<p>I'm 20 years old and a sophomore in college pursuing a bachelor's in computer science. I'm planning for the future and I cannot decide whether I should continue my education and pursue a master's (preferably a MS in CS or MBA) or just start working after I graduate. I've heard about being overeducated/overqualified but I've also heard about bachelor's degrees being too common today. Only about 30% of Americans have bachelor's degrees today and the job market is still tough for many people. Apparently educators want to push that up to 60% by the next decade. I have a feeling that staying with just a bachelor's degree in the future will make finding a professional job more difficult. But a master's degree would cost me time and money. I don't know what to do right now to better prepare myself for the future. At the end of the day I just want a decent salary and job security.</p>
<p>If you want an MBA, definitely get some work experience first. This is a plus for MBA admissions. As for a M.S. in Computer Science, it is still a good idea to get some work experience and go for the masters once you have a better idea of what will help your career.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that the job market and the economy is not tough right now - it is.</p>
<p>But the hullabaloo about bachelor’s degrees being too common is a little overblown, at least for now. The unemployment rate for BA holders is quite low - for recent grads ages 21-24 the rate is 8.5% (which seems high until you compare it to the rate for high school grads in the same period, which is 22.9%) and, for college grads over the age of 25, the unemployment rate is just 3.3%. That means that even right out of college the vast majority of college grads are working. And they’re not all working at Starbucks; only 16.8% of college grads 21-24 are “underemployed,” which is defined as working in a job for which a bachelor’s degree is not required.</p>
<p>The rates for computer science majors is about the same - 8.7% for new grads, and 4.8% for experienced grads. Basically chances are if you want a full-time job after college, you’ll get one.</p>
<p>Like @xraymancs I encourage you to get some work experience after college. First of all, most MBA programs are going to all but require it - at the most competitive MBA programs (the ones that lead to six-figure salaries) virtually all students have some work experience after college. Even a lot of professional CS programs will prefer it. Secondly, the kinds of jobs that MA-level workers get prefer that you have some work experience. Nobody wants to hire a manager who has never actually worked before, and few people want an MS-level computer scientist who hasn’t actually done any CS work for a firm.</p>
<p>Thirdly, a couple of years in the workforce will help you hone your interests and figure out your strengths and desires, which include what you actually want to do. After working for 3 years you may decide that you really want to manage a health care tech company, so you go get an MBA at a place that has strengths in health care. Or you may decide that you want to be a bioinformaticist for academic medical centers, so you get the MS in bioinformatics. Working gives you the space to figure out what you like and don’t like before you spend the time and enormous amounts of money earning a graduate degree that you may later figure out you don’t need. </p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Sources:</p>
<p><a href=“The Class of 2014: The Weak Economy Is Idling Too Many Young Graduates | Economic Policy Institute”>http://www.epi.org/publication/class-of-2014/</a>
<a href=“Box”>https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/9t0p5tm0qhejyy8t8hub</a></p>