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Comment by balls187 | Hacker News Reader

> Cmon guys, a US Masters for 7000 USD?

For US costal software engineers, $7k is relatively inexpensive.

The average monthly income in Brazil is ~$620 a month. The average top end worker is $3500 a month. So $7k would likely be a significant investment for many Brazilians.

https://www.worldcrunch.com/business-finance/in-booming-braz...

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I think he means that it's a deal compared to other good CS masters degrees. Obviously, things are expensive for people in different places. Hell, 7k is pretty damn expensive for a lot of Americans too.

Agree, that's why I said its "for a US Masters". There have been other traditional offerings from CMU, Stanford and JHU etc which are all in the 40k USD range. Most of the international students would normally get more out of a residential MS in the US but 100k+ investment is sometimes out of the question. The other view is that the coursework lets say in a country like India will leave a lot to be desired and even an online MS such as from GaTech is a window to the outside world where they can interact with a wide variety of students and immerse themselves in a nearly international study experience. So the cost factor is just right. Also admissions to the Gatech cohorts are very competitive now, so its not also a cake walk to get in these days :)

I did a masters an Johns Hopkins and completed it all online. It's a similar style program where you can do it all online, on campus, or as a combination.

Still cost me slightly over 40k even though Innever stepped foot on campus.

It's a total rip-off, but only in the sense that I couldn't get a decent paying job without a masters (work in biotech).

> It's a total rip-off

I've always been under the impression that most masters degrees are money mills for the university. They expect your employer to foot the bill.

Mine did for most of it, still a rip-off. But at the same time I got a much better job out of it, just didn't actually need the degree to do the job.

MS in CS from UW-Madison here. Also taught CS240B to masters students at Stanford.

Stanford masters seemed almost entirely like a money mill.

Wisconsin masters was a much better education in my opinion. Worked you harder, it was actually worth the time I put in.

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