[bendmorris]

Just curious, why did you do your master's in political science? Did you want to be an analyst or something and later change your mind?

Also, when you say computational scientist, do you want to go into something specific? Computational political science? Computational biology? Theoretical computer science?

Programming is usually something that bright people can pick up on their own, with the help of online tutorials and books. It seems like you've already started. If you want to go into something that requires domain-specific knowledge, you might consider doing a second master's - depending on the subject, your school may not require a specific undergraduate degree to get in, and in my experience you learn a lot more working with an advisor one on one vs. learning in large class settings. Also, two years instead of four.

[amathew]

1. My plan was to complete my master's in political science and then head to law school. I wasn't necessarilly interested in being a trial lawyer, but I wanted to work as a legal researcher or legal anlyst. I just lost interest as I made my way through grad school in political science.

2. I probably should not have writter 'computational scientist.' I'm basically interested in statistical computing and visualization of large data sets.

[brudgers]

>"I'm basically interested in statistical computing and visualization of large data sets."

IMO, there are two paths by which you can pursue that: experience and academia. The best experience route is to continue to grow and expand your business. The best academic route is a Phd, not another bachelor's. In an important sense, they're similar because either will probably take at least 5 years. And of course there is nothing to keep you from doing both.

Good luck.

[bendmorris]

Statistics is an area where they generally take students from all fields into master's programs. The most common second master's subject among the grad students I know is statistics - in fact, half of the lab I'm in (biology) are Biology PhD/Statistics MS dual degree students, because they're interested in working with large biological datasets. You might look into that. See if you can find a stats professor that specializes in computation and large datasets.