Well I’m getting excited. My prepping is nearing the end, and my finances are looking good. I should be ready to return to school next school year (September). I have two options that are enticing. I would appreciate any thoughts.
Option 1: Next year return to school to earn a Bachelor’s in Computer Science. I will be able to earn this degree in TWO YEARS, due to my correspondence coursework this year. This is a beautiful thing. One of the prof’s is even willing to advocate moving me into a Masters program after one year if my grades are good (this is because I already have a degree in Education). Right now this seems like the most appealing option to me. It opens doors for me to work in the Computer Science Industry, or to take the skills back into my current career of education. With a strong math, computer, and music background, I hope my prospects to finally land a good gig in a city will come true. The Masters would bump my payscale too if it happened.
Option 2: Go the long road into a Computer Engineering Degree. This would be a four year program. I could probably swallow it, but it feels like a long commitment. I think I would find it fascinating. The issue with me for a four year degree is that I am 30, and right now I live with my folks. I like living here for the moment, but I do want to be independent again. A Comp Eng degree seems way better to have for work in the industry, and has more possibilities for moving into biomedical masters (which my Uni offers).
I am leaning toward option 1, if only because it’s quick, something I would like to learn, and really would augment my education degree. What do you think?
The real question is what do you want to do? When I got my CS degrees computer engineering degrees didn’t exist, though I’ve mostly worked in hardware related areas ever since.There seem to be plenty of jobs in both these days (at least in Silicon Valley.)
So you should research the kinds of jobs people in each specialty get, and decide which are most appealing to you.
At 30, there’s a huge payoff attached to finishing degrees quickly. If you have a choice of getting a bachelor’s in four years, or a bachelor’s and a master’s in a very similar field, that doesn’t seem all that difficult to me. And it’s not like you can’t study hardware in a pure CS program…
It depends on your university, but there may well be some classes - particularly at the introductory level - that can be applied to either program. Some programs actually require CS students to get at least a little background in engineering, and vice versa. Perhaps you can get a feel for both programs, and find out what you like and what you’re good at, before you have to commit to a decision.
I faced a similar decision, and went the CS route, for many of the same reasons you cite: I could earn the degree faster, I felt it would provide more flexibility in job opportunities, and it was a better complement to (rather than a departure from) my previous education and work experience. But I was also a few years older than you are, and eager to start a family once I got my degree, so YMMV. I think that either way, you’ll be very employable when you’re done, so you can’t really make a “wrong” decision.
As far as earnings are concerned, biomedical engineering currently (and foreseeably) has ridiculously good job prospects. Fresh out of school, even. So the second track would be worthwhile. If you go the first route, you’re going to be in school for 4 years anyway to get a master’s. And 2 years of grad school will be WAY harder than your junior and senior years.
What needs to be weighed is the earning/job prospects of a biomedical bachelor’s vs. a master’s in comp sci (assuming both jobs would make you equally happy). More degrees does not necessarily mean more money. With the CS degree you might get shoehorned into programming for the rest of your life, whereas (IMHO of course) the engineering degree would make you more marketable and flexible.
Go the first route, then look for a job with a Fortune 50 or 100 company that will pay for your masters program. Some even allow for compensating time off for class time. You will likely have to stay at the company for 2 years after your masters*, but you might be able to go to a better school (read: more $) than if you were paying for it yourself.
Education benefits are part of the comp package at many large companies, especially banks, energy and tech.
Most education reimbursement programs say that you have to remain with the company for a period equal to the calendar time that they were paying for you education, or you will have to return the funds to them.
From where I sat in college, CE always seemed like the bastard child of CS and EE, as in, if you wanted to do software, you were better off with a CS degree, and if you wanted to do hardware, you were better off with an EE degree and a digital design concentration.
Plus, CE just seemed like the past of most resistance- all the CS upper-level courses, along with all the crap engineering pre-requisites that us CS grads didn’t necessarily have to take.
In real-world, post-college terms, it all depends on what you want to do. If you really want to get into hardware design or other really low-level stuff like microcode or device driver writing, then a CE degree wouldn’t be a bad idea. However, if you want to get into software development/engineering, a CS degree may be the way to go.
