Long time lurker, never posted before. I am a recent career switcher. I used to practice as a lawyer, and have recently gone back to school to get a bachelor's degree in computer science.
I am interested in doing low level programming as a career, OS, firmware, kernel work perhaps. Not embedded, but maybe right above that.
My dilemma is this:
I have already spent a number of years in school due to undergrad and law school. I still have law school debt ($60k). I would like to start working ASAP, but I also do not want to hurt my long term career prospects.
I can get a 3 year bachelor's degree in computer science within the next 12 months (thanks to transfer credits), or I can do another 8 months and (20 total) and get a 4 year bachelor's degree.
A master's degree would be another 16 months (some programs may not offer summer semester courses, so in terms of taking such a program full time, I may not get a real job for another 2 years if I go the masters route, because I'd be delayed a whole summer semester where I would not be studying and would have to return to the program in the fall). The idea of doing a part time masters over 4 years also does not sound good, given that I would basically have no free time between work and school for that period of time.
My concern is basically that at some point in the future I may need a masters degree, and if I go the 3 year bachelor's degree route, I will be unable to later pursue a masters (my school will not allow me to come back and upgrade to a 4 year degree). At the same time, the idea of all that extra school (4th year of the bachelor's, and a master's) seems nearly untenable to me after already having spent so much time in school for undergrad the first time (which also was not a 4 year degree), and my law degree. Additionally, beginning to save money and pay down debt is obviously something I need to get around to.
I'm just wondering if anyone has any input on this. My long term goals are really to stay as an engineer, but that could obviously change.
Thank you!
It might be helpful to expand on why you believe you will need it. The few positions of any type I've seen that require a post-graduate degree generally are reserved for Ph.Ds. And you certainly don't need a master's to be a low-level developer.
> "...if I go the 3 year bachelor's degree route, I will be unable to later pursue a masters..."
If I understand it correctly, requirements depend on whether you're considering a research-track master's program or a professional master's program, the latter of which is far more lenient in admission requirements. I would determine which you're after and then contact a few institutions to investigate what their admission requirements are.