Postgraduate Education
As the year winds down I’ve decided to apply to Oregon State University’s Online Master’s in Computer Science program. If accepted, I would start in the fall of 2025. There’s a number of reasons behind the decision. A graduate program would be a good way to brush up on the CS fundamentals that I picked up during my undergraduate. I’d also like to teach some day, either at the high school or collegiate level, and for that I need a masters degree. I also really enjoy school in general and learning new skills in particular. Finally, my current employer, Dexcom, offers tuition assistance up to $5,250 a year, so it felt like I was leaving money on the table by not taking advantage of the offer for tuition assistance.
The OSU MSCS program would require me to complete 45 credit hours. Credit hours typically represent the number of hours a course meets every week, which means 45 hours of synchronous and asynchronous online instruction. And for every hour of instruction it is generally expected that you spend 2-3 hours studying the course material, completing homework, and working on projects. OSU is on a quarter term system, which means that it divides the academic year into four quarters. The average course is 4 credits each, so if I only took the minimum of one class a quarter, I could hypothetically complete my degree in two and half years by spending 16 hours each week on school. Considering that the Mazamas Intermediate Climb School that I’m set to complete in March averages 20 hours a week, I don’t foresee any issues with meeting the time commitment.
Overall, I’m really excited to begin the course (assuming I’m accepted!). I’ve been putting off pursuing a masters for over a decade now because it just didn’t make economic sense. But with the proliferation of online education and tuition assistance, I feel like now is the right time. I get the sense that quite a few people are under similar circumstances. If you are, I hope you find my explanation of the costs and benefits of postgraduate education to be helpful.
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