Hi all, I have got an admit from Columbia University for MS in CS bad also I have offer from Amazon India for SDE II. I am really confused between these two opportunities in front of me. Columbia is world class ivy league University and it's a costly affair and on the other hand Amazon India will give will pay decent salary and I may get a chance to travel to US through L1. But again Columbia will give me lot of exposure and new learning but it will cost me $100k and I will fall into similar job once i complete MS. So I am really confused which one to take as Columbia is once in life time opportunity and Amazon is also good opportunity to learn.
If your goal is to work in the US at a high paying job - take the Amazon offer. Two years from now - you can be in the US and earning 250k without having to take on the burden of a 100k debt. And you will also end up having 2 extra years of work exp. which will fetch you much greater salaries if you decide to switch. Financially, this seems like a much better option than spending two year acruing a 100k debt only to get a job that will possibly pay lesser than what you can get via the Amazon route.
Masters is really useful in two cases : career pivot to a different domain and geographic change. Reading from your post, you don't want any domain change and have an opportunity to go to US via Amazon. I'd skip the masters even if it was from Columbia.
What's your YOE?
It would be 3yrs in July
go for columbia. you can probably land sde2 roles after masters.
2 years time for masters isn't worth it. International students are basically cash cows for these universities. If your dad is so rich that you don't mind 2 years loss of income and an extra 100k USD, by all means join ivy league. You can brag about it. Otherwise, Amazon has very generous L1 intercompany transfer to USA. So you will directly get transferred to an SDE 2 role in USA.
Don't do the master's unless you would like to do the PhD or go into research. Should be simpler to move to US once you're at Amazon. Your work experience matters more than a school name when you're applying for a job.
Go for master 1. Experience will be worth it 2. If You will transfer by L1 which will have less salary compare to others 3. In H1B visa, you will have higher chance if you do MS than from internal transfer
Go for Columbia. No brainer. You can clear the 100k$ debt within 2 years. The TC in US will be astronomical compared to India. And obviously you will enjoy your life much more in US than slogging in Amazon, India
Makes sense. But OP can go to Amazon US instead of graduating from there and then potentially landing an SDE 1 job. Start at a min TC of 252K this year. And then post H1B change π