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I’m really starting to think about the monumental decision of my after-college plans. Thus far, I’m not 100% certain where I want to move to, but I have a strong feeling that I’d probably want to head back to the DC area and get a job here since the job market is pretty exceptional here for my field.

However, I’m also starting to think that perhaps it would be a good idea for me to go straight into looking into getting my Master’s degree. There are positives and negatives to both of course, so I’m still not entirely sure what I want to end up doing.

Pros:
- Getting a Master’s degree early would fulfill my sense of personal accomplishment
- It would get it out of the way early so I wouldn’t have to worry about stopping work or taking a break from it to accomplish it
- It will probably help me start out with a much higher base salary and job advancement opportunities
- I like school and I enjoy studying. I’m weird, I know.

Cons:
- Going straight in might not be the best idea since I might need to take some time to decide if I do want to get a Master’s in IT or perhaps a Master’s in a related field like computer science or security.
- A lot of Master’s programs in my field have areas that require you to have had at least 2 years of real-world job experience before you can take the classes
- Costs

I’m also concerned with the location of where I’d decide to get my Master’s. I could potentially do it at the college I am at now, which has a great Master’s program and where I could possibly get a scholarship for teaching assistant that would cover a lot of my costs or I could move down to the DC area to be nearer to my family and get a Master’s at one of the colleges here though I’m not sure of their Master’s quality.

I do want to continue my education, so I’m not entirely sure what I should do at this point.

Tags: college, computer science // 1 Comment »

I’m starting to think that the entire point of college is not really to learn much of anything.

Honestly, I don’t feel that 90% of what I’m paying tuition to learn is anything that I couldn’t have learned on my own using Google as my guide. And, interestingly enough I feel that what is taught to us is simply the bare-bones version of what you should know. I think that to truly study something you must have a deep underlying passion for it… Just merely studying for classes, taking exams, and doing projects is not nearly enough to actually be successful in a deeper sense to a craft. Hours spent slaving away in front of your computer screen trying to get a personal lot of code to compile is something I think all people majoring in a similar field to me do, but I honestly think only those who do it and get a sense of personal satisfaction from getting that code to not only work, but to work with it further out of sheer curiosity, are the only ones who honestly learn much of anything in the process.

Some days I feel like I have that kind of passion and other days I feel like a one of the drones learning nothing.

Tags: computer science // Add Comment »