Cool, Science-y Masters Programs For Software Devs? 150
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."
Obvious answer... (Score:5, Informative)
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 [brown.edu]? It's PhD-oriented, but I'm sure they'd take your money in exchange for a master's degree.
medical informatics (Score:3, Informative)
If you want to get away from the micro-scale side of biology but still use some of your skills and experience, you might consider getting into medical informatics. There's an enormous amount of R&D to be done in the areas of electronic medical records, automated order entry, clinical surveillance, drug interaction databases, etc. If you're interested in sociology and economics, data mining to determine the costs and benefits of health care is a big deal right now, for obvious reasons. If you want to go the AI route, then semi-automated diagnosis and "personalized medicine" are also very promising fields. And there's no shortage of degree programs if you want to get a Master's; a quick Google search on "medical informatics MS" turns up tons of results.
Can't do research without PhD (Score:2, Informative)
With the flood of PhDs in the market, nobody is going to want you to do any actual research without a PhD. With a Master's you can be a glorified lab tech, database manager, programmer, whatever, but even if you're way more than qualified, they won't let you do any significant research without a PhD.
Your best bet is to join a PhD program, deal with the significant decrease in income for five years, then get into the career you want. The more you wait and older you get, the harder it will be to take such action.
Applied Mathematics (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Terminal Degree and Biostat's (Score:3, Informative)
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!
my MIT classmates do software; none majored in it (Score:4, Informative)
Cognitive Science (Score:2, Informative)
Since you're interested in Neuroscience and AI a masters in Cognitive Science is a relevant option. Every school's cogsci program is different,but they're all *very* flexible. Check out UCSD, Indiana, MIT, Carleton, Arizona, etc.
Re:Cognitive Science (Score:1, Informative)
As a cognitive science grad student I couldn't agree more. In the field computationalists are modeling everything from single neurons to whole brain recordings, as well as larger systems such as insect colonies, networks of people for software collaborations, composition of music, really anything you could imagine discretizing. In particular at UCSD there is a pretty healthy Human-Computer Interaction laboratory group that focuses a lot on the design/development side which you seem to be interested in. If you're interested in only an MS degree, those are going to be harder to come by and quite possibly going to cost you some $$. However many PhD programs will grant a MS along the way/or if you leave the program after you've finished some basic course and research requirements. The majority of these PhD programs will provide a not too glorious stipend in exchange for teaching and/or research from you. The pay may not be as good as your current lab, but at least you won't come out having paid money into the degree program like a masters might require.
Masters Vs PhS (Score:2, Informative)
As a professor and (obviously) former grad student, I have some advice about your choice of Masters vs. PhD. The above posters have made good comments about the advantages of each, but there is one more thing to consider when you are applying for graduate programs - many universities simply are not interested in taking on anyone who intends to stop at the Masters level. To be honest, most grad students don't become useful until they have been in the program for a couple of years and have learned the ropes. Plus, the first couple of years of any grad program will contain more coursework (and therefore less research time) than the latter years. In other words, a PhD student who is there 4 years is worth more than 2 MS students who are there 2 years each. Therefore in a down economy when student applications are up, anyone who announces their intention to stop at a Master's degree is automatically put into the reject pile. My advice is that if after considering your options, you still think a Master's is what you want, go ahead and state on your application that you want a PhD. In many programs, the first two years of PhD. work are almost identical to the Master's work so it will not affect your studies. Once you are admitted to the program, you can always "change your mind" and decide to stop at a Master's. Or, who knows, maybe you really will change your mind and get the Doctorate for real.