<p>One thing worth considering is whether you expect this to be your last degree, or whether you are considering further schooling after you get your MS? If you may go in for a PhD or some other degree at a later point, then probably the instate schools are the better choice–they seem to be of comparable rank. </p>
<p>If however you expect the MS to be your last degree, I would consider school rank more heavily, as well as what region of the US you would like to find work in.</p>
<p>I am very glad to have come across this post, because I am currently in a very similar situation, and I would appreciate any advice from you guys, especially from those of you who are familiar with the HCI discipline and the programs that I’m about to mention.</p>
<p>I have so far been accepted into the University of Maryland, the University of Baltimore, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis, Indiana University Bloomington, and Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>If money were not an issue, I would almost certainly select Georgia Tech. Unfortunately, Georgia Tech does not offer funding for this program. So here is the overview:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Georgia Tech - 21.3K tuition, offers no funding, about 30-40% chance of securing an assistantship, according to the program director.</p></li>
<li><p>Indiana Purdue - 15.7K tuition, has offered me 6.3K per year, some from a scholarship and some from an assistantship.</p></li>
<li><p>Indiana Bloomington - 17.3K tuition, has offered me full tuition for both years in exchange for only 5 hours of work per week (diversity fellowship).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Neither Maryland school has offered me any funding (although it is possible to secure an assistantship once you’re enrolled in the programs), and I have actually already declined UM’s offer of admission simply because their tuition is 17.3, and the cost of living there is higher than it is in Atlanta… and since GATech is a stronger and more big-name program, there would be no reason for me to go to UM. I have yet to decline UBalt, but I may end up declining for the same reason (their tuition being 16.2K).</p>
<p>So my question is similar to that of the OP. Should I take out a substantial loan (probably over 40K) and go to GATech on the premise that it will give me a better education, network, and start in my career? Or should I select one of the Indiana schools, which aren’t as big name, but are solid HCI programs and would not cause me to incur such a large debt?</p>
<p>I am 23 years old, single, don’t plan on getting married or having kids any time soon. I have 0 debt. My car is fully paid off. I don’t own a house. No credit card debt. No previous school loans. So basically, except for the fact that I currently have virtually nothing in my bank account and no full-time job, I’m in what might be considered the best kind of situation in which to take up a debt… but then again, if the Indiana schools are solid programs, does it really even make sense to take up a substantially larger loan? Like someone hinted at before, will the GATech education/program give me a substantially greater advantage in securing jobs? Is it more a factor when just securing your first job?</p>
<p>Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Hi Zicogja421,</p>
<p>OP here. I think you should go to one of the Indiana schools, especially because you are getting money from them. I have heard good things about their HCI / Cog Sci programs from my professors even way out here in California. Save yourself the money, you will be able to enjoy yourself more.</p>
<p>Look at the possibilites:
In 3 years, you get that job that pays,$60,000, and 15 years of payment of $500/mn-$6K/yr. But to net the 6K to pay your loan you need to gross $9k. So your actual real pay is $51,000 gross to be used for other stuff. </p>
<p>This other guy gets a job that pays only $51,000 gross. This guy also doesn’t have a loan to pay off. </p>
<p>Who is wealthier? I said nothing about the school. </p>
<p>Suppose you have the $60,000 job and no debt.
Suppose you have the $51,000 job and the student debt.</p>
<p>This is a four cell matrix.
How would you HCI’ers present the scenarios</p>
<p>Thanks for the message Arctic. I have heard good things about the Indiana schools as well, which is why I applied to them. But I have been researching some of the job listings for user interface design and user experience design positions lately, and I noticed that a lot of them require programming or web coding competencies, like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Perl, Python, AJAX, etc. So that got me thinking that I should focus more on the programs that include or at least incorporate the practice of those competencies. Both of the Indiana schools have told me that while I am able to take a few courses in those areas if I so desire, there is no focus on the teaching or practice of any particular language or even prototyping tool. I don’t know if that’s the standard for HCI programs or if the Indiana schools just take a different approach. From what I could gather, IUPUI is focused on usability engineering and interface design but moreso from the social sciences than the design or technical aspect, while Bloomington is focused moreso on the design aspect. Can anyone speak to this last distinction between the programs? I am starting to learn HTML on my own time, and I plan to learn other CSS, JavaScript, and other languages on my own… I am not getting a masters to learn those things of course, but I wonder if I should look for programs that at least incorporate those abilities somehow?</p>
<p>I think that I will base my decision on a number of factors, money being just one of them. Other factors include:</p>
<p>-potential for networking offered by the program/institution/city
-coursework - I am not entirely sure what coursework exactly I should be looking for, but I would like it to be coursework that will allow me effectively assist in the design of user interfaces and perform typical usability engineering tasks
-the name/reputation of the school, because this presumably makes a difference when it comes to looking for jobs</p>
<p>As for the monthly payment projections, I suppose that is a very clear way of looking at it. I imagine it goes something like this: 1) determine the amount of loan money that I would need to acquire in order to complete the program (including not only tuition but also living expenses), 2) determine the different possible payment plans that will likely await me when I need to pay off the debt, including the most likely plan, 3) determine the kind of salaries that I can expect to obtain with that particular degree, 4) determine how much of my income I would need to dedicate to paying back the loan and for how long, and 5) decide if the expected payment plan (taking into consideration expected salary) is something that I am willing to undertake.</p>
