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Ask HN: Do I do my masters in CS if it means staying an extra semester?

3 points by dudeget ↗ HN
I can finish a "masters" (no thesis) in 2.5 years (as opposed to the 2 years I have left). I would only do it if the master would earn me more money quickly enough to justify the cost of another semester of tuition (~28k).

Thoughts?

2 comments

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CyberFonic
As I see it, if you have a 'hot topic' for your thesis and a suitably switched on thesis advisor then you are more likely to land a more lucrative job.

But there are a couple of considerations:

Do you have a specific area for your thesis topic and research? One which you are : (1) very interested in; and (2) you have identified several potential employers as requiring that skill.

If you don't have any solid answers to this question, then perhaps you need to get in touch with potential employers.

Your thesis advisor needs to be somebody who is well acquainted with what is in demand in industry. Most advisors are career academics and are more likely to pump for topics which are "lucrative" in academia but almost certainly not relevant to industry.

If you can drum up enough interest with a potential employer, then perhaps they will intern you to do the research for them and possibly pay some of the tuition costs. I did this twice, once for a honours thesis and then for a masters thesis. Mind you I did both on a part-time basis and was already employed.

informatimago
In the short term it might not seem too interesting; but if you plan to go on in this career for a long time (perhaps you won't have, if AI singularity occurs before you retire, or if you plan to recycle into another career at some point), then I would advise you to go as far as you can studying. After 20 or 25 years, it helps to have studied a couple of years more. There's a tendency for the study time to depreciate in time, new students being taught faster what you learned in time.