<p>Do you guys think a MS in CompSci a good investment?</p>
<p>For what purpose?</p>
<p>For most industry jobs, probably not in an economic sense in comparison to an extra year or two of industry experience after a bachelor’s degree in CS (of course there are some exceptions). Though if you are about to graduate into an industry downturn, riding out the downturn in graduate school (assuming fellowship / assistantship money is available) in order to graduate during the recovery may be a valid strategy to avoid graduating straight into the unemployment line (a high rate of graduate school entry among [2010</a> UC Berkeley civil engineering graduates](<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/CivilEngr.stm]2010”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/CivilEngr.stm) is probably due to use of this strategy).</p>
<p>But the unemployment percentage for computer science graduates is pretty low, isn’t it?</p>
<p>Currently yes – this recession was much milder for computer science than it was for (for example) civil engineering. But if the situation starts appearing like it was in 2002 or so as you near graduation, you may want to apply to graduate school just in case.</p>
<p>Of course, you may have other motivations to go to graduate school, like you want to study some area of CS in greater depth or whatever, or you intend to go into a line of work where a graduate degree is useful.</p>
<p>what lines of work would that be?</p>
<p>And if a MS is ever an overkill for me, would getting another BS or BS/MS in math help me?</p>
<p>Probably some research lab jobs like [this</a> one](<a href=“LBL Careers - Jobs”>LBL Careers - Jobs) where a master’s degree is preferred (though not required), or [this</a> one](<a href=“LBL Careers - Jobs”>LBL Careers - Jobs) which requires a master’s degree. However, most CS jobs listed there do not require a master’s degree, though a fair number of them prefer it over a bachelor’s degree.</p>
<p>Thanks. That’s a bit useful…</p>
<p>About 2 weeks ago, I posted about getting a M.S. in Computer Science would be another thread. Well, here is a thread and my answer is…unless you are planning on doing research…NOPE!</p>
<p>Why do I feel that way?</p>
<p>Any specialization in CS is no more than 3 or 4 courses. I would personally package those 3 or 4 courses into some M.S./M.Eng Systems Engineering or Engineering Management program so that you can use the other 6 courses on business/leadership courses to prepare you for higher engineering positions. No need taking 10-12 graduate CS courses only when your specialization is only 3-4 courses.</p>
<p>I would like to hear more opinions as well, though you may be correct. I have always thought that getting a masters degree was necessary.</p>
<p>Right now a MS in Computer Science is pretty much overkill. I would get a Master in Business Administration instead to go with your CS degree.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh, getting a M.S/M.Eng/MBA does help. I just don’t think a M.S.C.S. is needed. Some graduate CS programs require just graduate-level versions of the same courses you had as an undergrad. I don’t know how taking CS-500 Data Structures is going to help you much more on the job than the CS-300 Data Structures course you had as an undergrad.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for myself, but six of my friends got into masters/phd programs and I believe only two of them are actually planning on going that route. The others have decided to start working instead.</p>
<p>One other effect that getting a master’s degree at a different school can have on job prospects is that the different school can be an “upgrade” or “downgrade” in terms of how many and which employers come recruiting at the school’s career center.</p>
<p>For example, if you want to work in the computer industry in “Silicon Valley”, going from an obscure non-local school (bachelor’s) to San Jose State (master’s) would likely be an “upgrade” in seeing more employers in the career center. Going from San Jose State (bachelor’s) to an obscure non-local school (master’s) would likely be a “downgrade”.</p>
<p>If your goal is a job in industry, and you are a senior in a school with low visibility in the field and not local to desired employers, you may want to consider applying to master’s programs at schools that offer a recruiting upgrade. If you get in (with financial aid, if needed), and are unable to find a job right out of school, going to such a master’s program may be better than graduating unemployed and trying to do a long distance job search.</p>
<p>For most technology fields, ME, CS, EE, Bio, Sci, etc the leading edges of technology is in the private realm. Has been for at least 30+ years. University training will only get you into the basics. Phd programs will get you into your own leading edge league but which can be quickly become obsolete when a new techology is found. </p>
<p>Unless a grad degree is funded, it makes little economic and intellectual sense to pursue an advance degree. There however still good reasons to pursue a MS/phd, but money is not one of them.</p>
<p>I would really like to pursue further education to become more knowledgeable. I’ve always wanted to do that, and though I still do, I am now trying to look at my life and career in a smart way. The smarter decision would be to first obtain work and obtain anymore education necessary to make myself more desirable to employees and make more money. Now I am primarily only concerned with getting the minimum education needed to make as much money as I can to support my family, parents, and pay off loans (finish with $40k). I had the idea that getting a MS in CS would make me more marketable or automatically get me better pay. I wanted to do a MS and work at the same time.</p>
<p>So what good degrees are good to go w/CS? And what career would I be pursuing if I got another degree? For example, what would happen to me if I got a degree in CS and a MBA?</p>
<p>I thought it would be cool to get a degree in CS, Comp Eng, and Mechanical Eng. With that, it would be cool to be a software developer, and make computer devices on my spare time. But if I wanted to work and go to school, I would have to look at doing online programs in Comp Eng and ME.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Very good plan and totally understandable. First things first…you will not “automatically” get higher pay with a MSCS, you will also need the experience and acquire technical skills that are desirable. </p>
<p>LongPrime said it best. Your “skills” will come from the private realm, meaning from projects or training from specialized vendors…NOT colleges/universities.</p>
<p>Once you start leading projects where your time is split between being a grunt engineer and managing other engineers/projects, you will need to acquire the skills to lead projects. That is where the master degrees in engineering management or some professional “master of engineering” degrees come into play (or even an MBA). Those types of degrees will have courses in leadership, management, accounting, finance and quality management to go along with some hard-core CS courses of your liking and/or specialization.</p>
<p>I am in favor of getting a masters degree…just not a MSCS. The are still many employers who still tie promotions to higher engineering positions to graduate degrees. My point is get the best out of your graduate degree. Taking 10 to 12 all CS courses may not help you as much as taking 5 CS courses + 5 business-like courses. You can still get a pretty good specialization out of 5 graduate CS courses.</p>
<p>So you are saying, I should get a management deg. or MBA with some graduate CS courses?</p>
<p>One of the things I am going to do is to talk to my CS dept chair to figure out how best to be competitive. I still have 1.25 years left.</p>
<p>I was also thinking that going to a better school (IE: UCLA or UCI) for a MS in CS would make me more marketable, but I guess the notion here is that is the wrong idea? That is that I should probably be obtaining a masters in something other than CS…</p>
<p>Wait, wait wait…that was just MY opinion. Don’t forget the universal rule here on the CC board…</p>
<p>Everybody’s situation is different.</p>
<p>right…thanks. I better keep that in mind… </p>
<p>I just read that top MBA programs require 1-3 years of prior work experience. Though the lesser known schools have dropped that requirement, employers are discovering that these graduates are a disappointment because of their lack of experience… My guess is that a MBA should be obtained later, right?</p>