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Comment by hack_edu | Hacker News Reader

Could you elaborate a bit more about the the CS program and how it prepared you for industry? What distinguished you from other BA holders?

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I think the original poster was saying that he didn't have a B.S. in a technical field. So getting the Masters gave him the credentials he needed to go after jobs he was intrested in. I do not believe he was saying that he had a B.S. in Computer Science and needed a M.S. in Computer Science to compete.

I think its a good example of one of the points made in the linked articles. That if you have an undergrad degree that's not really what your interested in a Masters lets you correct that.

Yes, that's correct. Not only was my undergrad degree in music, I had virtually no computer/technology experience of any kind (this was back in the 80's and I was still using typewriters to type up papers.) So it would have been pretty difficult for me to enter the profession directly.

As an aside, my master's program probably wasn't the best overall preparation for a career as a software developer, actually. It was highly theoretical/mathy, and I think undergrad CS students probably got more and more relevant programming experience. It was mostly about having the credentials, I think.

Was it difficult getting admitted to a master's program in CS without a technical bachelor's degree? My impression is that technical grad schools only want applicants with top-notch technical skills.

Well, don't think the CS program was that highly ranked, but I did have to take a lot of undergrad deficiencies (including about 15hrs math). IIRC, there were leveling classes (like grad level intro to CS classes) that you could take, but they didn't have a very good reputation and I opted to take a core of undergrad classes with better instructors instead.

Mostly it just took time and persistence to get through the deficiencies. My case was probably extreme because my undergrad music program required no math/science whatsoever, so i had a lot to make up for.

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