Hello, r/personalfinance!
This is my first post here, although I'm familiar with the sub. I'll include a summary of my personal info at the bottom along with a TLDR.
I'm 36, Male, single, no dependents. I hold a BS in Biology along with an MBA (from small, public schools you've never heard of.) Currently, I'm strongly considering re-enrolling to get a BS/MS in computer science -- something that I've wanted to do for the past six years or so, but haven't had the time and means to do it. I know that the debt will bury me, completely. I have ~40K outstanding and the new degree will add another 25K. I know that the repercussions of taking on more debt will likely kill my retirement. However, I just want to work in a field that I enjoy.
Why move to the tech sector? I've been around PCs since MS-DOS was considered a mainstream OS. The reason I didn't jump in while I was young is that I had a string of high school teachers that hated the subject. That colored my opinion of the field as dry and uncreative. However, in 2007 while I was in the MBA program, one of the folks in my project group was a web designer who showed me how websites are built. That short lesson changed everything for me. However, after earning the MBA in '08, I felt I couldn't back up and redo school and decided to use the degree.
Today, I consider the MBA a mistake, I've held management positions in the past and found that I hate managing people. I'd much rather work with "things". As far as my work performance goes, I've had no problems earning good reviews and promotions.
I've strongly considered going through a boot camp; however, I worry whether or not I could get a job at graduation since I don't come from a formal technical background (e.g., engineering, accounting, etc.) Also, the market seems to be flooded with boot camp grads these days. So, after looking through a lot of programs, most of what I see teaches web programming with scripting languages teaching students how to glue together various services/APIs. Personally, I'm interested in how services like databases, web servers and networks (e.g., IPFS) are designed and built. I want to understand how everything works "under the hood." The theory behind it all is exciting to me.
So, should I just shelve this stuff and stick to a job I may not care for and learn software on the side? Or, just say "screw it" and see where grad school leads me? I've read that there is a severe undersupply of computer science grads compared to open positions.
TLDR; A 36-year-old single guy with no dependents has a BS in Bio and an MBA (both from crap schools) is thinking of heading back to college (a good university this time) to study computer science on the BS and MS levels. Current debt is ~46K. Worried that a boot camp won't lead to a stable job under the current market. Is going back this late in life financial suicide? Will the MS help me land a job at my age?
Estimated cost of BSCS: ~25K Estimated cost of MSCS: ~20-40K
Thank you all for your time!
Submitted December 23, 2018 at 11:13AM by Ridge_Runnr http://bit.ly/2ENVnWw