<p>Does that sound about right?</p>
<p>I ran into the same issues with my programs, they had a lack of emphasis on programming and current languages that are used in the workplace, and more on design and psychology. You can find user research, QA and human factors jobs at places like Intuit, Boeing, Sony, HP that don’t require a large amount of programming and are mostly design based. Worst case scenario you can learn the needed tools on the job, after all you have demonstrated that you are able to learn by obtaining a masters degree.</p>
<p>A third 23 year old is posting on this forum. Unlike you two, I do have undergraduate loans. Currently $38,000 is undergraduate loan debt to be exact. Like many of the older posters have said, you should definitely make a cost benefit analysis to plan out how much you expect to be paid. I am not certain you can guarantee a $60,000 salary after graduate school if you don’t have any work experience. As for programming languages, I am using a light combination of java and sequel in my current job. I learned visual basic, c, and some html when I was younger. I would like to go onto graduate study, however I am really only realistically looking schools within state. I plan to work for roughly 1.75 years before I go to graduate school.</p>
<p>LongPrime, I do think you are missing an “expenses” column, hence my question about age. If you can afford a few years without retirement savings and without family expenses, you can afford more debt.</p>
<p>Most of my friends and family are telling me that GeorgiaTech is worth the debt, with my dad making the same point about determining the expected monthly payments and total years of payment. But, to be fair, none of them has done as much research into user interface jobs and programs as I have, so their opinions are perhaps not as well-founded as my own or those of people on these and other forums. I am wary of creating a possibly false dichotomy between the ‘greatness’ of GATech and the ‘lowliness’ of the Indiana schools. I could easily accept that GATech is the best choice for me from a career perspective, but there is probably not as big a discrepancy in ‘greatness’ between GATech and the Indiana schools as I or others might think.</p>
<p>Axion, since you are apparently currently working in interface design or a related field, I wonder if you can speak to the process of learning particular languages or software and where you think that learning fits into the education process? Particularly, do you think I should even bother taking such courses as “Web Design” or “Introduction to Programming”? Considering the cost of going to school and the fact that I could probably learn basic programming and coding on my own time with good books and good online resources, am I best off learning those things on my own before and during my formal education? Also, should I be wary of an HCI program if it does not incorporate the teaching or practice of any particular prototyping software or programming/coding languages? I suppose this relates to my previous question. I guess, in my view, I should be using my time as a masters student in HCI to learn HCI methodologies and philosophies, hands-on usability engineering practices, teamwork in a web/software development context, etc… hands-on, conceptual, and methodological things, which are probably not as well or easily learned on my own.</p>
<p>As a side note, I don’t want to hijack this thread, so to speak, so I made a new, related thread about the 3 programs I have mentioned.</p>
<p>reply to #8.
If one has no debt or family responsibilities, taking on debt is OK. … depends. </p>
<p>there are always tradeoffs.
If you design the matrix into another dimension - time. The one with debt will lose. The one without debt will win and if the this guy self-taxes for the next generation of college students, he will win very big. </p>
<p>IMHO, the money is the greater value.</p>
<p>Zicogja- I wouldn’t say I am working directly in a position related to interface design. I can say that from personal experience learning a programming language would be very beneficial to you. Many of the different positions I have looked at look for various forms of languages although java seems to be fairly consistent across most jobs. Keep in mind that if a company wanted to hire a programmer then the would hire someone who has being doing it for a long time and knows how to write code. Taking two or three introductory courses in programming might give you a general “feel” of the language but in order to be good at something you will have to go and use it yourself. If you have good motivation then you can use such a skill to develop small projects by yourself in your spare time. </p>
<p>I think what I am trying to say(and have not written very well) is that a company is not going to hire you as a programmer with very limited experience. I would honestly ask yourself if you want to be a programmer as well; I wouldn’t try and learn a language solely because you saw a job position that said you needed to have proficiency in two or three languages. I have designed(novice to intermediate) websites using Dreamweaver/FrontPage/CMS/Wordpress and a lot of the content does not require the user to do scripting. If you want to develop a career with this then you need to know how to write code although do make sure that you will actually enjoy doing this. I can think of many people right now who are programmers and who work long hours writing code and it honestly does not look very appealing to me. I would honestly make this a major factor in what you decide to do for a living. Working in an office(cube) is much different than going to school…</p>
<p>“The one with debt will lose. The one without debt will win and if the this guy self-taxes for the next generation of college students, he will win very big.”</p>
<p>Yes, the money. If GaTech can ultimately provide a better education that will eventually lead to a better career with a higher salary, even though the first ten years will be spent paying off the loan, then it will be.</p>
<p>Let me put it this way. There is a reason I was willing to pay for a master’s degree in my field, though I could get <em>a</em> job with a bachelor’s. Economically, even if I took out loans for half of my living expenses as well as tuition, even with my kids and my age, I would still be able to pay off those loans with my increased salary, based on what I’m looking at online. In five years easily. There are more jobs for advanced degrees; the salaries are twice as high. So it would be worth it, though I hate debt.</p>
<p>As it happens I got funded, however, I was willing to pay.</p>
<p>So if it really may lead to better job opportunities, especially for example if there’s work in Georgia, and the debt is not overwhelming, then debt is not a bad idea.</p>
<p>But the debt MIGHT be overwhelming with lots of other expenses, in which case, it would not be worth it at this point.</p>