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Cool, Science-y Masters Programs For Software Devs?
An anonymous reader writes "I'm an early-30s software engineer with 10 years of development experience, and a BA in computer science from a top university. I've been working for several years at a national lab in bioinformatics, but I'm starting to wonder what other interesting directions there are to go for people in my boat: computer science majors with software development experience. The goal would be to find a position that could leverage my development skills, but also include a strong research component, without the need for a Ph.D. (I would be happy to get a masters for the right job.) I'm actually getting some of those things in my current job, but I'm ready to move on to new or different areas of research. Possible fields that seem interesting so far: neuroscience, economics/sociology, and AI. I'm happy to work in a team in support of Ph.D.s, but would like an active part in the research end of things as well as the tool-making end."
Have you considered just going for a standard master's degree in chemistry, biology, etc.? You'll probably have to take 4-6 remedial courses, but that wouldn't be the end of the world unless you absolutely can't invest the time/money.
If you really want to do a program that has one foot in Computer Science, maybe something like Brown's computational molecular biology program? It's PhD-oriented, but I'm sure they'd take your money in exchange for a master's degree.
Get a M.Sc. or Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics. There are plenty of schools that offer it and you might be surprised at how easy it is to be admitted to a program. Some even have an online masters program that makes it rather convenient to complete, like UW Seattle, where I got my M.Sc.
I work at a research lab connected to a large research university and having the M.Sc. definitely helps in getting to work on more interesting projects. The advantage with not having the Ph.D. is there is less burden on you to go find funding. The trick is to become indispensable to a couple of primary investigators that do completely different things to help improve job security. Where I work it is possible for a person with a M.Sc. to become a PI, so eventually if I start coming up with my own ideas, I should be able to work something out and be in charge of my own projects.
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In alot of scientific disciplines Master's degree's are consolation prizes for people who get part way through the PhD and realize they're in the wrong field. (eg a master's in biology basically qualifies you for a pay raise as a lab tech but not much else) You want to pick a discipline where master's degree in itself is a useful credential. Most fields of engineering, Master of Public Health, Medical informatics are examples. If you're willing to get a PhD there are a million fields where your skills will be rare and valuable (most chemist's neuroscientist;s etc are not coders but would build themselves better tools if they were, fish biology, oceonography you name it just about. )
Look really hard at biostatistics. Pretty much all clinical medical research needs a biostatistician to be published but the Ph.D's don't get promoted checking the work of the clinical researchers and consulting for them. As a master's level statistician you could likely find work in a statistics "core" and get to help lots of different groups analyze their data at a given institution. It stay's pretty interesting because you don't get bogged down working for one group on the same project forever.
Good luck!
Most of the people I keep track of from school are doing some kind software now. Yet none of us majored in it. We have geology, biology, physics, electrical engineering and a literature degrees among us. Its a lot easier to pick up software competency after doing science, than vice-versa.