Work as a RA during summer for funding of next 2 semesters VS Intern offer.

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi guys. I have quite a situation in a grad school - CS and i would like your feedback.</p>

<p>I am in my second semester as a CS graduate student and I am working as an RA under a professor. I have got a summer internship offer at California from a good company for 33 USD per hour - the project also seems to be very interesting. Also as the tech lead said, the conversion of this intern to full time is close to 100% unless i dont screw my internship very badly.</p>

<p>Now the hard part - my professor wants me to work under him during summer in the area which wont be my full time work for sure. If i do, i will get funding(full tuition waiver ) for 2 more semesters. I am confused which one to go for. Any inputs appreciated. </p>

2

<p>Do the math. If the RA contributes to your graduate degree, then the more you work the faster you finish. Faster graduation means you can find a job that will pay you for what you’re worth (likely more than your intern offer). </p>

3

<p>Thanks for the response. RA wont contribute to my degree credits. In any case i need two semesters(3 courses in next semester and one course in my last) to graduate. </p>

4

<p>Oh you are doing a non-thesis, but have an RA position? </p>

5

<p>This is hard. Will you only get the funding for your second year if you RA for this professor over the summer? Ask the professor if it is possible for you to be his RA during the academic year (and thus get the tuition waiver) while taking this internship over the summer. I mean, the point of doing a master’s in CS is to get a job…so a good internship that pays well is not something that should put your academic-year RA-ship in jeopardy.</p>

6

<p>@DoubleD
Yes i am a non-thesis student having an RA.
@juillet
Yes.I spoke to my professor reg. this. If i dont work during summer, some one else will be recruited to replace me :frowning: And if i work during summer under this prof., i am sure to get funding for 2 more semesters. </p>

7

<p>Then I would personally stay on during the summer position. Chances are good that you’ll find another full-time job doing something great come May - possibly even with the same company. However, there’s no guarantee you’ll find another way to fund your next year, and that could put you $40-60,000 in debt.</p>