I'm a grad student in a 'top-10' university for computer science. This is my 4th semester here, and the normal timeline seems to be to take your masters in 3-4 semesters and get into the industry.<p>I've been doing research since my first semester. Since I was funded almost throughout I don't have much of a debt.
I feel that my foundations in the areas of my interest (ml and systems) is shaky at best. I took grad level classes in both but realized that I didn't have a firm grasp on a lot of things.<p>I could graduate this semester if I wanted to. As an international student, I don't have the option of graduating and not taking a job. However,I don't feel confident enough to pass an intense interviews in the places I want.
My other option is to graduate next semester. In my next semester my course load will be almost negligible giving me a lot of time to focus. Even if I don't get funded the number of credits would be low enough that I can pay without debt.<p>I'm in the pool of interns for Google this summer (convert from a full time interview to the pool) and although it's late in the process I might get matched to a project. If not, I might end up doing research or look elsewhere.<p>I'm facing quite some opposition. People said that it makes no sense to spend 5 more months in grad school if not for a PhD, instead to graduate now and look at shifting jobs further in your career. I've been told that delaying at my age (I'm 26 turning 27) would just harm my career further down the line.<p>The people on HN are experts so I thought I could get some insight. My main motivation for doing this was to get 5-6 months of intense deep diving into areas that I feel I lack - something I would not be able to do easily once I go full time ( I worked at Microsoft before this and I remember that initially I had barely any time to spend studying).<p>What would your advise be in this situation? Do you think it would be worth the time, and would this adversely affect my career options?
I am no expert. Taking 2.5 years for a Master's thesis seems long to me, so I would wonder what took you so long. Eg, the MS for CS at Illinois, currently ranked #5, at <a href="https://cs.illinois.edu/prospective-students/graduate-students/ms-phd-programs/ms-and-phd-degree-requirements" rel="nofollow">https://cs.illinois.edu/prospective-students/graduate-studen...</a> , is a three semester program, so four semesters is already on the long side, much less five. Cornell, ranked #6, is a two or three semester program, suggests <a href="http://www.cs.cornell.edu/masters/academics/faq" rel="nofollow">http://www.cs.cornell.edu/masters/academics/faq</a> .<p>If you answer that it's because you didn't think you understood machine learning well enough, with that being your field of interest, I would wonder why you didn't start with a focus on that topic. Did you only realize that was your interest as the end of your studies? Otherwise, why didn't you start with that topic coming in, including research in the topic? On the other hand, if you've been doing ML for two years, and think you don't know enough about it, perhaps you really should be in the PhD program, since one extra semester isn't all that much time to really understand the topic.<p>So as a potential employer, I would be wondering if you really were interested in the topic, and what took you so long to graduate with a Master's degree, and if you understood the point of a MS degree.<p>(I can understand if you use it as a delaying tactic for visa purposes to get a job, but you haven't said that you've even started looking for a job.)