[Sigia-l] Masters programs in HCI

[Cary Evans]

Hi -

I'm the fellow who is giving up his career to go back to school. As fate would have it, I'll be attending the HCI program at Carnegie Mellon this fall.

The true $40K price tag (just looking at price):
The real cost of going to school is not necessarily the tuition, it is the opportunity cost associated with not working and making money. CMU's program is a 12 month program vs. a two year program, this makes the hefty price tag palpable. In other words: CMU's cost is 12 months of salary + $40K (tuition). A two year program costs 21 months of salary + tuition. This is a rough, there are other factors such as the ability to do a paid internship for your summer in a two year program etc. 

For me the cost was more or less a wash when compared to my other choice which was located in my backyard but a two year program (Berkeley's School of Information Management Science). Technically, CMU is a lot cheaper for me, but I have to sell the house in Berkeley and move across country with the wife and dog, plane tickets, hair-loss associated with stress during the move (Rogain $40), and other misc. costs make the cost pretty comparable for my situation.


- Cary Evans
User Interface Developer