RennSter20 in 
Computer Science
Advice needed: where should I do masters?
Hi everyone,
I'm 3rd year computer science bsc degree (university of applied sciences) student and in my country, this is the last year of study before masters degree. I'm also employed as a software engineering student intern at a largest company in my country for about 1 year. Time has come to apply for masters but there's no much options for applied science masters degree. Goal for my near career/life is to live in UK/Netherlands/Denmark (UK preferably) and develop as much as can. I've been to these countries and really like them. Of course, being a tourist in these countries is totally different thing then living in them, but want to move out my country(it's in EU). tried applying to jobs in these countries as junior/graduate software engineer and got rejected after every application. Somehow I doubt that itll change after finish any kind of masters degree in my country. I've done some research on universities in mentioned countries and got to an conclusion that:
UK universities are way too expensive for me Netherlands has really big housing crisis and there's no universities for software engineering/CS in Amsterdam(looking at Amsterdam because think it has most job opportunities)
unis in Denmark seem like good choice for applying (like Aalborg university in Copenhagen) after finishing university of applied science but not sure about job opportunities. While applying to certain amount of jobs, I got a few rejections with stated reason why they rejected me, and it was because I wasn't located in that country. Also, seems like it's too late for aalborg university since deadline was in april.
What do you think? Should it be better to apply to one of the universities or finish some kind of IT masters in my country, work as intern for 2 more years and then try to apply? Thank you for reading this a little longer text and commenting. I assume there's a lot of posts like this but l am really overwhelmed about decision I should make.
Thank you
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SomeDude20Computer Science at Tehnicko veleucilište u Zagrebu
Thank you so much! I've never read such a detailed comment.
I agree about the living expenses in London and salaries. While I've been looking for a job in London, I noticed that a lot of job salaries are around 30-35k, which is ridiculous just by looking at rent costs and everything else. On the other hand, as you mentioned, to climb the ladder, I have to be in London.
I've been researching other universities in the UK and didn't find any uni with low tuition fees (like 2k in Amsterdam).
University in Amsterdam offers a research masters (I studied at uni of applied science) but it doesn't match with my bachelors. If I want to study in NL, I'll have to go to uni elsewhere Amsterdam.
University in Copenhagen offers free tuition, it's 2 years long but I didn't find interesting jobs until now.
I didn't think of going to any other country, especially where German is spoken (I'm not too fond of it).
I'll continue searching universities of applied science near London and see where it takes me. I'm looking for masters that are 1 year long. I think that best thing to do will be to find a job at the end of masters.
Again, thank you! :D
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That being said, if your aim is to find a job in the private sector and stay in that country, I'd recommend you don't focus that much on the university, but more on the city (does it have lots of tech jobs, do you like living there, etc). Getting a part time job and focusing on uni just enough to graduate will be the best thing for your career. Trust me, you'll learn more useful stuff on the job in the first two months than in the whole two years of masters.
IMHO despite higher quality of education, UK unis don't make financial sense unless someone else is paying for it. Or maybe if you want to do pure research. In your case, I think the best cities to focus on would be:
- Amsterdam (lots of jobs, good pay, but high rents and a relatively low but nonnegative tuition fee).
- Zürich (ok tech jobs, especially lots of big tech, very good pay, but extreme rents and living costs. Salaries make up for it when you become full time. University has a low tuition. Somewhat less English- and foreigner-friendly. Potentially problematic to get a job if you don't have EU citizenship).
- Munich (similar to Zürich, lower pay but lower living costs. Uni is free. Generally friendly to immigrants but you better learn German).
- Copenhagen (not as many interesting tech jobs but still pretty high pay, high living costs. Fre uni. Very English-friendly).
- Berlin (lots of tech jobs as well, lower living costs than any on this list but still good pay, very English-friendly but IMHO not a nice place to live unless you're a member of a specific cultural subgroup for which Berlin is a mecca. Also free uni).
- Paris (a decent number of tech jobs, shit pay, not as expensive to live in as you might think, and you better learn French if you wanna survive. Idk about the cost of unis, but heard excellent things about the quality of Ecole Polytechnique, and the few people I know that graduated there are very good engineers.)
- Stockholm (moderate to high living costs, relatively low pay but a decent amount of tech jobs. Quite good for game development from what I've heard. Personally, find it a very nice, livable city. Free uni.).
I'll also add my thoughts on London to the mix: much more expensive to live in than you'd think, and pay is actually pretty shit, unless you're already high up on the career ladder or work in finance. However, lots of tech jobs and extremely good opportunities for climbing up the career ladder. If you wanna climb as high up as you can, then you almost have to be in London. If you want to earn a decent amount and not have rediculous living costs, other UK cities like Cambridge or the European cities I listed are better.
Hope this helps.