Master Degree.. Thoughts?

Hi all,

So I got my four year degree from this school;

Pennsylvania College of Technology

I been working with HP Enterprise services for a year now. Just to give a little background of what I do click the link below

Larry Morgan & Joshua Rosetta - Pennsylvania College of Technology
(I'm on the right)

I plan to get my Masters degree and Cisco certs (CCNA - July 1st is the goal!) but I am at a lost were to go for my Masters. I really do not want to go into major debt with a MAsters. I'm already in debt with my four year.

Thoughts? I do plan to get into IT management ten or so years from now but would rather stay technical for a bit. What school do you people recommend? Is WGU a good option for me? (some people mentioned Drexel and that school is over 40k a year for online =/)

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Comments

N2IT

higherho wrote: »

Hi all,

So I got my four year degree from this school;

Pennsylvania College of Technology

I been working with HP Enterprise services for a year now. Just to give a little background of what I do click the link below

Larry Morgan & Joshua Rosetta - Pennsylvania College of Technology
(I'm on the right)

I plan to get my Masters degree and Cisco certs (CCNA - July 1st is the goal!) but I am at a lost were to go for my Masters. I really do not want to go into major debt with a MAsters. I'm already in debt with my four year.

Thoughts? I do plan to get into IT management ten or so years from now but would rather stay technical for a bit. What school do you people recommend? Is WGU a good option for me? (some people mentioned Drexel and that school is over 40k a year for online =/)

I think this comes down to you and how honest you are with yourself. Do you feel you can leverage this education into a higher paying career that will offset the debt and interest you will occur over the course of the loan? If not I would not recommend the masters degree unless you are getting some assistance, especially since you in debt, and probably quite a bit.

There are always factors that figure into this decision. Will mom and dad help or a relative. Will you place of employee take on some of this cost?

If not and it's fairly high priced 40,000+ I would have to say no.

higherho

N2IT wrote: »

I think this comes down to you and how honest you are with yourself. Do you feel you can leverage this education into a higher paying career that will offset the debt and interest you will occur over the course of the loan? If not I would not recommend the masters degree unless you are getting some assistance, especially since you in debt, and probably quite a bit.

There are always factors that figure into this decision. Will mom and dad help or a relative. Will you place of employee take on some of this cost?

If not and it's fairly high priced 40,000+ I would have to say no.

Currently I'm paying for all the loans (even the ones my mom took out for me). At my Job they did have a program for degree assistance (though you have to qualify) so I can look into that. But I would say in ten years my current loans would be probably payed in half. So You are right I cannot see that high cost being justified at this current moment in time.

Now if I went to a government position and had the masters I would quality for a higher GS level but I will not be trying for that until I get at least two cisco certs under my belt (I want to join there Networking team at DISA).

Were I want to go in the next ten years I can see myself getting their without the masters. Its one of those things that I was thinking to get done when I was young (and of course still get a lot of knowledge out of it).

erpadmin

You should consider getting into government employment; whether it's with the Feds or your state.

Since you have a good amount of loans, the loans can be consolidated, and once they are, you can enroll in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Once you start paying under PSLF, you will be done after your 120th payment. PLUS, you might be able to consolidate mom's debt as well. Not sure about that one though.

Something you will want to keep in mind.

odysseyelite

It depends on where you want to be ten years down the road. The Masters is great if you want to do management at somepoint. That was one of the reasons I got mine. I thought im single and young and it would be easier now. Now I have something like 20k in loans just for my masters. I can not tell you how many times in an interview I mention I got it a year ago and the interveiwer was "you have your masters?" YES! Its right above my B.A that you asked about.

I'm hoping it helps me down the road. If I was going to do it all over again I would go back three years and start my cisco stuff, select a concentration and never look back.

518

erpadmin wrote: »

You should consider getting into government employment; whether it's with the Feds or your state.

Since you have a good amount of loan

Looks like he's on the right track, he's an FSO for DISA. I actually thought FSO is strictly facilities and not AIS. I guess there's always an exception.

To add, another member shared this program called Information Assurance Scholarship Program...the programs pays your tuition, labs, fees, etc.

I'm looking to start my MS in IS&A from WGU this November. I intend to obtain my MS as part of my personal career development, and half of the tuition is company sponsored, so why not?! I plan on applying for the IASP as well.

erpadmin

odysseyelite wrote: »

It depends on where you want to be ten years down the road.

You would be amazed at how quick 10 years flies as you get older. Especially if you have $50k-$100k in student loan debt.....

odysseyelite

higherho wrote: »

Hi all,

Thoughts? I do plan to get into IT management ten or so years from now but would rather stay technical for a bit. What school do you people recommend? Is WGU a good option for me? (some people mentioned Drexel and that school is over 40k a year for online =/)

40k a year? Holy smokes! Check out the public universities in your state. Where did you get your BS? Have you checked with them?

I'm in florida and my Masters cost me about 15k. I was\ still am looking at getitng another masters from FSU, where I got my BS. They were more expensive doing it completely online, but it was not too outrages. I have to wait until my company offers tution reimbursement before I look any further into it.

WGU seems to be the track I see alot of people going with.