Best Computer Science degree?

[armstrongsubero]

@Merlin what if he is a web dev who never had exposure to the academic side of DSA, computer architecture, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, discrete math or networking? What if on the job he encountered situations where he found his basic CS knowledge lacking?

Programming is just one aspect of computer science. I know a lot of awesome web developers who really lack basic CS knowledge, they can carry on good discussions relating to frameworks and what not but lack very basic knowledge. I mean throw them a copy of "Automata, Computability and Complexity" and try to discuss it with them, then you'll realize some of he fundamentals they lack.

Jumping into a masters program without that knowledge is a bad idea, you can't expand on what you don't know which is why may Graduate CS programs deliberately state "experience programming will not substitute x course".

A bachelors in CS is necessary to really do any serious graduate work, else you will have an necessarily unplesent experience.

I respect @Merlin's experience and knowledge but I must say OP take as much time as you need on the fundamentals, who knows? You might even discover a field you never knew you were good at and have interest in. For me I realized my strong point is computer architecture. I mean when I do my PhD in CS I am bound to choose something closer to that domain. Who knows you might discover you like algorithm analysis or computer graphics and are good at it.

A solid grasp of the fundamentals goes a long lonnnnggg way. It's better to take your time and understand everything in undergrad than to be thrown into a MS in CS program and you struggle through with stuff you really don't understand.

In fact my second book was written just for guys like you! You want a solid grasp of basic CS knowledge. Well take up my second book. I cover DSA, computer architecture, computer memory, ramdom numbers, OS basics, algorithm design and a heap of other stuff while you are learning DSA. Did I mention its programming language agnostic!? It separates Computer Science basics from programming which is something many books fail to address except the very math heavy titles. You can pre-order a copy from Apress (Springer), the book is done, just basically waiting for it to be printed:

https://www.apress.com/gp/book/9781484257241