degree.