Boston University MET Master of Science in Software Development

[dfrecore]

Hey MrBossmanJr,

Don't get too much caught up in armstrongsubero rhetoric, he doesn't really know what he is talking about and likes to diminish a whole profession from his little personal view lens of doing websites in his basement and shout CS all the way to his kitchen.

I would also say that I think armstrongsubero doesn't live in the US, so he's probably not a great judge of our job market and what degrees are the most important here.  It would be like me commenting on the job market in France, when I've never lived there, never worked there, and don't have any expertise in that particular area.  I may know something about business degrees in general, but I certainly can't say that I know about which one might be most useful in another country.

[armstrongsubero]

@posabsolute I'm not diminishing any field. It is what it is. Web and Mobile Software development is just not that complex compared to other fields and doesn't need a degree to be done. Have you even spoken to an analog engineer? or an ASIC engineer? I have and trust me web software development is like child's play in relation t those jobs.

@dfrecore, that may be true I don't live in the US.

but this nice little thing called the internet let's me collaborate with engineers in US, UK, Canada, China, Philippines and Japan and recently Germany and happen to chat about education and jobs all the time. I Skype with my friends living in these countries and I am actually an expert in my Area, thank you very much. I choose to connect with people and do research with my time, so I know a lot more than you think I do. When I spent about a year writing my book working for Apress Media LLC (oh that's a US company isn't it?), I talked to my technical reviewer constantly about engineering jobs and working there.

It's like saying because I never lived in the US I can't earn a degree in the US and can't make any comments about the US educational system and have no knowledge of it.

You are saying essentially that because I don't live in the US I don't know that a regionally accredited degree has more utility than a nationally accredited one?

When in fact due to talking to persons one this forum, I have more knowledge about the US higher educational system than most Americans and even some admissions staff at US colleges.

It's absurd to make such a statement. It's true I many not live in the US, but I know a lot of people who do, a lot of them my friends that have done everything from walking dogs and baby sitting to working at Microsoft and Baker Hughes.

There's Skype, Whatsapp and Facebook to discuss anything with anyone you know. I have even talked to some people hiring in the companies I wanted to work at, at a point in time to get an idea of what it would take to live and work in the US. We live in a globalized society.

Close to 100k (near 7% of the population) of persons from my country live and work in the US alone, so I'm not as isolated as you think I am. I also was considering moving to the US before my life plans changed and did a lot of research and calling around and even managed to land a remote position once aside from working for Apress.

And jobs like Software Development, Writing and Call Center positions are not like business and law. There is a reason people from India, China etc can find jobs at tech companies within the US, if you can develop software guess what, you can do it anywhere in the world, Java is Java anywhere you go, Calculus is Calculus, Algorithms are Algorithms.

As an expert in my field, who utilizes the internet and these things called planes to travel, I can give my opinion. An expert in a technical field is an expert anywhere he goes. An aerospace engineer from the US can go to Japan and tell them what is needed for a job in the field and can speak about the difference between a technician and an engineer in the the field.

---

@MrBossmanJr you don't have to take my advice, listen to the others, just don't go applying for highly technical jobs (field applications engineer, dsp engineer, embedded engineer, robotics engineer) after you finish that software development program, because you will be disappointed and won't be prepared for them.

At the end of it all you must decide what you want to do. If you want to work in web or mobile development it doesn't matter, but again I am saying if you want a technical job, that program wont prepare you for it. Good luck in your journey!

[dfrecore]

@dfrecore, that may be true I don't live in the US.

but this nice little thing called the internet let's me collaborate with engineers in US, UK, Canada, China, Philippines and Japan and recently Germany and happen to chat about education and jobs all the time. I Skype with my friends living in these countries and I am actually an expert in my Area, thank you very much. I choose to connect with people and do research with my time, so I know a lot more than you think I do. When I spent about a year writing my book working for Apress Media LLC (oh that's a US company isn't it?), I talked to my technical reviewer constantly about engineering jobs and working there.

It's like saying because I never lived in the US I can't earn a degree in the US and can't make any comments about the US educational system and have no knowledge of it.

You are saying essentially that because I don't live in the US I don't know that a regionally accredited degree has more utility than a nationally accredited one?

When in fact due to talking to persons one this forum, I have more knowledge about the US higher educational system than most Americans and even some admissions staff at US colleges.

It's absurd to make such a statement. It's true I many not live in the US, but I know a lot of people who do, a lot of them my friends that have done everything from walking dogs and baby sitting to working at Microsoft and Baker Hughes.

There's Skype, Whatsapp and Facebook to discuss anything with anyone you know. I have even talked to some people hiring in the companies I wanted to work at, at a point in time to get an idea of what it would take to live and work in the US. We live in a globalized society.

Close to 100k (near 7% of the population) of persons from my country live and work in the US alone, so I'm not as isolated as you think I am. I also was considering moving to the US before my life plans changed and did a lot of research and calling around and even managed to land a remote position once aside from working for Apress.

