Advice on pusuing Masters in IT

I wouldn't do it. I'd get a subscription to Safari for all the tech books I could read and teach myself.

I don't know about Oracle certifications, but at least a few years ago one could pass all the Microsoft certifications using "brain dumps" if need be. I think I took about 10 Microsoft exams around 2001, including the ones on SQL Server, to get Excelsior College credits. I had no problems passing them on the first try even though I did fail a few of the old ICCP exams.

 

I did some research and thought otherwise. The programs and school seemed shady. I will look into the subscription to Safari and maybe do it myself. Thanks.

 

There's an expensive (but competitively priced) online Harvard course on Oracle Administration:

http://www.extension.harvard.edu/2007-08/courses/csci.jsp#e-256
http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?t=26806

At least this way you can put Harvard on your resume, even if it's for just one course

 

BTW, the first 2 weekly video lectures of the Harvard course can be seen for free (total of 4 hours):

http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k29666&pageid=icb.page129481

 

Are there any admissions requirements or is it just first come first serve?

 

I think if you want to grow into a DBA level job, you are better off looking at getting certified. Oracle offers its Oracle DBA certification programs. There are many books that are available which will prepare you for the certification examination. Getting a DBA level certification could also convince prospective employers about your interest to move into that role. In such case, you could start as a Junior DBA and then move up.

As i understand from your case, you does not seem to have enough experience with DBA level activities. But over the period of time Oracle has made it a lot easier to manage its dabatabse. This could be the case with other database vendors as well. So i suggest you start with vendor certifications. This could help you in the near term. Getting a Masters degree is always useful and could be a long term investment.

There are many programs that has been mentioned above, but i would also add the following. This is a Masters degree in Management & Systems from NYU.

 

I now realize the course is only offered in the Spring. Oh well.

To answer the question about Harvard's online courses, there are no admission requirements for taking courses as a non-degree seeking student, and I don't remember seeing anything about degree-seeking students getting priority regarding registration.

 

PackBrew does not have a Bachelor of Computer Science, from his original post, he has a Bachelor in Business with a minor in computer science. That is not a judgement just a reality.

I'm sorry are you saying the IT degrees are not real Master's Degrees? Degrees in computer science and electrical engineering have different utility and are more theoretical than the applied nature of an IT degree. Given PackBrew's desired goal,becoming a DBA, I do not see a CompSci or EE degree as suitable as an IT or IS degree.

 

If you wish to get your certifications, you may wish to join VTC.com or Lynda.com for some of your education(one cannot beat the price).

 

They are "less prestigious" in the sense that most master's in IT are directed towards non IT graduates. They are not really designed to train graduates for research and development but to train non IT graduates with IT skills for a job that normally would require a bachelors degree. In few words, they are really "glorified" bachelors into masters, but the same can be said about the MBA. Most of them won't require a thesis or advanced coursework.

If your goal is to become a DBA, a master's in IT might help but it is more cost effective to get an industrial certification. Most master;s in IT have very basic courses and normally more specialized course work would be required to be a DBA on top of your degree.

For an IT position, it doesn't really matter if you BS is in business, computer science, IT or anything as long as you have the right skills.

 

This curriculum probes my point. It only contains a couple of basic database courses that won't be enough to train you as a DBA. A DBA would need to know store procedure and trigger programming, security, tuning and optimization, backup procedures, etc and this program does not include these skills. You will not be prepared to pass an interview for a DBA position after you complete this program.

 

Regarding using Oracle at home, I now see that full versions of Oracle (not just "Express" versions) are available for download for free educational use:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/index.html

There are some other free resources here like tutorials:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/training/index.html

and forums:
http://forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=459&start=0

 

BTW, the certification forum at Oracle is best navigated with Google site search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=com.google%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=site%3Aforums.oracle.com+junior+dba+&btnG=Search
(which is a nice way of saying their forums aren't as cool as those at MSDN )

A couple of the better threads there seems to be:
http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=325448 (4 page thread)
http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=56354

Also, for the Usenet discussions:
http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=33583151
Some info there about getting a junior DBA position:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.databases.oracle/search?group=comp.databases.oracle&q=junior+dba&qt_g=Search+this+group
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.databases.oracle.misc/search?group=comp.databases.oracle.misc&q=junior+dba&qt_g=Search+this+group
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.databases.oracle.server/search?group=comp.databases.oracle.server&q=junior+dba&qt_g=Search+this+group

 

The other problem is I can't really even find any Junior DBA opportunities an none the less the one I could find wanted a couple years of experience. This whole idea might be the right career choice to make right now.

 

I did read in one thread on Usenet that most junior DBA positions are filled internally:

On a more optimistic note:

 

I do get the opportunity to use oracle writing queries right now on a limited basis. Maybe I will wait a while, see where this takes me, and go from there.

 

Less optimistically but with some helpful advice:

 

BTW, how do you like being a data analyst? I'm wondering if you may be happier doing more intensive data mining with SAS for a big company like Delta or Disney World, e.g.:

http://dms.stat.ucf.edu/employment/employment.asp?offset=10
http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=data+analyst+disney+world&l=

Then again, a lot of people would find that boring, but becoming a SAS programmer is something I am considering myself. The pay could also be lower (I really don't know) unless it's at a big company.

 

I like it, just wish there was more room to grow where I am at. I wouldn't mind the help with furthering my education, which I was under the impression would happen.

 

For what it's worth, I recommend the Oracle 10g certification path (DBA). It's 2 exams which you can cram for via Amazon books (Admin I/II) or through Oracle training (e.g. 10g Admin Workshop I/II) which take 5 days for each exam. I like the Oracle training since work pays for it and it's time off. Finally, Harvard does a really nice hands-on job of walking you through Oracle DBA tasks. The instructor insinuated that there was going to be another course (e.g. Oracle 10g advanced) in the future - but I've seen nothing lately.

For what it's worth, I've been using Oracle for 10+ years and only recently as a DBA.

Hope this helps.

Greg

P.S. Daniel - you may find it interesting to know that my instructor at Harvard had only a BS degree. It was still hard. Doh!