RE: Student-Degree valuable or not?

[Meidinger Chris <chris.meidinger () badenit de>]

1. 50K is not that much for a degree. Out of state tuition will run you that
anywhere you go. If 50K means total costs including books, room and board,
that's actually quite cheap.
2. Which university? As others have mentioned, this is very important. Being
with Bullwinkle at Wossamotta U. is not the same as being with NSA Guys at
George Mason. 
3. Nobody can forecast 4 years ahead in this industry. 

Sorry this isn't longer, but i need to get some work done too :p

-Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: DANIEL SIMPSON [mailto:DANSIMPS () uat edu] 
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 1:23 AM
To: Security-Basics
Subject: Student-Degree valuable or not?


Hey,


I just retired from a 4 year stint in Silicon Valley where I was a System
Administrator/Technical Engineer for a couple start-ups. I started getting
more and more into Information Security and finally decided to quit my
boring job and move to Arizona to enter a 4 year program at a private
university. I'm getting my B.S in software engineering with an emphasis on
security. How valuable will this degree be and what are the forecasts for
the job market in this field in about 4 years. The program is REALLY
expensive and I cashed out all my investments/savings to pay for it (roughly
10k a year). I might even go to law school afterwards. Is this degree worth
the estimated 40-50k? I'm 22 btw, my dream is to work for Microsoft or
Goggle for a couple years and start my own security firm.


Any suggestions would be awesome.

Dann

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