

Ask HN: Should I go back to school? - sturgeongeneral

I&#x27;ve been working as a front-end developer professionally for the last 4 years doing mostly HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and I&#x27;m looking to make a change. I feel like I&#x27;m not growing intellectually; I&#x27;d rather be doing back-end or mobile development. The solution may be as simple as switching jobs, but I think there&#x27;s an elephant in the room: I think I lack a grasp of the fundamental principles that would make me not only a good coder, but a good thinker. I&#x27;ve worked really hard at learning some of these myself, but I think I&#x27;ve hit a wall. In my spare time I do Python and have begun dipping my toes in Clojure, and I find I really enjoy both, but I think the ability to build and reason about large and scalable applications seems out of reach at the moment.<p>I have a BA in Econ but I&#x27;m thinking of going back to school for CS. Returning to my alma mater would cost me no more than $30k in total and would take no more than 2 years. Is it worth it, or should I continue working and invest my time in self-education? I feel like credentials can be overrated, but I see a real value in pursuing a CS education.
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bavcyc
If you do better in a classroom setting, pursuing the CS degree is probably
worth it. Check with the school and see if you can pursue the CS as a MS
rather than a BS, this may require a number of undergraduate classes to
fulfill delinquencies. With an Econ degree, I expect you are already good at
research and analysis.

I went back to school for an EE degree (and it has been worth it) since
credentials are needed in certain areas of the EE realm. And the credential is
definitely a benefit that trumped the costs associated with pursuing another
UG degree.

An e-book that may be of interest is "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist."

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sturgeongeneral
Thanks for the feedback.

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pmtarantino
If it were only for the credentials, I would say no. It if were only for the
education, I think you can get the same topics (and maybe more in deep) from
articles, books, papers and more.

Anyway, I say yes: a CS education in college will provide you with an
environment full of people who will pursue the same and think alike, and
that's one of the most important things I am getting in college.

