Hyperinflation- Wrong time to go back to school full-time?

Poll risks being misinterpreted. Some people might pick 'Yes' while meaning to say 'Yes go back to school' and vica versa for 'No'.. Perhaps go back to school and study how to conduct better polling?🤔

What role are you in at shell? An engineer role other than SWE?

Schools are a scam . You're going to lose years of compounding If you stop working for a couple of years

If there really is hyperinflation, it's possible that the school will shut down operations before you get your degree Not making any prediction. But OP mentioned hyperinflation as part of his decision calculus. Hyperinflation would affect school operations, too.

Have you taken a look at OMSCS? Should be pretty feasible while working full time

Before we discuss this, checked of definition of hyperinflation. If you still think you actually meant hyperinflation, do either of it. If hyperinflation occurs, neither your degree nor your job would help.

I definitely don’t recommend leaving your job for pursuing a MSCS degree. That said, you do have options like OMSCS (Georgia Tech) or MSCSO (UT Austin) and a few others which are asynchronous programs which you can do on your own at your own pace. I’m doing one and it’s manageable but my schedule is much more free than others, but I’m also cramming interview prep and interviews in my schedule so it can be hectic. One of the pros of of getting in a program right now is that you don’t have to submit GRE/GMAT scores to get in which to me was a no brainer since I’m a horrible test taker and it’s always been my goal to do a MS and than possibly a PhD. I’m doing it because I have a major interest in ML research. All in all, good time to do it if you can balance it and the fact that GRE is waived, but not worth it if you’re gonna leave your job. Switch to a better role first maybe. Hope this helps OP.