Hi everyone,

I just finished reading go_Blue's inspiring thread on obtaining a masters in computer science and I wanted to ask about programs similar to the one at Depaul.

Just to give some quick background about myself: I graduated from Amherst College in 2008 with a 3.5 GPA in Philosophy, I worked as a trader for 3 years before getting really bored and frustrated at my firm's practices and management, I worked at a startup for 6 months, and I am currently planning on going to either Makersquare or Turing schools for Ruby/Rails programming.

However, I am also considering going back to school for computer science. I have no background whatsoever in comp sci and it has been years since I've taken calculus or statistics. What options are there for me? Should I go? If I choose to go, what programs can I get into? I will need to take the GRE and I also wonder what prereqs are needed. Does anyone know of any good post-bac programs that aren't overly expensive?

-Joowish62

Some schools let you pass on the GRE if your GPA was high enough.

I only know this because a school I was looking at doing the same thing said I wouldn't have to take it for entry into a masters program.

Where did you wind up going? What was the school? Or would you rather not say...

Yes, I would rather not say. I didn't end up there yet because I had some prerequisites to knock out before I could get in (no CS experience to speak of), so I'm doing that now. Though I may say screw a masters and just do a lower lvl degree + experience

Here's my observation from what I have research. Your options may differ based on what is available near you.

I think everyone would agree with the statement that your chances of landing a "good" job after graduation is dependent on doing an internship. Which leads me to my second observation..

The availability of internships depends on the ranking of the school. In addition, most local companies post jobs to the school in their area. If you are in Alaska and you attend Depaul's University online, your options for internships are limited. If you do online, make sure it's local since the connections are what pays off.

The value of your connections is dependent on ranking of the schools and any of those top schools will most likely have stringent requirements on the educational background that you have. Which means, you will either need a physics, math or engineering background to be able to be considered.

There is also the option of taking preqreqs to qualify you into an admission into a masters program, but I have found that the amount of time and money it takes to do that, you might as well go and do a second bachelors if it is available to you.

For me at least, I need more credits to get a bachelors than a masters. Not by many, but it would still seem absurd to nearly double my workload just to get a bachelors and a masters.

ymmv based on local schools and your degree of course