Sorry for the delay, the wife took the little one to go watch a movie in the park and I took my mom to go watch Divergent :-).
I would say my primary motivation was simply the cost of the program (at the estimated $7000 they've mentioned) and the fact that it didn't require any GRE scores to be submitted, which was a plus for me since I haven't taken the test.
I've been looking at a bunch of Masters programs over the past 4 years or so, mainly online ones since we don't have any local universities I could go to in person for a technology related degree, but all of them have been in the typical $30,000 range or so for the cost of the entire program and in my current position there's absolutely no financial benefit to getting a Masters.
I've been debating about getting a Masters in Business instead (since that's a local degree that is offered at a small university extended campus) but I'd definitely prefer the Computer Science route and the Georgia Tech program was the first one that really sounded like something I wanted to do.
As far as specialization, right now I'm thinking of sticking with something I'm at least somewhat familiar with so the Databases and Software Engineering one sounds like a good bet, but the others could definitely have something I might enjoy too so hopefully I'll have the option to explore one or two of the others as well.
While I started in CS for a year (and at least go a decent basic foundation in programming), my degree is also in Information Systems. I definitely share your feeling like there's a whole lot I still don't know that I missed by not fully completing the Bachelors in CS, but I think so long as you've been in some sort of development role these past few years, I believe that experience will be helpful and also allow you to directly apply what you'll start learning in the Masters program, which is another exciting aspect for me (one of the lame things in college before you really get out into the workforce is the issue of relevancy and doing things that actually matter...but when you're already working and then end up start a program like this I think the results are a whole lot better because you're able to apply things right away if you're already doing similar work).
I would say my primary motivation was simply the cost of the program (at the estimated $7000 they've mentioned) and the fact that it didn't require any GRE scores to be submitted, which was a plus for me since I haven't taken the test.
I've been looking at a bunch of Masters programs over the past 4 years or so, mainly online ones since we don't have any local universities I could go to in person for a technology related degree, but all of them have been in the typical $30,000 range or so for the cost of the entire program and in my current position there's absolutely no financial benefit to getting a Masters.
I've been debating about getting a Masters in Business instead (since that's a local degree that is offered at a small university extended campus) but I'd definitely prefer the Computer Science route and the Georgia Tech program was the first one that really sounded like something I wanted to do.
As far as specialization, right now I'm thinking of sticking with something I'm at least somewhat familiar with so the Databases and Software Engineering one sounds like a good bet, but the others could definitely have something I might enjoy too so hopefully I'll have the option to explore one or two of the others as well.
While I started in CS for a year (and at least go a decent basic foundation in programming), my degree is also in Information Systems. I definitely share your feeling like there's a whole lot I still don't know that I missed by not fully completing the Bachelors in CS, but I think so long as you've been in some sort of development role these past few years, I believe that experience will be helpful and also allow you to directly apply what you'll start learning in the Masters program, which is another exciting aspect for me (one of the lame things in college before you really get out into the workforce is the issue of relevancy and doing things that actually matter...but when you're already working and then end up start a program like this I think the results are a whole lot better because you're able to apply things right away if you're already doing similar work).