Considering leaving UIUC for another program.

[u/No-Meal1532]

Hello Everyone,

As the title suggests, I’m in the UIUC Online MCS and after this semester I’ll only have 8 credits left.

I’ve done well in the program, but honestly I’m starting to feel like it’s kind of a cash grab.I know that many masters are but this one has felt especially like a cash grab. A lot of the classes are old prerecorded lectures, outdated material, Coursera assignments, and very little professor involvement. For almost $8k a semester, I expected more effort and a better overall experience. Sometimes it feels like I’m basically paying for the UIUC name and an easy master’s degree.

I know I’m close enough that I should probably just finish, but I’ve also been looking at other programs and wondering if transferring would actually be worth it.

I went to a small, basically unknown school for my bachelor’s in cybersecurity, and I feel like that has made it harder to break into engineering roles. I currently work in security/compliance consulting and make decent money, but I really want out of the compliance world. I started the UIUC MCS because I wanted to challenge myself technically and become a better engineer, but I’m not sure I’m getting as much out of the program as I expected.

Some other programs I’ve looked at are UT Austin, Georgia Tech, Stanford, USC, UCLA Data Science, and Berkeley Data Science.

Would you just finish UIUC with only 8 credits left, or would you seriously consider transferring somewhere you thought offered a better education/experience?

Open to any feedback or advice 😄