And jobs like Software Development, Writing and Call Center positions are not like business and law. There is a reason people from India, China etc can find jobs at tech companies within the US, if you can develop software guess what, you can do it anywhere in the world, Java is Java anywhere you go, Calculus is Calculus, Algorithms are Algorithms.

As an expert in my field, who utilizes the internet and these things called planes to travel, I can give my opinion. An expert in a technical field is an expert anywhere he goes. An aerospace engineer from the US can go to Japan and tell them what is needed for a job in the field and can speak about the difference between a technician and an engineer in the the field.

---

First, I never said you couldn't get a degree here, so you're arguing a point that wasn't made.

Second, I personally know more about getting degrees than most people, which does not qualify me to give advice on every degree, and every job, and every industry.  No matter what you know, you can't know everything.

Third, job markets in the US tend to be regional.  Unless you live in a particular city, you don't know the job market there.  I don't know the job market in Charlotte or NYC or Austin or Boise.  I know it in San Diego, because I live here.  Requirements for things, what most people have, what companies are looking for, is very regional here in the US.  It can differ by industry, region, even city.  Pay is definitely regional.

So someone who does not live and work here, who is only getting a snapshot of things from talking to people in different areas, you can't really get a good picture of the whole.  Yes, you can have a good idea of what's going on in a particular industry, but even then, you may not know everything about it, or what's going on in ever region of a very large country.

But go ahead and proclaim your expertise, and give people whatever advice you want - and I'll continue to give mine, which may differ from yours, and you probably won't like it, and I don't care.

[posabsolute]

So it seems we have a little bit high jacked your thread op... if you want a bit more info on my point of view you can contact me directly

[Merlin]

Well, I will say that I agree with @armstrongsubero in that a pure Computer Science degree is not the same as a degree in Software Development. A CS degree will better prepare someone for the more esoteric aspects of computer science and hard sciences like computer engineering.

However, the caveat there is that very few people go into CS for the pure science route. Most are doing it to become software developers because that is what most employers are looking for. So in that sense, they are equivalent. If you want to develop websites or build mobile applications or develop computer games, then a degree in software development and a CS degree will do the same thing for you. In fact, the software development degree may be superior since you will spend less time learning about theory and more time learning how to build software. In many ways, software development is more about art than science anyway.

I also agree that you don't need any degree to become successful as a software developer. It is a trade like any other and can be learned on the job. But that can also be said of just about any job. Back in the day, people use to learn through apprenticeship and never cracked a book in their lives. Luckily, in IT (which includes software development), most employers are more interested in what you can do than having a piece of paper. So there are a ton of software developers out there who don't have a degree, nor are they interested in ever attaining one.

I always say the best way to learn how to be a programmer is to start writing code. That really is the only way. A programming course can teach you the theory but until you apply it across a number of different types of problems, you don't really learn how it works. Plus, you learn more through failure than you ever do through success.

If you want a job as a software developer, then learn how to code and start developing applications that you can add to your portfolio. If you want to develop websites, then start doing that for friends and family until you're good enough to offer your services to others. Then when its time to interview, you can show people the websites you built and show them the code you wrote as a means to demonstrate competency and skill. You can use the same analogy for mobile development, or whatnot.

In any case, back to the OP. A masters degree in CS is great if you're looking for a hard science/engineering or research-focused career or you already have experience and are looking to move up into higher levels of management in a technical organization. However, if you're just doing it because you love to write software and think it will help you get a job, I think you'd be wasting your money. Yes, it would be helpful as a tie-breaker between two candidates who are otherwise equal, but most hiring managers would prefer to hire a candidate with a great resume and portfolio of accomplishments over a candidate with high academic credentials and little experience or few accomplishments.

[studiousimp]

I would add another option, finish the BACS and then do a nanodegree (udacity) in one of the software fields that interest you. That will give you applicable skills, and with the BACS I think it should be enough to land you an intern/junior job at a good firm.

Thanks, posabsolute. That's a really interesting idea.

Someone could even do one of udactity's nanodegrees while working on the BACS too, right?

[MrBossmanJr]

Can I use graduate courses in the AOS of the BACS?

[MrBossmanJr]

I'm so close to the BACS at TESU already, but I want to do the MSSD as well. I'm going to to do the MSSD part-time so the G.I. Bill can fully cover the costs. I plan to use Study.com at the same time for the last three UL courses and two LL for the BACS or I'm hoping my graduate program will fill some of the UL requirements. This would save me some more time too.

[bjcheung77]

Can I use graduate courses in the AOS of the BACS?

You should be able to. I would get them to try and place it into your AOS Electives first as they have specific courses you need for the AOS required. Have you emailed academic advising, what did they say?

I'm so close to the BACS at TESU already, but I want to do the MSSD as well. I'm going to to do the MSSD part-time so the G.I. Bill can fully cover the costs. I plan to use Study.com at the same time for the last three UL courses and two LL for the BACS or I'm hoping my graduate program will fill some of the UL requirements. This would save me some more time too.

I would recommend the Study.com courses as well, if the MSSD is what you want, go for it. I think it's a good program and if it's at $26/27K, that's a very competitive price for the university name recognition if you have tuition reimbursement.