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  1. Upvote
    default reacted to victor.s.andrei in Am I on the right track?   
    I think your profile is fine. If you were to go for a MS, the adcom's biggest concern would be whether you had sufficient mathematics and computer science background to complete the program.

    That said, I think that you don't need a full-blown MS to do what you want to do.

    However, if you must have an MS, get one issued by a known, brick-and-mortar institution known for fostering an entrepeneurial atmosphere in a geographic area where there are other young folks like you. (Online or hybrid degrees issues by brick-and-mortar institutions are okay, but you may lose out on the networking aspect to varying degrees.) In other words, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Washington, Cambridge Mass., or New York. Think Stanford, UW, UT, Maryland, Harvard/MIT, or NYU/Columbia. "Big data" is popular in these cities - there are a lot of tech companies in San Francisco and Seattle, tech entrepreneurship is big in Austin and Cambridge, the financial services industry in NYC loves "big data" for obvious reasons, and so does the Federal government in Washington. Which city you pick depends on what sort of people you want to meet and what industry you ultimately want to target as your market. Choose wisely - you may end up sticking around for a while. You may also want to consider getting experience in your target industry - for example, if you want to target financial services, work in a financial services enterprise for a year or two. Consider that they may also pay for your continuing education.

    That said, it can't hurt for you to pick up useful classes here and there. For example, Hadoop or SQL or SAS or R or various scripting languages (Python is useful). Classes in data structures and algorithms might be useful. Same thing for a computer organization and a discrete math course. You could do a formal post-bac (like the online one offered by Oregon State) or just pick up classes at a local school wherever you are. Also, learn UNIX. Actually, learn how to use Linux...err, GNU/Linux, for the fanatics among us.

    Definitely learn about the cloud. It's the big thing right now in information technology. Rackspace has an amazing free certificate program called CloudU. Virtualization is also the rage.

    Your most important challenges at this point are to go somewhere where lots of entrepreneurial young tech folks are hanging out, learn the basics on the tech side, meet new people, amass some capital, come up with a business plan, and execute.

    Also, consider that your existing business background may make you an attractive candidate for handling the business side of a venture that also includes tech folks. Startups don't happen if all you have are tech folks. Startups also need business folks, and you've got an amazing background in that regard.

    Good luck, and feel free to PM me if you want to talk more.
  2. Upvote
    default reacted to Ancient CS Grad in Am I on the right track?   
    In addition to Victor's comments I would suggest that you look for a program that is aimed at career change vs research. If your goal is to combine your business skills with a new set of CS skills, there are programs out there that would fit you needs quite well. I would not suggest that you look at a top 15 research institution for your MS rather look for a program that focuses on career changers. If you try to compete with other students who already have their BS in CS you might find it a bit overwhelming. Career change programs generally allow for the fact that you might need extra courses to come up to speed and will probably be able to teach you what you want to know. In addition most career change programs are part time with classes at night that allow you to continue to earn a living. This is important since most MS programs do not have any kind of funding available.
  3. Upvote
    default reacted to default in Am I on the right track?   
    Thank you and Victor for the feedback. Can you give a few examples of good career change programs?

    I noticed a number of programs mentioning prereqs (often times in the form of their own ugrad courses) - can I apply without having those prereqs?
  4. Upvote
    default reacted to victor.s.andrei in Am I on the right track?   
    You can but I don't recommend doing so, at least, for a computer science program. You will get thrown into upper-level courses without fundamentals (data structures, computer architecture, discrete math, etc.) which will not end well for you. If you want to do a computer science program, do a formal post-bacc. See my post above for an example at Oregon State. Quite a few schools have such programs. Here in Virginia, George Mason has a twelve-hour "Foundations of Information Systems" certificate (yes, certificates are considered graduate degrees, like master's degrees and doctorates) that is essentially the core of a computer science program.
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