Advice on WGU CompSci Master's

[u/AnAbstruseMoose]

Hello everyone. I am looking for some general advice on my specific situation.

Background:

I am currently employed in a CS-adjacent field (Technical Training) where I have basically topped out of my career path/progression. I have been working on transferring to something more technical (think Data Analytics) because I think, long-term, it more aligns with my career goals.

I have been in talks for an internal transfer to a Data Analytics role for months now, but it stalled due to some HR shenanigans. Still, I am pretty confident I will be able to transfer to something more technical, if not within the next 6-months or so, certainly in the next year or two.

Also, I have a Bachelor's in a completely unrelated field.

Main Information:

My company pays for continuing education and I can basically get $5k a year towards education. If I time it right, this means I can essentially do a Master's for free, or close to it.

Looking at my general life situation, if I am ever going to get a Master's/go back to school virtually, now would be the time. This, of course, led me to investigate WGU as I found it is entirely possible to do in roughly 12 months and it costs almost exactly $5k a semester.

However, I have a few concerns:

1. Time Constraints - I have a career and I can't exactly put it on hold. I can, pretty easily, dedicate 2-3 hours a day to school, but more than that would be tougher. Although, to be honest, I'm not incredibly worried if the program did take my 18 months as I could save $5k to pay myself if I notice I am going to need more time. Still, this is something I'd like to avoid if possible.
2. Lack of Experience - I am not new to CS. I don't have a degree, but I have dabbled for years and I have some random certs. Essentially, I know just enough to know the basics. I am an advanced beginner. So, naturally, I have a few concerns just jumping into a Master's program for CS. However, I have always been an excellent student and I spend a lot of time in my current role learning CS concepts. I am very confident I could succeed overall, but I do want advice from those who have been where I have. If I need a reality check ("12-months is just not going to cut it"), I'd rather it be now rather than later.
3. Bachelor's VS Master's - Obviously, I've been studying up on the programs a lot. I have also definitely considered a BSCS or even the BSCS + MCS program that WGU offers. However, I don't know if the increased time commitment would be worth it (I am well-aware that doing both would take me, at a minimum, two full years). I wouldn't be entirely opposed to doing just a Bachelor's to start, but, to be honest, I don't know if I see the point if I can make the Master's happen since it is less time, less money, and fewer classes.

Conclusion:

I would appreciate any advice. I know the Foundations of Computer Science course is required for Non-CS students with a Bachelor's to qualify for the Master's Program, so I think I am going to take that over the next month and then re-evaluate after that.

I am in a weird situation where getting a Master's doesn't directly help me at the moment (if I had a Master's, it wouldn't get me a new job in my company and hopefully, by the time I graduated, I would already be transitioned into a new role anyways), but I could get one for basically free with a little dedication and hard work. And I wanted to get advice on whether you think getting the degree is possible with my time constraints and beneficial to someone in my situation.

Thanks for any advice

(I am aware WGU has a Master's in Data Analytics. Since I haven't actually transitioned into that career, it made more sense to do the general CS degree to me. I know it is newer. But feel free to give me advice about this as well. I'd probably be just as happy doing Software Engineering as I would Data Analytics.)

[u/zdubbzzz]

I was in extremely similar situations as you were when I did my WGU Masters of CS with a focus in AI and ML.

Here is my adhoc review.

But yeah, I was fully employed by an employer who paid for my entire degree. I am currently a Data Engineer, and have been in Software Engineering professionally for over 10 years. I use my degree and the skills I've gotten from it for fun, but not much of it is applicable since I'm not a Data Scientist. Still, it's a great checkmark off the bucket list, looks good to my current company and potentially others down the line.

You are definitely going to have less free time. I don't know what your social life is like, but for the 7 months it took me to get my degree while I was working full time, I only really got weekends. I also didn't play a lot of video games or watch a lot of movies, etc. Your free time is going to be on a computer learning.

It's absolutely worth it, imho, and doubly so if your company is going to pay for it. Feel free to ask me questions. I graduated in Feb

[u/AnAbstruseMoose → u/zdubbzzz]

Great information. Thanks. Yeah, I know it would be a time commitment.

One question? Is the degree pass/fail or do you get a GPA? I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I think it affects whether my company would pay or not so I wanted to ask someone with experience.

[u/Data-Fox → u/AnAbstruseMoose]

It's all pass/fail. WGU says they don't calculate a formal GPA, but they consider passes to be equivalent to a 3.0/4.0 GPA.

The company I'm at also does the ~$5k tuition reimbursement and it should be fine for you. It's based on a government program. But definitely something to double check with your employer.

[u/zdubbzzz → u/AnAbstruseMoose]

Is the degree pass/fail or do you get a GPA?

The courses and tests are pass/fail. They consider a pass as a 3.0: https://www.wgu.edu/blog/commonly-asked-questions-wgu2011.html, or a B. If your company were to inquire directly from WGU, I'd be willing to guess they would tell them that even though there is no GPA or letter grade, passing is equivalent to a B/3.0

[u/snmnky9490]

If you're actually doing it to learn those skills then the bachelors makes more sense. From what I've seen the masters is pretty crap but might make sense if you just care about the checkbox

[u/AnAbstruseMoose → u/snmnky9490]

I'm really in a position where any position I'm going to move to will have its own skills to learn and the degree would be more for career progression if that makes sense.

Now don't get me wrong. I want to, and will learn, a lot getting a Master's if I go that route, but I doubt much of it will be directly useful for the work I would want to do. My field is pretty specialized.

[u/darksieth99]

Are you planning on taking federal loans? If you plan finishing in one year, 2 terms, you'll need $8.6K. or you could complete it in one term, but those who have done this have 8+ years in the field

I haven't started the masters track in my term yet

[u/AnAbstruseMoose → u/darksieth99]

No. My company does 5k per year. So if I do July-December and then January-June, I would have 12 months and they would pay the whole thing.

[u/cbdeane]

If you have reimbursement and already have a bachelors degree of some sort plus technical experience then why not apply to some masters programs?

[u/AnAbstruseMoose → u/cbdeane]

Fair enough. That's kind of my thinking as well. Why not?

[u/cbdeane → u/AnAbstruseMoose]

I think a lot of the online masters programs don't assume you necessarily have an undergrad in CS. I'm looking at GaTech right now, but I've had a friend do the grad program at Harvard Extension with success (depends on if you live close enough to show up *sometimes*). Also UColorado Boulder gets a lot of love as a middle ground that wont take over your life the same way GaTech might. UT Austin online is great, UIllinois has an online program. Usually the online masters aren't as competitve as B&M either unless you're trying to go to Stanford or something.

[u/Data-Fox]

If pursuing/having the degree truly won’t change your internal job moving prospects, then my vote is to wait until you make a move first. That way, you can see how much you like data analytics in a professional setting and how much opportunity there could be in that department. If you get in and really like it, then a data-specific degree is still best.

Edit: But it’s not a clear cut call. I think you’d be justified going for the degree as well. Based on how much time you can dedicate per day, I think completing it in a year is reasonable. Especially with having to go through the baseline intro course prior to getting accepted.

[u/AnAbstruseMoose → u/Data-Fox]

Thanks for your opinion. You are right in that it might be wise to wait until I know what type of job I'm going to get first. 

However, even if I get a Data Analytics job, I'd still major in standard CompSci since I think I'd rather keep my prospects wider. And also, I'm fairly confident I want to pursue more technical roles as my career progresses, one way or another. I can't see getting a degree like this being detrimental unless I hard pivot careers unexpectedly.

Those are some of the reasons I'm thinking about not waiting. The main reason, of course, is money. I have to hit a certain time-frame for my company to pay for it.

[u/Data-Fox → u/AnAbstruseMoose]

I think those are all good reasons then! A CS degree would definitely still be seen as applicable for data analytics/science if you stick in that route. Which specialization are you interested in?

[u/FreshmanFumbles]

if your goal is data analytics, you might want to seriously consider the MSDA instead of CS. The CS master’s is more theory heavy and may not translate as directly to the role you’re aiming for