[General Question] Is OMSCS worth it for a new grad?
For a bit of context, I'm a California resident set to graduate in fall of '27 with my BSCS, currently have a 4.0 out of a pretty average state school, but I will have 2-3 publications (2/3 ML related) by the time I'm out of undergrad and have had a MLE internship & a backend web development internship so far. My overall career goal is to get into machine learning engineer roles, so I've primarily been looking into schools that either have a MSCS with ML/AI specialization or a MSAI degree. I've been weighing my options in terms of affordability, as I have essentially been working a ton while taking classes full time and barely making tuition/rent payments. I will graduate with my BS debt free, but I don't know how keen I am on taking out a ton of loans for a top-tier residential MSCS/MSAI program unless it would be absolutely worth it for my career. Georgia Tech's OMSCS seems like a super high ROI option, especially since they have a machine learning specialization, but after looking around this subreddit I noticed that a majority of students doing OMSCS are industry professionals returning for a degree, so I assume they're probably taking it to advance in their current job positions. Would it be more worthwhile for career opportunities to take out some loans and go for a decent residential MS? Or would it be possible to still get decent connections and experiences to help with my career goals out of OMSCS? Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated!