Hi guys,
So my sister graduated from Rutgers University in 2014 with Chemical Engineer degree. She wants to go back to school for a master degree because my sister has failed to land any jobs in the past 3 years since graduation. She never did any internship or join any clubs in college so her resume has like no experience. She thought it would be a good idea to go back to school, get a master degree and do some intern while she earns his master.
My question is, she got accepted to Stevens and USC for computer science, but chemical engineer program for NJIT.
My mom and her both sided with USC because they feel computer science is easy to get jobs these days, but I told her to go to NJIT because Stevens and USC will both cost her around $60,000 a year. She will be in almost $200,000 debts by the time she graduate because she also got $20,000 debt from undergraduate. I told her she not being able to get a job is not because the major’s fault (my mom and her both think chemical engineer are hard to find jobs). I told her it’s because of her lack of experience and bad at interview. Anyway, I told her she going to USC or Stevens will give her a lot of pressure because it costs so much and even if she does eventually get a job after she gets her master, she would be paying so much student loan that her life would be miserable. Going to NJIT on the other hand for two years only cost her $60,000 (include undergraduate debt) and still study chemical engineer (which is something that she like, compare to cs, she knows nothing about). She would have less pressure, way much less debt, and get a job.
What do you guys think?
Also if she does go to USC (which my mom and her wants to because it ranks really high in cs), will she be making good money after she gets her master? Is it worth it?
Sorry for the long post!
Thank you!
Does she know that she was not able to get a job due to not having a master’s degree (versus a bachelor’s degree)? If not, it would seem unwise to add a lot more debt to her existing debt if she does not know that a master’s degree would help.
Depending on what courses she took as an undergraduate, it may take her longer to do a master’s in CS. A lot of graduate engineering courses assume that you have an undergraduate level understanding of the material to begin with. If she was ChemE as an undergrad, USC and Stevens may require her to take undergraduate CS courses before she can take the graduate CS courses actually required for the degree which will prolong her Masters in CS degree.
It also depends on interests, I personally disliked my CS classes in college. So even if it could have been easier to get a CS job, I would have hated taking all of the CS classes for the degree and I would have hated my CS job. If she is interested in CS however, then go for it. I would just caution against doing a degree you hate just because you think it will have better job prospects.
Going to USC also doesn’t necessarily guarantee a job. It certainly helps to go to a highly ranked school in that she might get more interviews because more companies will come recruit from there, but it is ultimately up to her skills, grades, experience, and fit for a given position.
If I was in your sister’s position, I would do the master’s in ChemE at NJIT. It makes more fiscal sense and having a master’s degree will qualify her for more higher paying positions within the field
I think you’re right, OP. Software developers make good money, but not enough to comfortably repay $200K (they can do it in theory, but it will take a lot of living far, far below their means). CS is theoretically “easy” to get jobs in but only if you know what you’re doing. And also, she’s not even sure she likes CS because she knows nothing about it. What if she incurs $200K of debt and it turns out she hates it?
I agree that running back to graduate school isn’t necessarily the right solution to find a job. If she’s been unable to land one, it seems that the first step would be to try to find an internship or some kind of lateral, junior-level position that will help her take a step up. She needs experience.
But if she does decide to get an MS, then I agree that the chemE degree at NJIT out of her three options sounds like the best. She also has the option of waiting and reapplying to start next year (Fall 2018) to see if she gets into better schools, if she wants.
Thank you all for taking your time to respond. I have shown my sister all of your answers and she is still deciding atm.