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Comment by glesica | Hacker News Reader

I have two masters degrees (well, one and writing a thesis for the second one) and I found them both enlightening, valuable experiences. It is, of course, important to note that I didn't pay for either of them (except in the form of opportunity costs). If I'd had to go deeply into debt I might feel differently.

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It's a shame you need a bachelor's degree to undertake a master's program. It might be fun to do a comp-sci program at Georgia Tech, and I believe I would find it enlightening and valuable. There is just no way I'd go through the trouble of getting a bachelor's degree first.

Good shout bringing up Georgia Tech. Their new online master's in Comp Sci seems to be really shaking things up. It seems like a major omission from this article, especially because it is a collaboration between Udacity and GT.

I'm wrapping up my second semester this week in Georgia Tech's OMSCS program. It's fantastic. The courses are packed full of CS fundamentals, algorithms, data structures, etc. I finished my bachelor's in 2004 and find this MS program challenging probably due to being out of school for a decade.

This. I'm in my 30s with a wife, kids, and a successful career. The Georgia Tech program looks great, but there's no way I'm going to go back and finish my bachelor's degree at this point in my life. Useless general education coursework and the absurd cost of online degree programs from reputable brick and mortar schools makes it a nonstarter.

If there were an affordable online B.A./B.S. program from a reputable institution, which was tailored to worldly-wise people for whom high school was half a lifetime ago, I might reconsider. But I haven't found it yet.

I don't know how far along you and the parent are in your bachelors, but there are BS completion programs that you might consider. I'm now 35 and I left my undergrad EE BS in my senior year to start a software company. Thankfully it worked out, but I have at times wished to be able to get a masters degree and have found the bachelors requirement troublesome.

Last year I enrolled at UT Arlington to get a BS in University Studies via the Finish@UT program (http://www.finishatut.org/). I am specifically planning on finishing a CS masters via the Georgia Tech program. To finish my bachelors I will need to finish 4 semesters of part-time coursework, essentially picking up where I left off in my undergrad EE at UT Austin, but of course not getting a EE degree, but still getting a BS degree.

Anyway, as a means to an end, I can stomach 4 semesters of undergrad online coursework to (a) finish my degree as an example for my daughters and fulfil a promise to my father; and, (b) enable for me the option to get a masters in CS for personal fulfilment reasons.

There are a few options. Check out Excelsior College, which is a SUNY school intended to provide educational options for employed people... they've been doing this for many years.

You can get credit for work experience as well -- I think up to 70.

There are other options as well, many of these programs were setup originally to support nursing programs and military families. Just stick to non-profits.

I'm in much the same boat less the kids though. Just into my 30s and started my career a bit late but already making good money and have really good experience on my resume. A 4 year program with all the extraneous drawn out learning would present a huge potential opportunity cost for me. I already try to be a bit of a Renaissance man, and I'm constantly expanding my IT/comp-sci knowledge outside of work. I'm never asked about my education when applying for jobs..

I guess it's Coursera for me then :)

@lrm242 So far away. I barely have a semester worth of credits from TCC(Tarrant County) earned a decade ago.

Something like SUNY Excelsior (suggested in another reply) would definitely help.

There are also CLEP exams[1], which allow you to take exams for college credit. Most people seem to have never heard of these, though I know they were popular in some homeschooling circles.

[1] https://clep.collegeboard.org/exam

It is, of course, important to note that I didn't pay for either of them

That's the discriminant, right there. If they pay you it's because they need someone to get some work done, and the funds to pay you come from someone willing to pay them - NSF, NIH, industrial sponsor, whatever. But if you pay them they'll just make some advanced undergrad courses a requirement for your masters, and it's a farce throughout.

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