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Ask HN: go for master's or certificate in CS?

5 points by horsehead ↗ HN
Hiya Hacker News. So I have a bachelor's in English, but I graduated with a 2.91 GPA. I contacted the university I'd like to go to (which would allow me to live with my parents rent free for the program), but they said a certificate program (about 30 credit hours worth of schooling) would be a better way to get into a master's program if I wanted to go that way after the CS certificate.

So I'm curious, should I try applying to a few other schools to see if I can get in with a strong enough application packet to make up for a low GPA, or should I go for the certificate program because English is just so much of a different course than CS?

Another note, i don't like student loans, and only have ~$900 in loans now. I'd have to take out loans to do all of the schooling from henceforth. Worth the debt?

Thanks for any advice, you wonderful hackers!

3 comments

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[dead] abiekatz
I think it is important to spend more time learning to program and see if it is a skill that you enjoy and excel at before committing to getting a master's degree. Taking courses for a certificate could be a good way to test programming out, as well as learning on your own.

To be honest, you are going to have a hard time getting into a highly ranked CS master's program with the GPA that you had in college. Also, most CS master's programs require some level of CS knowledge before enrolling. Therefore doing either a certificate program and/or learning on your own would be very helpful before enrolling.

After 6 months or a year of progress, then consider enrolling in a master's program if if still feels like the right thing to do. One thing that is nice about programming jobs is that it is more about what you can do than the degree you have. There are a ton of great resources online that can help you learn if you have enough dedication to stick with it.

Best of luck.

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codeonfire
I would do a second bachelors in CS. It should be maybe 40-48 credits. If you decide not to go on to grad school, a certificate is not as valuable as the second bachelors. A certificate may get you into the same school, but after a year you may want to apply for other masters programs. No one is going to give much credit to a certificate except the people who issued it. Plus maybe you could apply for a five year masters program and double count those last few credits.

Its not the low GPA that is going to hurt you, it is the complete difference between STEM and non-STEM degree programs. Do you understand advanced math? Are you at least an intermediate level programmer? You actually need these skills to be able to complete graduate courses in CS.

It's only worth the debt if you are committed to turning your degree into a profitable career. That means you would need to work towards an engineering position while doing this. You need to leave with a strong portfolio and expert level coding skills and software knowledge, not just student projects.