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Recommendations for Graduate Programs?
xblanksx asks: "I am a soon to be college graduate and I have been looking into graduate programs pertaining to computer forensics and computer crime investigation. So far the only program I have been able to find is the 'High Technology Crime Investigation' program offered through GWU. Since I am finding it rather hard to find any other programs, what other graduate programs might be out there pertaining to computer investigations?"
What are you looking for in a graduate program? If you are looking for a bunch of classes to teach you computer forensics, I'm not sure where to direct you. I think that's a little too specialized for most graduate programs to meet. If you are looking to conduct research into better ways of doing computer forensics, then I am willing to bet that most good computer security groups would love people working on that. You can look at schools with good computer security research groups like Berkeley, MIT, Cambridge, Princeton, Rice, UCSD, etc.
I spent the last year doing a graduate program search (for geography, not CS, but same things apply), so the tips are fresh in my mind.
There are two schools of thought on how to search for a grad school. The first is to find a professor that you like and then look at the program. The best way to do this is to look through all the papers that you've written as an undergrad and look for the names that show up often in your bibliography. These are people who are interested in what you like. Chances are, they are surrounded by other people doing what you like. Take a look at the program that they teach in, do they offer classes that you like, are other people publishing things that interest you. The danger here to two fold. The first is that the person who you like is a jerk in person, you can find that out by corresponding with them by e-mail, see if they pay attention to you and treat you with respect. Ask your current professors about the person, most academic fields are pretty small, and word gets around. If you ever visit the campus, talk to their grad students and other people in the program. This is the best approach to take if you plan on either doing a ph.d, which is mostly working with an advisor one-on-one, or plan on staying in the same place for both masters and ph.d. One last hint, make sure they'll be staying at the institution, I almost got burned on this one.
The second school of thought, better if you're getting a masters and then moving into the private industry, is to find a program that interests you. Since you seem to have tried this, I won't add much more here except to say that I hear at Carnage Melon has a good computer security program, not sure if its what you're looking for though.
Sleep is for the weak!
this may sound crazy, and totally off topic, but i've considered the same thing: maximum possible salary by going go school or just graduate with a BS and work your way up the ladder.
Here is my analysis (i am not a finance person):
1/ Go to grad school:
-50k to pay for 2 years school
80k starting salary
2/ Work as an entry level IT position with a BS:
50k starting salary
5% raise per year (high I know, but the math is easier)
So you go to school for 3 years and spend 50k on it, in that same year the BS will have made 162k and will be currently making 58k. To work at the 80k/year job you need to work for at the very least 10 years (very generous estimate!) before the money averages out, and you start to gain monetarily over the person that got a job straight out of college.
Now, i could go on if that person changed companies 2 times in that 10 years with the post-graduate only having changed companies one time, they will most likely be making the same amount of money and the total money will never equalize.
its a weird analysis, but thats how i think (graduating with my MS in 4 weeks!)