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Master of Software Engineering: CMU or Elsewhere?

Posted by Cliff on from the varying-degrees-of-success dept.

nestea247 asks: "I graduated from CMU 3 years ago and have since worked in a very good company and gained quite a lot of solid software development experiences. Now I'm thinking of moving on, to learn more about software engineering i.e. management/methods/processes. CMU has a very good program. I have been comparing it against other schools like MIT, Stanford, Berkeley...etc., and it seems like only CMU has very specific concentration on software engineering and a tailor-made cirriculum. Other schools are just general masters degree in CS that might require me to re-learn or polish a lot of concepts in undergrad. So CMU sounds like a good choice, but I hope if someone could tell me what's good about the other schools. What should I take into consideration (academically) when I select a grad school for MSE?"

1 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Experience, not education by Fastball · · Score: 3, Interesting
    It sounds like you do not value your undergraduate education. So I ask, what good is grad school to you? IMHO, you're better off staying in the trenches and when opportunities present themselves, show initiative by getting the job done.

    Processes, concepts, best practices: these are the vices of ignorant PHBs. Practice makes the man including the software engineer. I've been doing my thing for about three and a half years now, and I'm a much more proficient programmer than I was when I landed my first job. School did nothing but forestall this progress for four and a half years. But by no means do I think I've reached coder valhalla. From where I'm typing, I see many areas for self-improvement, mostly my ability to persuade my co-workers why I am right. ;)

    In fact, I think you're better off taking communications classes, something in the realm of interpersonal skills. All hacks do. But to surrender to a cirriculum of consulting-babble is poppycock. I can only hope you are miserable with "the way things work" at your present employer and want to break the mold. That's good; engineers should be making engineering decisions.

    If I lucky to be hiring, I'd rather have a coder with five plus years experience (with or without a degree) than a guy with three years experience coming of a year or two sabbatical for his masters. It takes years of practice to know what works and what doesn't. Not tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours in front of a whiteboard.