This is part 2 in the ongoing series where I am trying to rationalize/understand to myself and anyone interested in my decision to go back to school. Today’s post goes over why I would even consider going back to school without going into specifics about why I choose to study Math and Physics.
The thought of going back to school dreads a lot of people. Why go back after spending 4 exhausting years studying and trying to find the money to pay for your education. However, there are many reasons why a person would go back to school.
It’s usually either because they wish to upgrade their credentials such as obtaining an undergraduate degree after completing college (in Canada, college focuses on the practical applications and hands-on education mainly focused on the trades (i.e. electrician, mechanic, cook) and typically only confers a diploma) or obtain a masters. Another typical reason is to change careers. While education is not mandatory in some career paths such as IT, an education related to the field can be very beneficial, easier, and at times mandatory.
I’m in the group where I am open to change careers. There are three ways to look at University from what I know:
- University is an investment
- University is a place to widen your view and meet new people
- University is a place to learn on a subject you are interested in
While I won’t expand on the details of each point I outlined, I can agree that my undergraduate studies in Computer Science has helped me obtain a nice starting salary at a tech firm, meet new people, and learn computer science in ways I never knew about and more in-depth than I have previously imagined it to be.
Why Would I Consider Going Back?
There are many drawbacks of trying to go back to school such as the cost of the education, the time and commitment required and being delayed from progressing in different stages of life such as marriage or buying a house. There is no denying that education is expensive. While it is still relatively affordable in Canada (assuming you don’t pay rent), a 4-year time commitment will make you behind your peers. You lose 4 years worth of industry experience and earnings which is very substantial. Those 4 years could have left me able to afford a decent downpayment for a house in Ottawa where I currently live. But more importantly, the loss of industry experience will hinder my ability to go up the corporate ladder.
However, after much reflections I decided going back to University is not a terrible idea for the following reasons:
- I have no other financial obligations (i.e. student debt, mortgage, and debt in general)
- My parents are relatively fine both financially and in health
- I have no social obligations (no children, no wife nor girlfriend)
Much to my parents disapproval, I have no plans of:
- getting married
- no plans of buying a house
- no desire to make a lot of money
Being young with no social, financial, nor legal obligations, I believe it is an ideal time to explore and figure what one wants to do with their life. Perhaps, the pursuit of finding what to do is pointless like the idea of pursuing happiness is found to be pointless. Only time will tell if I’ll regret my decision.
Why Not Graduate School
Resigning from a job to pursue higher education is understandable for many. Many view higher education as an investment. But what about pursuing an undergraduate degree, how does that make any sense. Why am I pursuing another undergraduate instead of going to graduate school?
Graduate school has a lot of requirements and has a different focus compared to undergraduate programs. A graduate degree is quite frankly useless if your purpose is to make more money in IT. There are much better avenues to obtain a higher wage whether that be upgrading your skills through self-studying and projects, going to another company, or going into management. In terms of career outlook, a graduate degree in Computer Science allows one to work in very specialized fields that require a subset of knowledge or experience that is hard to obtain without a graduate degree in some subfield such as Machine Learning. While a graduate degree is not required to be able to work in these subfields, the typical programmer would not have the academic rigor and understanding required to work in these subfields.
Graduate school requires you to specialize in a particular subfield which is the problem I have with graduate school. I want to expand my knowledge but not necessarily in-depth than breadth. I do want to go explore deeper in some of the fields in Computer Science such as Systems Programming (i.e. Databases, Embedded Systems, Parallel & Distributed Computing, and Operating Systems) but I do not want to dedicate and limit myself to a specific subfield. While I did have some interest in specializing in operating systems or databases, I want to branch out my knowledge before specializing. There’s a lot of branches of Computer Science I haven’t explored or just touched the surface.
Furthermore, I am going for an undergraduate in Physics and Mathematics. A very drastic change compared to my discipline. The purpose of going back to school is not to further my knowledge in Computer Science (though I do plan on taking a few courses in Computer Science). I won’t go into specifics about why Physics and Mathematics as that would be for another post.
Anyhow, even if I did want to go into graduate school I would be unlikely to be able to. If I was to apply for graduate school, I would go for the thesis route where it’s more theoretical than application-based. Application-based masters are more suitable for those who wish to upgrade their credentials, knowledge, or skills. Therefore, it is more suitable for those with a few years of work experience and not someone like me who only has one year of work experience outside of an internship. Graduate school requires you to have a few things I lack which are research experience, close relationships with your professors, and a good CGPA. I have 0 research experience, very little relationship with my professors and my CGPA isn’t competitive. While my CGPA is not terrible, it is far from being competitive. CGPA isn’t everything but with no research experience and the backing of your professors who are willing to be your references, it’s very unlikely I’ll have any success. Therefore, I have no reason to nor many chances to get into graduate school even if I wanted to.
Summary
Considering my age, martial status, and financial status, it does not seem to be a terrible idea to explore and learn. In addition, graduate school does not make sense for me to pursue because I do not have much interest to specialize at this point of my life nor do I have a profile to be competitive candidate.