I have been wanting to do masters for a few years now and could not, because of some responsibilities and lack of financial resources. At last I am in a position to be able to do masters. Planning for 2020 fall. Interested in data science and machine learning but has not worked on it so far. My work has been primarily focused on ETL, SQL DBs and webapps. 1) Is it too late to enter datasciences/ML for me with none of my past exp in it? Or is it safe to do generic Masters, take relevant datasciences/ML electives and apply for jobs post MS. 2) Good colleges for ML/datasciences oriented courses? 3) I got around 312 in GRE in first attempt. Gonna give it another try. 4) Do I have to start as newbie with low salary post MS? Not a priority, but wanna know so that I can be prepared and see if I can do something else to boost the salary. Read a lot about UC Berkeley Datasciences program, but it's available online and expensive for an online program. Is it worth the effort and price? Apologies for long post. Thanks in advance.
Do you want to work on analytics, deployments, or research? Different levels of skill in different areas depending on which of these you want to work on
Haven't made up my mind yet. Most probably not research at this point.
Georgia Tech program in Analytics is the best out there for quality and price.
1) You can still enter, but start experimenting now at you job. This way you can tell recruiters you have some experience. 2) Any analytics or data science program if you're not sure what to do yet. Prestige doesn't matter, as they're too new to have credible rankings. But do look at industry connections. Find alums on linkedin and ask if they used real of synthetic data in their capstone's, and what they felt their program could have added to the curriculum that they didn't get. 3) Take practice questions and tests online before you retake. Your score may increase tangibly. 4) You'll need to interview around, but there's a solid chance you'll make more than most of your new grad classmates if you spin past experience as directly related. The ETL, web apps, and DB work are all very relevant to analytics/DS in ops
I would recommend georgia Tech's analytics Masters. It's a fraction of the price and has good course quality.
Thank you. Will check it out.