Carnegie Mellon MSIT and other babble

It seems when I have a spare moment I always end up reading or searching for some DL related subject. It has almost (if not already) become a hobby.

As my MS in Network Security*** draws to a close, I find myself playing the "What's Next?" game. Have you ever been there too?

While out playing on JoAnn's site, I clicked on the Carnegie Mellon MSIT link. While name recognition is there, so is the cost, which is currently $4872 a class! Even if I could transfer one class, it would still take 4 years and cost $53,592!

As a reference point, a PhD from Nova (including travel and hotel) will run $37,310** over three years. Purdue's weekend MSIT is around $20,000 (non DL) over 2 years, plus a summer.

My question is; when would something like Carnegie Mellon be an option? Do you, the online leaner, feel this is overkill in terms of cost?

I think it is interesting how DL is often quietly frowned upon by many of the traditional schools, yet some of them have no problem offering the product ... for a price.

Thoughts?


**The cost of the Nova PhD is going to be $14,910 over three years after I take out my tuition reimbursement, but does not include the amount which will be taken as a tax deduction (which will be most, if not all).

***Capitol is changing the name of their MSNS to MS in Information Assurance.


Nova Link
http://www.scis.nova.edu/
CM Link
http://www.distance.cmu.edu/index.html
PU Link
http://www2.tech.purdue.edu/pages/graduate_programs/weekend_grad/weekend_grad_costs.html

 

Steve, for you my friend, given all that you will have acomplished, you should either go for the Nova PhD or put all that education to work in the real world.

You think that's expensive? Take a look at the Systems Design and Management program at MIT. It costs $70,550 for just tuition and there are several other required costs such as medical insurance!

I think its going to be tough to justify the cost. If you are smart enough to get into CMU and graduate successfully, you are certainly going to be successful regardless of where you get your education. If an employer is paying for it -- sure why not? You would have to be really, really hung up on educational prestige to make this degree attractive. When I was choosing my ultimate masters program, I chose the University of Florida over Columbia University because when I considered the tuition and the quality of their repective Computer Science departments, there was no way that Columbia was good enough to pay an additional $800 per semester hour.

For coursework, all of the professors (from traditional schools) I've spoken to believe that distance learning can be as effective as on-campus learning. (Of course, none of them believe that equivalent research can be accomplised or supervised by distance learning.) However, as a general rule, they do not respect "virtual" or distance learning only institutions. Its not the fact that they offer their courses by distance learning, its because they don't have a long tradition in offering quality education. As for distance learning courses offered by their peers, I don't think there is any problem.

 

The program is clearly for people who have employers that will pay for the program. I can't imagine someone spending their own money on the program, despite the fact that Carnegie Mellon is the highest rated computer science school that offers any sort of 100% DL degree.

 

I was considering CM for my MSIT but it was TOO expensive. In the end, I needed a MS degree so went in for UMUC.

 

Stanford

Stanfords program at:
http://scpd.stanford.edu/scpd/default.htm

is $1,199/unit (credit hour) or $3,597 for a 3 credit course. The courses seem to average 3 credits each, although some are 1 credit and some are up to 5 credits.
Your company has to become a member, but my understanding is that the fee is based on the size of your company.
It's not too far behind CM in prestige this year and has years it is ahead of CM.