The point is…this person might not NEED a masters degree now. He or she could get a job…and maybe their company could help subsidize grad school.
Also…$150,000 a year? That sounds like a private school cost. Surely there are public universities that offer CS masters programs at instate costs.
And as others have pointed out…there are other ways to gain expertise in this field without a masters right now.
@CourtneyThurston I was looking at CMU because their basic MSCS is designed for non-CS undergrads, so I wouldn’t be taking years to complete prerequisites. I’m turning away from Stanford though, I don’t know if even that school’s prestige would justify that much in loans. I will be blanketing Cal States and UCs, but a lot of those programs say they want years’ worth of prerequisites.
@MassDaD68 I know that professional grad school can easily get that expensive. I’m hoping to go in more of a research direction with this degree because it may be cheaper and I like research.
@blossom I’ll look into coding academies. I thought that the government was trying to bring jobs back to the US? Are they doing something that will push more jobs overseas?
@mommdc I graduated in 2016, and have no student loans. I will start looking for a fulltime job soon.
@twoinanddone That’s a great idea, I’m not very athletic though.
@thumper1 I may have to wait until next spring to get a job, but I want to start the master’s by fall 2018. $150,000 is a maximum for the entire degree, not per year. I’m applying to as many Cal States and UCs as I can afford, but I don’t know if I have good admission chances at any of them because I don’t have a degree in Comp sci.
Cutting back on the H1B visa program, making it harder for students from certain countries to get student visas, a perceived hostility to certain ethnic groups will make the prestige-type employers of CS talent eager to find ways to hire they folks they need in a less volatile climate.
So I’m a big employer of CS talent. I can expand the number of lawyers on my immigration team in the hopes of reaching my target number of hires every year. And keep my fingers crossed, and hire a few more lobbyists in my DC office.
Or I can expand my company’s operation overseas which is ALREADY hiring top notch CS talent and not have to answer to Homeland Security. Oh by the way- those programmers make less than my programmers make in the US. That’s a bonus. Oh by the way- my team in Mumbai includes PhD’s for the price of hiring a BS in California.
What do YOU think will happen with all the shouting about making America great again, keeping immigrants out, etc.? Do you really think that private industry is going to stop hiring folks who were not born in this country just because DHS is going to make it harder to get a Green Card?
A few CSUs allow second bachelor’s degree students.
http://students.ivc.edu/transfercenter/Pages/bachelor.aspx
@blossom I hardly know what to think about this new administration. My guess is that if the fed gov cares so much about protecting American jobs that they would heavily tax private corps from expanding foreign hiring or something.
The xenofobia makes me think that we will be seeing a lot more Made in America clothing, but it’ll be lower quality because no one will want to pay the higher prices of domestically made goods.
@ucbalumnus Thank you. None of those are close to me, so I would have to get funding for housing too. I’ll look into those.
If there are any nearby CSUs or UCs that have space in their CS courses and allow non-matriculated students to take courses on a space-available basis, that can be an option for taking upper division CS courses after taking lower division CS courses at community colleges. You will not earn a degree, but taking the CS courses can help you improve your skills.
I’m taking data structures right now, actually! Def trying to get as many prereqs in now as possible.