UC Berkeley's new MA Statistics program

[bianchiSS]

I was admitted to Berkeley's MA Statistics program for the Fall of 2012, but am a little nervous about the changes:

-condensed to one year

-tuition (Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition) hiked $10K

-no longer providing financial support (i.e. TAships)

I know most programs are little more than a year, but I'm a little wary. It looks like they might be devaluing the program and trying to get more money out of it - but that is largely based on my prior that Berkeley = broke.

What do you think? No doubt Berkeley is still a good school, tons of brilliant professors, but I'm not sure their Masters program is as good as it was. I'm reluctant to borrow tens of thousands of dollars for such an uncertain program.

[cyberwulf]

It's true that Masters degrees are increasingly perceived as money-makers used to support PhD programs. I don't know if this is the motivation for the program changes at Berkeley, but just because a school turns a profit on your studies doesn't mean you won't have a good experience.

The key question is: What are you getting for that extra money? I think it's entirely legitimate for you to request clarification from someone in the department as to what the changes will mean for the student experience. If they can't give you a straight answer, you might want to think carefully about whether you want to pay for the privilege of being a guinea pig as they develop their new model.

[dunleavy005]

i was a berkeley undergrad, and from what i knew before i graduated, its basically the same program as before, with no TA, higher tuition. the department does need money and this is basically their way of getting more funding as they know people will still be interested in a "berkeley" stats degree if they want to work in industry, regardless of price. i heard they may add some "professional dev." courses as well , but honestly itll mostly be BS that is common sense. if u have other masters offers with better funding, id highly recommend that.