MASTER OF SCIENCE in Software engineering @ George Mason University or MASTER OF ENGINEERING in Software engineering @ University of Maryland?
Explaining why would be much appreciated thanks.
I am opting for the non-thesis if I decide to go to GMU and the reason I am getting this masters is because I am very interested in the subject but have a different engineering background. For me here are some pros and cons I can think of off the top of my head.
UMD Pros: -name overall is more recognized
-better student life(granted I’m a grad student it isn’t really a priority)
-I am trying to move out of my home state of Virginia
cons: -whole program about 8000$ more expensive
GMU pros: -resident of virginia
-about 8000$ cheaper
-personally have two friends who graduated from the CS department. One works for Northrup Grumman and the other for Google.
cons: need to take 13 classes compared to 10 @ UMD (the 3 extra classes are prerequisites)
Is GMU $8,000 cheaper overall, or $8,000 cheaper per year?
Even still, UMD is really well-known and well-reputed for their computer science/engineering related fields. Their computer science department is top 10, and ECE there is in the top 25 at least. GMU is a great school, but UMD has an excellent reputation in this area.
Can you visit? Can you talk to career services and see where other alumni have ended up?
It’s 8000$ cheaper OVERALL and yes I was leaning towards UMD until last night when I got three alerts of armed robberies on and around the UMD campus. My graduate level classes all end around 10 pm and safety is a priority for me. I’m really torn between these two schools. I’m going to visit both schools sometime next week. Talking to career services sounds like a great idea. @juillet
Any university in or near an urban area is going to get a lot of alerts that sound relatively alarming. I went to graduate school at Columbia in New York; we got public safety alerts about armed robberies, stabbings, and the occasional shooting in the immediate neighborhood relatively often. I never felt anything less than safe walking around Columbia’s neighborhood even really late at night (or early in the morning). I’m not saying ignore it completely, but I’m saying consider it along with other factors.
$8,000 cheaper overall isn’t really a huge difference in terms of graduate programs, so personally I would make your decision on the basis of other factors.
Actually, the 3 armed robberies on the UMD campus were the thefts of cell phones from students going around campus and playing “Pokémon Go”. A one man crime spree. In 2015, according to police records there was only one armed robbery for the entire year
@PeterW That’s good to hear. @juillet I will visit both campuses this week and talk with the advisors from the respective CS departments. And actually after redoing the math because of the 3 extra classes required from GMU, both tuitions end up being exactly the same.