Choosing between two degrees

shednik

Alright well I'm planning to begin my masters sometime in the fall/spring semesters of this coming year. I'm set to take my GRE on Friday and need some help deciding what is the best choice between these 2 schools given my situation. A little background about myself is that I just graduated this past December and was able to leave my last company to a great new company. One big perk of this new company is that I am eligible to receive $7000/year for furthering my education. I live in Pittsburgh, PA and as many of you know is one of the homes of the well known Carnegie Mellon University. I was looking to goto Capella originally but decided to goto a local school instead.

My plan is to study for a masters with a concentration in information security and have been looking at 2 different schools in my city.

Carnegie Mellon University : http://ism.cmu.edu/Part-Time/Program/curriculum.asp

University of Pittsburgh: http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~dist/academics/specializations/security.htm

My debate comes down to price I plan to spread the time out over 4 years so I will receive up to 28k for tuition from my company. Pitts program will be covered in that amount of time since the entire degree is about 24-25k. CMU's will end up totaling 55k - 28k = roughly 27k out of pocket. Both schools are a National Security Agency-certified National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (NCAE/IAE) and are certified by the Committee on National System Security (CNSS) as meeting the national standards for INFOSEC education. My question is that I'm trying to figure out if it's worth going to CMU for a degree from their institution which I know is highly regarded in Pittsburgh not to mention around the world. My concern is that I do have a family and bills. I do however think that once I finish my degree and have worked two years after i finished my degree at my current company that if I'm not where I'd like to be professionally I could move on fairly easily since by that time i'll have around 9 years experience in IT and a masters. Then I also think will it matter where the masters was from if there's that much experience behind myself. I'm open for opinions both programs have their strengths so each is a good choice I just want to make the best one. Thanks in advance!

hypnotoad

CMU is indeed highly regarded in computing. Last I knew it was either second or third behind MIT and Berkeley.

Are the curriculums and the final degrees similar? Are they professional degrees or academic degrees?

ULWiz

I would def go to Carnegie Mellon if i had the chance and as someone already said its right below MIT.

shednik

nl wrote:

CMU is indeed highly regarded in computing. Last I knew it was either second or third behind MIT and Berkeley.

Are the curriculums and the final degrees similar? Are they professional degrees or academic degrees?

Both are professional masters and have similar curriculums but from looking at the classes at cmu it seems they go alot more in depth into different aspects of security.

JDMurray

CMU has *MUCH* greater name recognition and presence in contributing to the InfoSec community. CMU is pretty decent in EE and CS too, I hear.

sir_creamy_

Um, if you have the grades and qualifications to get into Carnegie Mellon, which is argubaly one of the most well-recognized schools in the world for Computer Science and related fields, then why wouldn't you?

Money and debt should not be of any concern.

eltoro

Carnegie Mellon rules!! no comparison

shednik

Well I definitely plan to apply for both of the degrees and hope that I get lucky enough to be accepted to CMU

blargoe

If they're both accredited... I would save the money personally and go to Pitt.

If money is not an issue... then go on to CMU. 27K is a lot of money.

shednik

blargoe wrote:

If they're both accredited... I would save the money personally and go to Pitt.

If money is not an issue... then go on to CMU. 27K is a lot of money.

Both are excellent schools for my area, I just wonder if the degree name from cmu and quality will be worth have loans for about 30k in the end.

hetty

You could always ask them why you should spend an extra 30k on your education. You might be surprised what they have to say, I reckon big-name employers are lining up for graduates from there. I heard of CMU years ago, and thats saying something cause Im from across the pond.

mengo17

CMU...

ajs1976

Given the opportunity, I would go with CMU.

Didn't you just graduate from RMU? Any reason you are not looking into their program?

blargoe

hetty wrote:

You could always ask them why you should spend an extra 30k on your education. You might be surprised what they have to say, I reckon big-name employers are lining up for graduates from there. I heard of CMU years ago, and thats saying something cause Im from across the pond.

That's a good idea to hear it from them.

I haven't ever been in a company where the "prestige" of the school mattered that much when it came to hiring someone. Having the degree matters, in some cases you have to have whatever degree to get through their HR screeners. But I would think when you're going to be in charge of a company's information security, the degree is going to come in 2nd or 3rd on the list of importance at most. Would having a degree from a prestigious school get you in over someone with the same degree from a different school? It very well could if everything else between you and the other guy were equal.

Do a google on where the CEO's of the top 100 companies went to school. I came across that one time, and I was shocked at the number of "lesser" schools that were represented there. I think it was a majority.

eltoro

blargoe wrote:

hetty wrote:

You could always ask them why you should spend an extra 30k on your education. You might be surprised what they have to say, I reckon big-name employers are lining up for graduates from there. I heard of CMU years ago, and thats saying something cause Im from across the pond.

That's a good idea to hear it from them.

I haven't ever been in a company where the "prestige" of the school mattered that much when it came to hiring someone. Having the degree matters, in some cases you have to have whatever degree to get through their HR screeners. But I would think when you're going to be in charge of a company's information security, the degree is going to come in 2nd or 3rd on the list of importance at most. Would having a degree from a prestigious school get you in over someone with the same degree from a different school? It very well could if everything else between you and the other guy were equal.

Do a google on where the CEO's of the top 100 companies went to school. I came across that one time, and I was shocked at the number of "lesser" schools that were represented there. I think it was a majority.

It is not just about prestige, CMU is one of the top research universities in the world. The things you learn there are beyound comparison. Matchless!!

dynamik

In the grand scheme of things, that $30k out of your pocket is going to be fairly insignificant. You're going to be sitting in a good position regardless of which one you go with. I think you'd be much more likely to regret not going when you had the opportunity than you would regret spending some extra money.

famosbrown

When it comes to Graduate level studies, the quality of the program is HUGE!! Both of those schools seem like they are pretty reputable, but if you are considering going anywhere outside of PA, I would consider CMU. If both schools are equal to you, I would choose the school that offers the best curriculum for your educational goals. This is how I chose my school. They have an MBA with a Technology Management concentration that offer classes that I can apply right now at work.

Good luck!!

shednik

ajs1976 wrote:

Given the opportunity, I would go with CMU.

Didn't you just graduate from RMU? Any reason you are not looking into their program?

I was never completely satisfied with the program RMU had for my undergrad and looking at what they had to offer in the graduate aspect I felt it would be just an additional 10 courses that wouldn't bring me much benefit. I've been looking at Pitt and CMU just because I see how much more indepth they go with hands on and applying the theory presented. for example this course at CMU looks to be very beneficial even though it will only be a 6 week course: http://ism.cmu.edu/Part-Time/Program/courseDesc.asp?95-856

But to answer the question you had completely RMU is not a horrible school at all they have a good name and the curriculum is set for a more business oriented outlook of IT/IS rather then the technical portion which is still there just not at the level I want.