<p>I do know that most masters program don't provide funding, which means one will have to finance it for the most part.</p>
<p>I would like to ask if masters in CS will provide a lot better opportunity in the industry (I have no intention to stay in the academia... only interested in working in the industry, hence, not really looking into PhD)</p>
<p>Or is it a lot better to just go straight into industry, and get some valuable work experience?</p>
<p>Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>Also, is it true that it is hard to get promoted if an individual only holds BS compared to others holding advanced degrees?</p>
<p>My husband works in the computer field, has a bsee in computer engineering from tulane, back when they had an engineering school. his bosses both have masters and are at least 20 years younger than him. they make six figures, and he’s still not there after 30 years experience.</p>
<p>we are strongly encouraging son to get a masters. definitely looking into a bs/ms program. </p>
<p>i can tell you from experience, it is so hard, after being in a grueling program, to go back to school once you’re out to get that masters.</p>
<p>if you can do it in a year or two, do it now while you’re young and haven’t had the taste of coming home from work and not having to do homework.</p>
<p>^^ Wow, I didn’t know having a masters made that much of a difference.</p>
<p>Me neither. I do know couple of people at my current university who get paid around 100k right out of undergrad though…</p>
<p>“Sometimes” is an operative word. Currently we are in a recession, a severe recession, and a advanced degree may get you a no more than a bachelor’s pay, a bachelor’s may only get you an interview.</p>
<p>I can speak on this a little since I went back to get a Masters. It won’t land you a job. It WILL land you an interview. While I hate this sort of language, a “Masters is the new Bachelors.” If you are starting out today, versus 30 years ago, you need a Master to differentiate yourself. Everyone has a bachelors nowadays. It’s been that way for a good while now too. I can tell you that personally, that my Masters provided me with so many more opportunities than my Bachelors had. Best of luck.</p>
<p>The right connections are better than any degree in the world. A MS will probably open up a few more doors initially as well as a slightly higher starting pay.</p>
<p>We’ve beat this to death in other threads, but I think there’s now a general consensus:</p>
<p>An MS and a BS in the same field generally provide no advantage. So an MSEE + BSEE will start at about the same salary as a BSEE + 2 years of experience.</p>
<p>However, there are important exceptions. First, an MS in a different field can be very beneficial (e.g. a BSChE + MBA, or BSME + MSEE). Second, an MS in a specialization can be very beneficial (e.g. a BSCE + MSCE with a specialization in structural design). Third, an MS can be beneficial if you find a job that focuses on a research topic (e.g. a BSChE + MSChE can be beneficial if your MS thesis was on biochemical reactors, and you’re hired by a company to do biochemical reactor design). Fourth, an MS can be beneficial if it comes from a substantially better school than the BS (e.g. a BS from Texas A&M and an MS from MIT). </p>
<p>But job hunting with an MSEE will not be much different than job hunting with a BSEE. Companies will probably give you some “credit” for your 2 years of additional study, but usually it’s equivalent or less than 2 years of experience.</p>
<p>On the other hand, someone with a BSEE that earns an MSEE online or at night while working sends some positive signals to his employer that’s independent of the degree.</p>
<p>it depends on the situation. Some people get a master while working and their company’s paying for it. Sometimes, you have to wonder if the extra 2 years of negative income (paying for the master degree) or working hard for 2 years and get promoted to the same level as someone who just got a master.</p>
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My husband works in the computer field, has a bsee in computer engineering from tulane, back when they had an engineering school. his bosses both have masters and are at least 20 years younger than him. they make six figures, and he’s still not there after 30 years experience.
