MSc Cost Question

tntcoder

tntcoder

tntcoder

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Joined
7 Apr 2004
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4,211
Hey,

I'm tempted by an MSc course in London with UCL, only problem is that the year costs the better part of £15,000... How is this affordable? As far as i can see there are no available student finance options for MSc years and living in London would cost a shed load as well. Are these courses designed for people with company sponsorship or the rich or what? Any other options for obtaining funding? :confused:

Thanks
Jack
 
Masters courses seem to be horrendous. At my uni, there is the option of doing the Masters course straight, the whole 4 years and it costs the same. If I then chose to do it after a break, it would be insanely expensive. It's tempting to do it, but I just don't fancy it :/
 
MSc's are often nothing more than cash-cows for the University, and only in very few cases are the costs worth the return. Personally, I would think long and hard before making the jump!

What's the course and what are your reasons for wanting to do it? :)
 
Its in Information Security, and i want to do it because i really want to work in Info Sec, the course seems very specialized and well regarded. I'm not sure just having a BSc in Computer Science will be enough, it might but im sure the MSc would be very helpful, just not sure if its economical to do in the long run.
 
tntcoder said:
Its in Information Security, and i want to do it because i really want to work in Info Sec, the course seems very specialized and well regarded. I'm not sure just having a BSc in Computer Science will be enough, it might but im sure the MSc would be very helpful, just not sure if its economical to do in the long run.
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Yo, I'm starting a job in sept as a Junior Security Consultant (Well pen tester) and I only have a decent degree. . The interviewer said that they normally recruit people with more experience (few years doing sys admin/development) or an MSc in the area.. but its certainly possible to get if you know your stuff. End of the day.. no amount of academic experience is going to help you learn the skills you need for this kinda work it comes with hours and hours of self study...

If you do decide to do an MSc I would look at this http://www.isg.rhul.ac.uk/msc as well.
 
Thanks a lot Una, gives me something to think about. That Royal Holloway course is half the price of UCL, phraphs much more sensible. Im aiming for a first in my Bsc, and i have a couple of security certs, just thought the msc would reenforce everything,
 
You need to find funding.

Most masters courses (well, science/engineering based ones anyway) will have some form of EPSRC funding, for a limited number of high-quality students - usally from British or EU nations. This keeps their academic reputation high, and attracts fee-paying students from abroad.

Go for a masters in which you can obtain funding.
 
If funding isn't available then just take a loan out.

Might seem a lot of money now but it ought to pay for itself. I'm pretty sure most of the big consultancy/accountancy firms hire security consultants and UCL is definitely a good brand name to have on your CV. In the grand scheme of things, given the total amount of money you'll earn over you life time, 15k is naff all.
 
tntcoder said:
Thanks a lot Una, gives me something to think about. That Royal Holloway course is half the price of UCL, phraphs much more sensible. Im aiming for a first in my Bsc, and i have a couple of security certs, just thought the msc would reenforce everything,
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Qualifications wise, I have a first class in Comp Sci with my final year project focused on security. No security certs at the moment, but I know the company want to get my trained up with a few.. You might want to try applying for a few places? I was put off a few pen test houses because they used entirely canned software (nmap, metasploit etc) and didn't have the skills to do vuln/exploit dev and it would become very routine..

Certs might look great to HR people but if you have a technical interview it won't really matter if you have any certs or not. The technical interview will show what you really know.

I'm actually a little worried if I am going to be good enough or find it too hard work... Two of the guys ill be working with are speaking at EUSecWest soon :eek:

Oh and money wise 15k is not a lot when there are jobs for like 50k~ with 3-4 years experience. You will earn it back in future.
 
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I did an MSc conversion course in Information Technology, I previously had a BEng (hons) in Mechanical Engineering. I was given a grant of £3500 to do the course at University of Aberdeen.
 
Banks do offer special career development loans. When I did a Masters I knew several (older) students who had taken out one. You start repaying it after you've been in employment for 6 months.

I was quite lucky. The EU paid my course fees (~£4k), so all I had to worry about was the usual living costs.
 
What certs did you go for out of interest and how did you find them?
 
tntcoder said:
Thanks a lot Una, gives me something to think about. That Royal Holloway course is half the price of UCL, phraphs much more sensible. Im aiming for a first in my Bsc, and i have a couple of security certs, just thought the msc would reenforce everything,
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If you get a place on both then, unless the Royal Holloway course is really well regarded in the field, there really isn't much to be gained in the long run from trying to save a few grand.

In general MSc from UCL > MSc from Royal Holloway

All things being equal I'd go for the UCL course - I know naff all about either course but neither do most HR managers - what they do know however is UCL is a top 10 (if not top 5) school.
 
I just finished my last undergrad degree exam today, relief!

Just need to hope the grades are good as I've got a few masters sitting as options. All of which are paid tuition and about £8K in my pocket too :)

Never heard of a masters costing £15K tho! Most of them are about £3K-£4K !
 
dowie said:
If you get a place on both then, unless the Royal Holloway course is really well regarded in the field, there really isn't much to be gained in the long run from trying to save a few grand.

In general MSc from UCL > MSc from Royal Holloway

All things being equal I'd go for the UCL course - I know naff all about either course but neither do most HR managers - what they do know however is UCL is a top 10 (if not top 5) school.
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The Royal Holloway one is pretty well regarded in the field. It's actually one of the largest academic security group in the world.. but as you say HR might have no idea and will think UCL is better purely on uni rep :)
 
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