Advice wanted - MSc in specialised Comp Sci

Hi all, I'm currently doing a placement year on a BSc Computer Science degree and have been considering taking a masters. I was hoping someone could give me some advice on what I should do.

My placement has been going really well so far (started in July 2015 and finish in August 2016) and I've been told that the company will be making me an offer to come back after I finish my degree. Although I've enjoyed the work I don't really think it's the sort of thing I really want to be doing for very long, and I know that there are better paid jobs out there.

I've also been looking ahead to my final year of study and a couple of the modules which I'll be taking absolutely fascinate me right now - so much so that I've been looking at potential MSc courses in them. I'm on track to finish my degree with a first so have been looking at post-grad courses at UCL and Imperial which would be specialising in the fields I want (Data Science/Machine Learning).

Having told my current employers I might go straight into a Masters, they've told me we'll have a meeting to discuss what sort of contract they'd have to offer for me to accept coming back. They also mentioned the possibility of giving me a part time job if I can find a part time course (sadly neither of the ones I've found offer part time).

So now I'm stuck at a point of needing advice on what to do. If I was offered a considerable pay rise to come back after my BSc, I'd strongly consider it, I also want to one of the courses at Imperial or UCL but by taking them I wouldn't be able to take the part time offer, and then there are the normal fears about whether I'd find a masters too difficult and embarrass myself.

Any advice or guidance on the steps I can take or think about would be really appreciated!

Reply 1

Dowie

7

If they're keen enough to support you in a part time course then presumably they'd probably still be happy to offer you a role after an MSc too - would they consider contributing towards the tuition too? There are some relevant part time MSc courses you could look into - Sheffield has a distance learning MSc in Statistics for example and Birkbeck has a part time one (if you're London based).
There a couple of online courses from US universities too - Columbia has an MS in 'Data Science' delivered online and Georgia Tech has an online MS in Computer Science with a Machine Learning specialisation.

Having said that the full time courses available at UCL and Imperial seem to offer much more and if you're considering them then I'd be tempted to take the risk and go for it.

Edit - actually it seems the UCL MSc in Statistics and MSc in Data Science* can be taken on a part time basis too though you'd have to have some flexibility with your employer in order to attend lectures during the day. (*Just browsing the UCL web site and there seem to be two MSc Data Science degrees with some common modules - one from the Computer Science Dept. and one from the Statistics Dept, the one from the Department of Statistics seems to allow for part time study.)

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 2

D-Box

OP

3

Original post by Dowie

If they're keen enough to support you in a part time course then presumably they'd probably still be happy to offer you a role after an MSc too - would they consider contributing towards the tuition too? There are some relevant part time MSc courses you could look into - Sheffield has a distance learning MSc in Statistics for example and Birkbeck has a part time one (if you're London based).
There a couple of online courses from US universities too - Columbia has an MS in 'Data Science' delivered online and Georgia Tech has an online MS in Computer Science with a Machine Learning specialisation.

Having said that the full time courses available at UCL and Imperial seem to offer much more and if you're considering them then I'd be tempted to take the risk and go for it.

Edit - actually it seems the UCL MSc in Statistics and MSc in Data Science* can be taken on a part time basis too though you'd have to have some flexibility with your employer in order to attend lectures during the day. (*Just browsing the UCL web site and there seem to be two MSc Data Science degrees with some common modules - one from the Computer Science Dept. and one from the Statistics Dept, the one from the Department of Statistics seems to allow for part time study.)

Thanks for the reply :smile:

The trouble is that if I took an MSc I wouldn't want to go back. For me, the point of taking it would be that I can get a better paid job that specialises in data science (my current job allows me to use it a little but not as much as I'd like).

The idea of distance learning doesn't appeal that much too me as I'd prefer to have real contact with lecturers and other students - for me personally if I'm going to spend a lot of money on a degree then this contact is vital.

Thanks as well for taking the time too look onto the UCL website as well for me! I hadn't thought to look into the Dept. of Statistics so it's interesting what you say. I've decided it's probably best just to email the course convener, so hopefully I'll get a reply after the bank holiday to let me know if it's possible to do the course part time.

Reply 3

Dowie

7

It certainly seems to suggest you can on the website, though I don't think it would necessarily be evening classes so you'd probably need part time/flexible hours from your employer. I think the Data Science MSc is new, I had looked at these options myself too and thought I remembered the MSc in Statistics being offered part time as I was debating whether to quit my job and pursue a full time course. In the end I applied for the CSML course at UCL.

Advice wanted - MSc in specialised Comp Sci

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