Got an admit, should I go?

Hi guys!

Recently I have been getting a lot of messages from people, who want to discuss their prospects about joining a particular college after getting a masters admit from the same. Given the limited bandwidth that I have via personal chat, I decided to write some general thoughts on the same as an article.

Well, congrats! Yout thought about something that you wanted to achieve, and finally, you have it. The first step is done. However now that you have an admit, is it something that you should really go for?

Often we tend to apply for a masters program with a different set of expectations like our life would change! But in what ways exactly?

Now is a good time to rethink all of it and finally take a call.

Why?

Well, because the cost for pursuing a masters is significant and not three years of Netflix payment, bear that in mind! 

So how to decide if that is actually what you need. Well, here is my way:

1. Pen down what is the future that you envisage and gauge how the master's program you have an admit for is taking you a step closer to that vision. It might be a change of career, change of field, increasing your proficiency in a particular skill, building a network…whatever it is pen that down. Ideally, we should have done this exercise before applying...however a human brain is really susceptible to contraptions. We might have presumed a lot of stuff and often even skipped upon some of the points as we really did not have an admit back then. Now we have one, so rethink about everything once again.
2. Now once you are through with this step, try looking at financial aspects. The skills or whatever the master's program is offering you, can you get it using MOOCs or working at a startup? Or maybe a researcher at some lab. In short is there any other way besides pursuing a master and investing almost a crore rupees. Often people tend to go for the brand, so is that brand having the value that would yield the ROI eventually? The world is changing, people are questioning undergrad education costs as well. Is it really worth it? Loans, tentative calculations about the same, how much and how long will I take in repaying it. Are there any funding options, what are the worst and the best case scenarios relating the same. I had imagined I would be completely funded however there were months when my TAship did not go through and I had to resort on some of my back up plans. So be prepared! Might consider Europe as well, if funding is a big issue and you really need masters :)
3. Once you have your opinions, discuss these answers briefly with folks who have attended these programs. How was there experience and are your expectations realistic? For instance, a lot of people believe that a master's degree is going to lead them to a researcher profile in their profession which is generally not the case. Generally, you end up being a Machine Learning "Engineer" or Computer Vision "Engineer" in a group where research is lead by a professor or a PhD. So long story short research roles are generally taken up by PhDs unless you are amazingly talented as a researcher! So we need to keep our expectations clear and realistic. Also, do you want to pursue a PhD, if yes then how are you going to cover for the costs that you end up spending on your masters? At least ponder on these questions! These aren't very uncommon situations, and with so much of connectivity, it would be really sad if after you come here you are devastated as you had a very different perception about what was going to happen here in your masters. And just to give you a recap, this has already happened with most of us as we ended up taking up some engineering field which we had no clue about and eventually became software engineers -_-
4. If in case you end up deciding you are not going for masters then make a solid plan on what are you going to do if not a masters. You see, you are leaving an opportunity you have in your hand so you should not regret that later. Come up with a solid plan of how you are going to fulfil the overarching picture that you drew in point 1.
5. Once all these questions are answered I guess you will have your decision! If there are still questions feel free to message me on LinkedIn. Would be glad to talk and help you :) 

As soon as I get some time, I would be posting my thoughts on some general questions asked very often about CMU as well. Till then, stay tuned :P

Cheers

Harsh Agarwal