Stevens has a track for people just like me. I had work experience in computer science but I was not formally trained in the field. I was attracted by the program's ability to accommodate students of different proficiency levels. What specifically about Stevens' online master's program most appealed to you? It meant I didn't need to relocate, which was important to me. The flexibility of online study was a good fit for my needs. On top of all that, my family needed me close by.
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I had a full-time software engineering job working remotely. So, I thought, "I'm going to do this." Why did you choose an online program?
I spoke with an admissions counselor who explained that Stevens offers two tracks, one of which is for people newer to formal education in computer science. The program description and the course descriptions interested me, but what particularly caught my eye was that the school welcomes students with varying levels of experience. I found out about Stevens at the height of the pandemic, so an online degree was an appealing option. They encouraged me to go for it, to write my statement of purpose to get that practice and start looking into programs. I worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up in a computer science master's program because I wasn't an undergraduate comp sci major. I had an internship with Brookhaven National Lab that offered a graduate program benefit, so I started thinking about getting a master's, but I was on the fence. I didn't realize that I would actually get to know these people beyond the classroom, but I have, and it's been great."
"I've been pleasantly surprised by how close I've gotten to my classmates. I also started to learn on my own, taking whatever classes I could. When I realized I needed more background in computer science, I started looking for internships and outside experience. I didn't want to build the planes themselves I wanted to program the planes' systems. I have a bachelor's in aeronautical engineering, but I've always known that I wanted to do computer science. What led you to pursue an online master's degree in computer science? According to Kelly, these courses do "a really good job… of catching you up quickly."ĭespite a full-time job, a course load of two classes per semester and family obligations, Kelly was generous enough with his time to share his journey to Stevens and his experiences in the online program.
The school offers two foundational courses - one in Java programming, the other in data structures - to bring non-computer science majors up to speed before they begin graduate work. Kelly was encouraged to apply because he knew Stevens welcomed graduate students with bachelor's degrees outside the computer science disciplines. However, his degree was in aeronautical engineering, not computer science. Additionally, he had earned a bachelor's degree from the prestigious engineering school Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. True, he had completed a software engineering internship at Buncee and a computational science internship at Brookhaven National Laboratory. When Dale Kelly applied to Stevens Institute of Technology's Online Master in Computer Science program, he worried that he might not be qualified to pursue a graduate-level computer science degree.