[elharo]

Yes, a terminal master's degree in CS is absolutely worth it for a person in your position looking to make a career switch. It will help you learn things you do not know and qualify you for many jobs you would not currently be considered for. A CS masters is not the only way to do what you're trying to do, but it may be the easiest. You do not have to attend a prestige university or a win a scholarship to make this path worthwhile, though certainly those things are nice if you can get them.

I would not say the same thing to someone who already has a BS in CS; but for someone looking for a career switch like you are, it makes a lot of sense.

[kem]

I'm in a similar position thinking about going back to school, but I admit I'm confused about the question, because the programs I've looked at won't consider masters' students unless they have a bachelor's in CS (or equivalent, which there are nontrivial requirements there). So from my vantage point it's always been going back to do a second bachelor's.

I have a lot of programming experience, and a lot of statistics/numerical computing experience, but not so much experience with more hardware- or low-level networking stuff.