[OT] graduate school

[Bart Whiteley]

On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 9:57 PM, Nathan <kemotaha at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am really going to have to disagree with the majority of people that
> assume that a Master's degree is worthless.  It isn't.  It might be
> harder right out of graduate school, if you didn't work during that
> time.  I have worked full-time while in graduate school, so I have an
> edge up on everyone else that graduated with me.  It is a tie breaker.
> If I am going for a job with someone else with similar experience, I am
> going to have a better chance because I have the more advanced degree.
>
> A Graduate degree says not only am I able to learn (bachelors degree)
> but I can research and write intelligently as well.  A thesis shows that
> you can write and communicate what you have done to others.  That is
> huge in the IT field.  How many tech people do you know that are
> absolutely brilliant but they can't communicate that to anyone outside
> the computer field.
>
> There are also companies that require a Masters degree for certain
> senior level positions.  These are still tech positions not just
> management.  Now there aren't many of these out there, but 10 years ago
> there weren't many tech jobs that required a Bachelors either.  It seems
> like the trend maybe heading there.  The good thing is that experience
> will probably be a substitute for many companies, but not all.
>
> One last note, the classes I took at the graduate level applied to
> industry 10x better than any of my undergrad classes.  I have used what
> I learned there more than my undergrad classes.  I am not saying my
> undergrad classes were worthless, but my graduate classes better
> prepared me for the industry.


I'm glad someone spoke up in favor of graduate school.   I second Nathan's
comments.  There are some cool jobs that require graduate degrees.  I went
on after my BS/CS and obtained a MS/CS.  I don't know that it will ever
translate into more $$, and I didn't do it with that expectation.  I'm still
glad that I did it.  However, I balanced academia and industry by working
full time as an engineer for half of my undergrad years, and all of my grad
student years.  I was also fortunate enough to only have to pay for one
semester of schooling out of pocket.