Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

This is one corner of the educational system I never dug into. I know it's possible, so, I would ask someone who has done it, how exactly does one progress from "no background in engineering" to "a Master's degree in CS"?

Having done a Master's degree in CS, but with a Bachelor's in CS before it, the classes I took for my Master's degree would have been mostly impenetrable to someone without a bachelor's degree already.

So how exactly does that work?



It takes some doing. In my case (in the USA):

* Years of part time math classes. Math classes are sequential, I hadn't taken any college level math as an undergrad. I was working at a university, so I had the luxury of basically free credits, and lunch breaks where I was already on campus.

* A unicorn, no-longer-in-existence post baccalaureate program that covered the highlights of undergrad CS topics in 9 months. It was full time, and the entry bar was pretty low, but I had to take the GRE. Completion granted automatic entry to the MSCS program.

* Postbac is always an option, without a special program you'd just take undergraduate programs until you either earn the entry requirements for the MSCS program, or an actual second bachelor's degree. This can take years, because of course scheduling and sequential classes.

* I went to a state school -- sadly, many of the MSCS classes were 400/500 level, meaning there were some nominal additional assignments for the grad students, but you were otherwise basically just taking advanced undergraduate classes for special topics.

* All told, I spent a few years taking math classes one at a time, three terms full time post bac, and two terms in MSCS before landing a job. I don't see an advantage to finishing the MSCS at that school.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: