The M.S. Degree vs. Everything Else?

salad_fingers writes "It has been said that the Bachelor's Degree is the new High School Diploma: everybody has one. It is taking a greater investment of time, money and effort on behalf of the individual to give oneself that needed edge in the professional world. I have noticed that in technical fields, specifically engineering, employees are flocking in droves to MBA programs to capitalize on the upcoming retirement of the Baby Boomers, and have largely considered pursuing a graduate degree in a technical field as a waste of time and effort. What does Slashdot see as the future of the M.S. degree versus other available and somewhat non-traditional degrees? What path should engineers pursue for maximum future employability?"

Re:My impression

[fishdan]

If I see a resume with a BS in CS, MS in CS and no Ph.D I'm going to ask about it -- and I'm already thinking "Either failed out of the Ph.D program, or couldn't hack it in the real world, so went back to school." Ask anyone who's been working in a job where they USE their CS degree, and ask which was more value in the real world -- 2 years of work, or 2 years of education pursuing a masters. As you learned in your first Data Structures and Algorithms class:

for (year:YearsAfterBachelor){

if(in the real world){

money++
practicalExperience++
esotericExpereince*=1.1
abilityToWorkWithNormals++
numGirlsMet = Math.random*companySize*7/13
numGirlsDated = 0

} else if(in school to get MS){

money--
practicalExperience*=1.1
esotericExpereince++
workingWithOthers--
abilityToWorkWithNonCS=SQRT ABS abilityToWorkWithNonCS
stupidSlashPostingAbility = stupidSlashPostingAbility ^2
numGirlsMet = 0
numGirlsDated = 0

}

}

I leave the rest of the programing and variable assignments as an exercise for those with more education

Re:Supply and demand.

[ResidntGeek]

They set the salaries.

Not if the payroll is electronic, and the techies don't want them to.