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<p>My guess is that there is more to obtaining a managerial position than having an advanced degree. Not everyone is cut for that type of job you know.</p>
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<p>Well, I think that’s quite the exaggeration. According to the US Census, only 27% of all Americans aged 25+ have a bachelor’s degree. </p>
<p>Computer Science, the OP’s focus, is a field that is particularly rife with those of relatively less formal education. Many developers never graduated from college, some didn’t even graduate from high school. One reason is that entrepreneurial options abound to bypass employers completely and serve the market directly - anybody can build their own Web 2.0 website or Iphone app, regardless of what degrees they may lack. All customers care about is whether your website or app works - they don’t care about the credentials of the developer. </p>
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<p>Actually, right there defines one of the most important exceptions. If you can get a MS in less than 2 years, then it may be advantageous.</p>
<p>For example, the MIT EECS MEng program - which is a follow-on to the undergrad program - generally takes only 1 extra year, sometimes 1/2. That’s a substantial return on investment.</p>
<p>Sakky, that’s a good point about the number of people with a bachelors. The problem is that the number of those from 25 to 35 years old with a bachelors is significantly higher. Older generations didn’t always need to go to college to be successful and they skew the 27% way down. Now, it’s almost a prerequisite to any career. That’s why I stated if they were starting out today it’s a great thing to have a Bachelors AND a Masters. To differentiate yourself among people your own age who are all going to have simply a Bachelors you need some edge. </p>
<p>I work in Finance and got my Masters not long after my Bachelors so my experience is going to be different than those in other fields and with a ton of work experience.</p>
<p>Benotode, in most other engineering fields, I would agree with you. </p>
<p>But like I said, computer science seems to be the one glaring exception. I continue to see developers who never graduated from college at all, or in some cases, never even graduated from high school, but have built strong and topical skillsets and hence do just very well on the market. Let’s face it, if you deeply know EJB/JSP/JDBC/JMS/Servlets along perhaps with an alternate framework such as Struts or Groovy, you will get a very nice job regardless of whether you have a degree or not. After all, most bachelor’s degree CS grads - heck, even most master’s degree grads - do not have such a skillset, yet that’s what employers want.</p>
<p>I completely agree about often not needing a formal education for computer science. It’s the same reason people like Mr. Gates left Harvard. It seems to be the one field where innovation is still done the way is was 150 years ago, in someone’s garage.</p>
<p>Remember, Bill Gates could afford to drop out of Harvard. His family was wealthy.</p>
<p>Larry Ellison didn’t grow up rich. He was, at best, middle class. He dropped out of both UIUC and UChicago. During the tech boom, his personal wealth actually (briefly) exceeded Gates’s. Today he’s still the 4th richest man in the world.</p>
<p>Essayist, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist Paul Graham wrote the following about Gates: </p>
<p>*… I can’t imagine telling Bill Gates at 19 that he should wait till he graduated to start a company. He’d have told me to get lost. And could I have honestly claimed that he was harming his future-- that he was learning less by working at ground zero of the microcomputer revolution than he would have if he’d been taking classes back at Harvard? No, probably not.</p>
<p>And yes, while it is probably true that you’ll learn some valuable things by going to work for an existing company for a couple years before starting your own, you’d learn a thing or two running your own company during that time too.</p>
<p>The advice about going to work for someone else would get an even colder reception from the 19 year old Bill Gates. So I’m supposed to finish college, then go work for another company for two years, and then I can start my own? I have to wait till I’m 23? That’s four years. That’s more than twenty percent of my life so far. Plus in four years it will be way too late to make money writing a Basic interpreter for the Altair.</p>
<p>And he’d be right. The Apple II was launched just two years later. In fact, if Bill had finished college and gone to work for another company as we’re suggesting, he might well have gone to work for Apple. And while that would probably have been better for all of us, it wouldn’t have been better for him.*</p>
<p>[Hiring</a> is Obsolete](<a href=“http://www.paulgraham.com/hiring.html]Hiring”>Hiring is Obsolete)</p>
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<p>I’m not sure that a connection exists. We’re not talking about starting a manufacturing plant or an oil refinery. You don’t really need a lot of money to start a computer firm. Jobs and Woz started Apple by selling Woz’s scientific calculator and Jobs’s old van. Dell and Facebook were founded in college dorm rooms. Yahoo was started by 2 grad students who, bored with their research, built a website on a server in an extra campus trailer. </p>
<p>Nor is the personal risk particularly high. If Microsoft had failed, oh well, Bill Gates would have just re-enrolled at Harvard. Sure, his graduation would have been delayed. But as Graham explained above, he would have probably learned more about the software industry then he would have by just staying in school, and hence would be a far more desirable job candidate (or a better entrepreneur the second time around).</p>
<p>He would have just re-enrolled at Harvard…one reason why he could afford to drop out in the first place.</p>
<p>I’m not discrediting his technological genius nor his business savvy. It, as you mentioned, allowed for a lower risk.</p>
<p>Sakky, although a Master’s degree doesn’t guarantee anyone an advantage, it has been proven to be helpful in the realms of innovations and Silicon Valley start-ups. If it wasn’t for Phd’s and Master’s, we wouldn’t have Ethernet, Google, and Yahoo. As far as a pay increase, no, a Master’s doesn’t hold much of an advantage, but if you want to part take in the Greentech Revolution, a Master’s would be essential.</p>
<p>If you look at the majority of the Silicon companies founders’ profiles, you would see that a handful of them hold a Master’s of some sort.</p>