I am in 11th grade and working to narrow down my college list. One of the factors that I am considering is whether a school has a combined 5 year BS/MS program in computer science (or a similar MS like software engineering). Is this something that employers like Facebook, Google or, Microsoft look for? Or is it better to leave school sooner and begin work with a BS? One thing I should add is that I am also considering getting an MBA which would require work experience before going to graduate school. Which would be the best option? Thanks in advance for your input.
This is from 2011, so a little dated:
http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-866339f7962bb398a3c523cec055cfbd?convert_to_webp=true
Your focus should be on schools with a well-respected computer science program. This will go a long way when looking for internships and jobs. Having an MS can be helpful, but it really isn’t important in CS. Companies like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are just looking for smart engineers, and they tend to look at smart schools. The title of your degree is less important.
I wouldn’t disqualify great schools from your list just because they don’t have a 5 year BS/MS program.
If you are definitely interested in getting a master’s degree, like Pancaked said I wouldn’t limit yourself to the 5-year BS/MS programs. At my college you could submatriculate into a master’s program. You can declare a major and then, as you progress, you can start taking graduate level courses (500-level). During your junior or senior year you can apply to the master’s program, where there is a lower bar to entry since you will likely have already proven that you can handle the work, and once you are admitted, you can double-count some of your upper level undergraduate work. This process allowed a lot of my classmates to graduate with a MS or MA in 4-4.5 years (5 years if you don’t want to go too crazy with work).
I’m sure that there are a good number of schools that allow this kind of process, so I would look into it.
If you are just looking for a good job out of college, then I wouldn’t worry about getting a master’s degree - really you should only do that if you are passionate about the field and want to get that higher level of education. It probably won’t get you much higher of a salary or boost your job prospects by a large margin (in some cases, master’s degrees can even hinder applicants since companies feel the applicants have higher salary requirements but lower experience levels, which is not a good combination).