Completing a part-time Master's in computer science while working
I was in the same research lab as the author, but from a different school (BU). When I found out that most of my peers were also doing their master&#x27;s part time while working, I wished I could do that. But as an international student, there are a lot of restrictions. I had to do it full time (3-4 classes per semester), and I could only work 20 hours part time on campus, usually as a TA and&#x2F;or research assistant. I did 3 jobs to max that out since most jobs only required you to work 6-8 hours a week. I could only do one internship for my entire degree. My total cost for 2 years was $117,889. BU did not have scholarships or aid for international students, because saying you need aid is admitting that you lied on the visa application. Then I had to pay $7800 to work on my thesis over the summer, which I chose not to finish because I wanted to start working earlier. To make up for lack of work experience, I pretty much did open source contribs 40 hours a week while working on my thesis and TAing. There was a period of 10 weeks where I was putting in 80-100 hours between school and unpaid work.<p>It was still worth it in the end. Similar experience coming from no CS undergrad. There were about 3 good classes that were very valuable, like Algorithms, Cloud Computing, and Embedded Systems. The rest was not that great, especially with remote. When I think about ROI compared to a bootcamp, it&#x27;s a tough one. Really successful bootcamp grads are already self-selecting going into the bootcamp, same with the really smart students in my master&#x27;s program. But going to a master&#x27;s program seems to have a better ROI just based on quality of instruction&#x2F;institution alone.<p>6 months after graduation and my pay bump has more than covered it. I was feeding the master&#x27;s program cash cow, so I think of it as I&#x27;m helping fund my US and green card classmates&#x27; master&#x27;s. Most of my peers had 50% or full ride scholarships.