Looking for some opinions on these schools

Hi, I have a B.S. in Computer Science from Western New England College and have been working in the BI/Data Warehouse space for 3 years now.

I'd like to go back to school for either a grad cert or a MS degree. Any thoughts on the following programs and schools? These are all online, at or under 20k.

DSU (Dakota State University) - MSIS (information systems), MSACS (applied CS), MSA (analytics)
Umass Dartmouth - MSCS
Georgia Southern University - MSCS
UC Irvine Extension - BI and Data Warehousing Cert


DSU and Umass are close in rank but i feel that umass is more well known.. maybe because i am from mass.
I've been juggling around a few different degrees in mind and i'm having a difficult time making a decision. I think I will be a good place with any of them, but i dont want to close too many doors by picking one or the other.

Any thoughts or recommendations? Thansk a lot!

 

I would say that if you are from Massachusetts you should consider the UMass graduate degree. UMass is a great university system, as others will tell you on here, and will have more clout regionally if you plan to stay in the New England area. That's just my two cents!

 

I have been looking hard at the DSU MSA. I have heard nothing but good things about DSU. All of those programs are good values.

If you are looking for more programs that are within your $2OK budget, here are a few:
Minot State University: MSIS MSU - College of Business They offer in-state tuition to everyone. IIRC, the MSIS was around $10K

Another Data Analytics Masters within your budget is through CUNY (City University of New York).
There MS in Data Analytics is $13,850 (36 hours at $385 per credit hour).
Online Master's Degree in Data Analytics (M.S.) | CUNY School of Professional Studies. All online programs at CUNY offer instate tuition to everyone.

Here are two articles that have listings of other Analytics/Data Science programs, along with their tuition and whether or not they are online. Some other programs are under $20K depending on whether you are a state resident.

Master of Science in Analytics

Analytics Education Boom – Trends and Overview

 

Thanks guys! Yes, I'm from Massachusetts. I'm eligible for 100% tuition reimbursement by my employer for up to 4 courses a calendar year, but i need to front the first semesters tuition myself (then use the reimbursement as a floating balance to cover the rest). I'd like to keep that amount at 2k or less. I also discovered some schools schools work with TMS (tuition management systems)/afford.com to aplit a semesters tuition over x months which helps for the higher tuition programs.

I like The BI/Data Warehouse world.. but I'm thinking a CS degree holds more weight even though maybe 1 or 2 courses in that degree is relevant to my current job. But the analytics degrees do have data warehouse courses and are more relevant to BI..

I'm now considering:
Umass Dartmouth MSCS (~18k)
DSU MSA (~12.5k)
SNHU MS Data Analytics (~22k)
University of Illinois - Springfield MSCS (~14k)

You can't beat the DSU price. Their application process is so outdated though
I would rather do CS from one of the other schools rather than DSU.
UIS looks like a great deal too, i just found it a couple of nights ago. It has a decent rank too.
I also recently found SNHU - they are similarly priced to the others, but its a 36 credit program.

No program has guaranteed acceptance, so i plan to apply to at least two of them. just need to figure out CS or analytics

If i'm planning on staying in BI for my career, is analytics or CS a better choice? I see a lot of high end BI positions need app dev experience too. I feel that an analytics degree will silo my career to BI only, while CS would leave the doors open if i ever wanted to do app dev again

thanks again for your feedback guys!